Troubles starting my car

[Kelvin]

Hi all,

I have read through previous posts and now i am not so sure it's the battery.

I come home after a drive of 10 mins, turned the car off to open the garage and went to restart and all i got was chattering and the battery was going flat. So i recharged my battery, Straight after that i could start my car. Went back a week later and same chattering again . A quick charge and the car started. I stopped for fuel and went to restart and chatterd again as soon as i put a power pack on it it fired straight away. I havent taken any measurements yet as i have lent my meter out. The ammeter/alternator responds when i put heavy loads on the car so i dont think that it is that. Could it be an earth ?

Thanx for any help


GD 383 stroker. With new stripes

[osgood]

Kelvin, have the battery checked out with one of those big forked testers which goes across the terminals gets very hot and load it!! If there is a duff cell it will show up as voltage sinks down below 12-13 volt.

You may well have a faulty solenoid on the starter or the relay that feeds it, thats the chattering you can hear as the solenoid drops in and out. Would do no harm to check and replace/repair the earth lead from starter housing to chassis.

If the battery shows up okay it may well be one of the above 3 Items I have mentioned; process of elimination really, double check all your connections between Ign switch / Relay / Solenoid (dry joint)Eric. P/S Vince up top may be able to help, if you can get him out of that pit he is digging!!?

[Stopmeandbuy1]

Hi kelvin, batteries can give a good voltage reading and still be useless, If you have or can get your hands on another known good battery try that, If you have your meter back get someone to crank the car over (in fault conditions)and see what voltage is across your battery, it shouldn't drop to much below 10 volts, if it does it sounds like battery problems, Also check connections at the starter solenoid, it's probably that you can hear chattering, as regards your earths make sure your engine is bonded to your chassis, Good luck.

[Kelvin]

Thanx for the replies,

Well started by looking at the earth from starter to battery which was 0.3 ohms, then checked all voltage across the battery with no load (12.8 v ) then locked with the fans and heater on ( 11.8 v ) then pulled the battery out and everything was great, i could start the car and no probs at all. So put it all back together and the same snags anyway it ended up being the terminal connection. I should have been more vigilant but i got there anyway

Cheers Kelvin

GD 383 stroker. With new stripes

[SimonP]

"The ammeter responds....."
With the engine running?

If it's connected in the conventional place, ie between battery positive and the rest of the electrics (except the starter motor!), it should respond something like this:

Engine off, ignition on: As you switch lights and accessories on, you should see the needle go into the negative region.

Start the car, the needle should go into the positive region. This indicates the battery is charging. Switching on lights and accessories (and as the battery recovers from the start-up) may cause the needle to return towards zero, but it should NEVER go into the negative region with the engine running. If it does, that means the current demand is coming from the battery, not the alternator.

An exception is the older dynamo system, which had a lower output than modern alternators - usually less than the demand of all the electrics!
You had to balance supply and demand - dynamos didn't have a great output at idle, so maybe you had to drive with sidelights not headlights if you wanted the heaterd screen on in traffic, etc....

A voltmeter indication is probably better suited to an alternator system, as the alternator will do its best to maintain about 14V at the battery, whatever the load.
With ALL electrical accessories on, you should get at least 13.8V on the battery at 1500rpm. You may even achieve this at idle.

My advice? Get your voltmeter back and check the battery terminal voltage with the engine running.
Also test when cranking. Possibly disconnect ignition if your engine fires easily.
However, ensure the battery is fully charged (regulated charger preferred) but leave it off the charger for at least an hour (maybe overnight) before trying the cranking test. This will give you most meaningful results.

If the car won't start after being left 10 mins, but will start with the battery getting a quick boost from a charger, the battery can't be THAT bad. Sounds like it's not charging properly.
Check the operation of your no-charge "ignition" warning light. If the bulb is blown, that can stop the alternator from giving any output!

Also Check:
Battery terminal tightness.
Battery and engine earth leads. BOTH ends!
Look for a possible poor crimped-on terminal. It will probably show signs of overheating if this is the case.
Make sure there's no paint or plastic coating between the terminal and the engine or chassis part it's connecting to.
If your alternator is mounted on any sort of bushed bracket, ensure there's a braided earth lead between the alternator body and engine block.

Simon.

[Kelvin]

Thanx simon,

Sorry you must have wrote this as i was writing mine. I was getting all the readings you were saying so that was good. Not being a negative person i went straight for either the battery or alternator Should start simple and work up. But thanks for your reply.

Kelvin

GD 383 stroker.

[wilf]

Kelvin - its a Chebby. Why would you want to start it anyway? :P

[Kelvin]

Not wanting to start the ford -v- CHEVY argument again

>Kelvin - its a Chebby. Why would you want to start it anyway? :P

To kick ford a$$

Kelvin GD 383 stroker.

[wilf]

Well, I suppose you might just pull ahead of an XR3i with that?? :+

[Kelvin]

Wilf,

I would come back with something but chevy dont make a car with such a reputation as the ford XR3i . Damn i used to have one x(


Kelvin GD 383 stroker.