Frustrating non starter 200tdi.

My 200tdi with factory loom in the 90 which I built 4 years ago has had the engine removed for rear crank seal and block/flywheel housing gasket and a bunch of other exterior engine work. Nothing serious or invasive just tidying up stuff.

I also fitted a raptor dash

Today I plumbed it all up . Wired it all up.and filled it all up.

Turned the key. Nothing . No lights no clicking.

Checked all round the starter wires and the earth's and saw nothing i thought was wrong. Big red wire into the solenoid and a bunch of browns in and out of the starter body The red white starter wires present on its spade on the solenoid , big earth to the block and the blocks earthed to the chassis leg as per before I took it out.

Behind the dash I unwired one instrument at a time and moved it over to the new dash +wired it in.

There is one empty spade on the ingition switch....iirc this is correct for a 200tdi.

Battery has been on a conditioner while in the garage and is fully charged.
Any clues. I gave up for the day , heeds burst with it for the day.

Get your multi meter or test bulb out and check you've got 12v at the solenoid whilst held at crank.
If not, check the ign switch, it's easy to knock off a wire whilst fiddling.

Yeah I will do. But toys were out the pram after the day.

Also did a transit wishbone bush set and a wheel bearing. So it's been a sweary day

More just venting haha.

Simple as earth lead? best bet is to run a new lead straight from battery to chassis then from same chassis fixing to the block itself.
Or as a quick test jump lead from neg terminal to block

i had this when i pulled my engine out, turned out the connector at the bulkhead for the engine loom to main loom was dodgy, looked good from outside but the connection inside was poor. Found it by chance when i was wiggling everything in frustration.

Might be worth a check?

Jump lead didnt work

Battery Neg direct to the block.

Checked all the multi plugs a couple looked a bit shy of home. Pushed them fully home.

NADA.

Not even the sidelights which should work independently of the ignition system which suggests I've missed something obvious as feck.

Its pigging cold but I guess my weekend will involve my multimeter lots and tracing !

Start from the battery and work your way up, never assume anything is good, even remove and check the battery terminals themselves that way you havent got to backtrack, every battery lead posiitve and earth connection, it will be somehting silly and you will kick yourself when you find it.
I once had a duff earth lead on a 200 disco, looked perfect but was intermittent, took ages to suss what it was.

Mulitmeters are a bit **** at this sort of thing and can lie, a 21 watt bulb and two wires are really good at checking for power.

apparently im super ****ing moron.

mate just sent me a photo of his starter..... glaring omission on mine.

Ill tell you after i sort it and see if it works haha

What the mains battery not connected

@top drive
Did you sort it ?

Solonoid to starter body not connected? We want to know.

I think he should post the photo from friend to see if we can work it out

Enough suspense.

So starter has 2 terminals
Solenoid has 1 and a spade.

I had red white on the spade.

I had battery feed and alternator on the solenoid and for some unknown stupid reason had the fuse box feed on the starter terminal.

Good result at least you are back up and running although you never actually said you were? Running.
A lot of the time it’s always the simple things that get us.

Anyway I suppose the investment of a bit of masking tape and a marking pen would have worked out cheap in this case

Or 1 of these if your posh does print on shinkwrap to. It’s gonna come in handy after the winter.

J

Give yourself a smack top drive.

Complacency.
I built this car from the ground up

I wired it from a bare loom first time round

Figured i knew what I was doing.

However 4 years is a long time and thus we forget.

Doh

But hey your man enough to tell us all

Cos I am sure you are not/will not be the only one to make a simple schoolboy error.

I haven’t yet and if you believe that

J