No Start - what to do

[Ted Borck <tborck@domain.elided>]

> Date: Thu, 01 Apr 1999 23:13:48 -0800
> From: MikeIIDC@domain.elided
> Subject: Re: New Battery Cables Installed-No Start!
> 
> Allan & Kathryn Weidenheimer wrote:
> 
> > Mike:
> >   When you say it won't start, do you mean it
> > The starter doesn't turn things, or;
> > the starter works, but the engine never fires?
> >
<snip>

> Yep, you musta missed it.  Accessory lights come on, starter doesn't
> turn.  Same thing every time.  Will start up to six or seven times
> sometimes, then won't.


Michael

This is from the good ole boy - never meant no harm - ball peen
hammer/12" crescent wrench school of mechanical diagnosis/repair - but
it will work.

Go through your usual routine of cranking your engine, letting it run.
. .  blah, blah, blah.  Once your engine won't start. . . 

Take a big screw driver and cross connect the upper battery terminal
*big*copper*bolt* on the end of the starter solenoid with the
lower *big copper*bolt* on the end of the starter solenoid.

PLEEeeeaaaaassseeee make sure your man trans is in *neutral* or your
auto tranny is in *park,* because this test bypasses all safety
switches.

You might want to disconnect the negative cable from the battery and
practice doing this several times with the engine cold, and the
starter circuit dead, "to get your moves right."

Yes you can do this with the left front wheel on, but is easier if the
wheel is removed.

You *don't* want to touch any thing else with the screwdriver but
those two copper bolts.

Re-connect the negative cable. . . get out the big screwdriver. . .

It may spark and make you jump, but if you do this and the starter
cranks the engine - your *hot*engine* electical problems are not in
the starter.

Next take a jumper wire (small appropriate alligator clips on each
end) and cross connect the upper battery terminal *big*copper*bolt* on
the end of the starter solenoid with the small approx 1/8 " solenoid
exciter - I think it is marked with an "S" (powers the solenoid to
close the circuit and crank the engine) on the end of the solenoid.

If the starter then turns over your engine using the solenoid jumper,
your starter is OK when hot, and your solenoid is OK when hot.

PS, knowing how to crank your engine in this manner with a big
screwdriver is a good survival technique to know, if your ign circuit
ever goes south.

i.e. When your ign circuit goes south - disconnect the ign circuit
power wire from the coil, run a wire from the pos battery terminal to
the now bare coil terminal - get out the big screwdriver (make sure
your man trans is in neutral/auto in park) and "away we go."

And, everyone knows, 25 year old IHC wiring never goes bad. <g>

It got me home from Jacksonville, FL to Miami, FL, one day.

Next lesson - how to deal with bad bulkhead connectors without
trashing the rest of the good wiring in the bulkhead connectors.

Hope this helps

Ted Borck	tborck@domain.elided