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MG MGB Technical - Wigan sick won't start :-(

Was wondering if you could give me a few pointers. Here is the situation. I have had an issue with the alternator these past few weeks.

The alternator light has not come on under normal conditions for a couple of weeks now, however, I am off this week and a friend of mine was due to help me this week in swopping it out. Yesterday afternoon I drove down the road to arrange a time for him to help me if needed. Everything was fine, drove down to see him, drove back, picked the wife up and went for a few miles drive.

About a quarter of a mile from home, there a noise started coming from the engine bay, hard to describe, but certainly not a clonking noise etc. Wife remarked that it sounded unusual. Pulled in the driveway, turned the ignition off and decided to drive a mile down the road to see my friend again. Started up fine, no noise, drove down, no issues, turned the ignition off and met up again. Went to startup and nothing. Ignition light came on and one loud click.

Anyway, was able to jump start in second gear, drove home, no issues. Stop the car, turned the ignition off, turned the ignition back on, ignition light, one loud click, nothing. Decided to put the battery on charge over night just in case. Fully charged this morning, turned the ignition key, ignition light, a few faint clicks from the fuel pump, went to crank ignition, one loud click and nothing.

Any ideas? starter??

Cheers

Gerry
GG Ginty

Gerry. Get out your volt meter and start checking to see what is happening. It is possible that the marginal alternator caused the battery to discharge which would result in the symptoms you describe. However, bad connections in the system could also cause the problem you describe. An ignition warning light does not, always, indicate the problem is with the alternator--it simply indicates an imbalance between the battery and the alternator voltages.

How did you charge the battery? Did you remove the battery cable clamps from the terminals or did you clamp the battery clips to the outside of the terminals? If the latter, a bad connection between the terminals and the clamps can cause the battery to not be charged effectively.

Check all of the connections--battery terminals, ground, starter solenoid, and the line from the starter relay to the starter solenoid. (Assuming that your car has a starter relay--hard to tell without knowing the year.)

When all of the connections are clean and secure, start using a volt meter to track system voltage in the at rest (i.e. ignition switch off) condition and under load (i.e. starter operating or key in the start position).

You should be able to trace the problem through the voltage drop. Let us know what you find out.

Les
Les Bengtson

Thanks...

We checked the voltage at the battery and solenoid and it was 12.79. Turned the ignition key all the way to crank it and tested the starter which read 11V. To eliminate a possible solenoid or a connection between the soleniod and starter, we decided to try and bypass the solenoid and try to do a "hot jump" directly to the starter. As usual ignition light and no cranking. We pretty much believe that we have a bad starter as we eliminated the solenoid and the connection to the starter. Next job is to swop out the starter which one from my parts car which I know is good..

I do hope that we are on the right track!

Gerry
GG Ginty

Gerry. I would expect the battery to put out more than 11 volts under load. I would have the battery checked out before removing the starter. Again, make sure all of the connections are clean and tight.

What year is this vehicle? I am assuming it is a 67 or earlier if you have a stand alone starter solenoid.

Les
Les Bengtson

This thread was discussed between 14/06/2009 and 16/06/2009

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