Raven Posted June 23, 2007 Report Posted June 23, 2007 Hey people My starter motor died in my KE36, so I got another one. My main problem started when the battery would be drained for no reason. I disconnected a few things thinking maybe the clock on the dash was the cause. But today after fitting another starter motor, i noticed that my negative terminal was a little loose, so I tightened it up and the all of a sudden the solenoid on the starter motor starts whirring like crazy. It does this even with the keys out of the ignition. So I figure I obviously have a short somewhere, but for the life of me cannot find where it is. Could it be the ignition barrel? I've looked for the starter motor relay as per my wiring diagram and it doesnt have one. A quick response would be muchly appreciated. Cheers Raven Quote
aidaniel[RL] Posted June 23, 2007 Report Posted June 23, 2007 mate your having some real trouble with that panelvan ... i rekon you should sell it to me so i have the trouble Quote
Raven Posted June 23, 2007 Author Report Posted June 23, 2007 (edited) Haha, neverrrrrrrrrrrrrr Aidan! Figured out the issue though thankfully. The starter I got is faulty, but thats not the problem. Definitely not the alternator either Lesley as that is only in operation when the car is running and at this point in time, it wasn't even turning over. Read on and all will be revealed.... Bit of background info on how a starter motor works: How a starter motor works is the positive runs direct from the starter motor to the positive terminal on the battery. The body of the starter motor acts as a negative and then there is the control wire from the ignition. What happens is the control wire activates the solenoid which in turn throws out the gear on the starter to engage the flywheel and at the same time it cranks the starter motor over. It wasn't doing this at all. All it would do is throw out the gear but not turn the motor over. The Problem: So I had my neighbour come over to give me a hand as he's pretty switched on with electronics and we hooked everything up and tried to start it. It clicked, but nothing. Swapped the old starter motor back in and the solenoid click and the car turned over. Then you'd turn the key back and turn it on again and nothing. When I did that one of the times, the current draw was so strong due to a short in the wiring that it melted right through my negative battery terminal and there was no click (pics later). The problem lies within the actual ignition barrel connection as the contact points inside the connection are faulty and shorting because if i hold it in the one spot and jiggle the key (or this case a screwdriver) back and forth in the slot, you can hear the solenoid throwing out and the car turns over. So what was happening was there was a short in the ignition barrel connection which was causing the solenoid to throw out but not turn the motor over, so it was creating a constant draw of power which would heat up the wires and cause it to get so hot it would melt through the negative terminal itself. Not cool when things start smoking in the engine bay. The Solution: Easy enough to replace it. The whole ignition barrel wiring unplugs from under the dash. I also need another carburettor too as I lost a part on this one in the shed and a tiny small little spring dropped out which now wont allow fuel to flow to the motor as the needle and seat aren't working. I may just rob my coupe of its carb tomorrow until I have more money to sort out the carb issue or replace the parts that went missing. So if anyone has an issue of the starter motor consistently whirring away, this COULD be the problem you are having. Cheers Raven Edited June 23, 2007 by Raven Quote
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