Huh ??????????

ratty said:

I'm struggling to find a decent piccy showing the starter motor location.

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Best I can find. Starter motor circled in yellow, I think? Having never seen the engine before

mmmmm......... thank you for photo- just one slight technical hitch though- my engine and all the bits and bobs attached to it - is firmly surrounded by the rest of the beast :doh:- got no chance of trying to find that circled bit whilst head upside down, standing balancing on a box looking down a 2" gap at the side trying to identify which of twenty wires to wigggle.

will plead ignorance at garage and show how technical I am by saying

solenoid & starter motor and intimidating them with my knowledge into not over-charging me

then will cry and talk about kids having to go into care because of debt we will have to face

and will finally go for good old fashioned fingers crossed

You could get under it, shine a torch up the back of the engine on the drivers side. Look for the big roundy type thingy with a smaller roundy thingy attached. Will have wires going to it, wiggle the white one or if you can get it off clean it up with WD40 stuff or just wiggle em all.

Shouldn't cost to much for a garage to sort out if you have to get em to do it for you. Hope it starts in the morning.

dazzx10r said:

hmmm, sounds like you need a knight in shining armour (aka Landy nut) who lives near by?????
Anyone?

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Exactly what I was thinking, sadly this jaded old knight lives up in the highlands of Scotland.

My TD5 did similar a while back. 110Wummin, if you open the bonnet and stand at the driver's side of the vehicle, stand on your tippie tippie toes (well I need to, I'm a short arse) and look down into the space between your engine (the big lump of greasy metal) and the body. You should be able to see a cylindrical looking thing quite low down and sorta to the left of the space you are looking into - that's your starter motor.

On the side of this object, there is a small bolt which you should be able to see if you look hard (no not THAT kind of hard, you'll scare it) The position of this bolt means it would be pointing, roughly, towards your ankles or knees.

This small bolt will have two wires attached to it one wire coming from the left and one going to the right as you look at it. On mine, the contacts where they are attached to the bolt had got a bit dirty and a wee wiggle would get things going again. After doing this a couple of times, the problem all but disappeared for about a month, then it came back. When it came back I just slackened the nut a little, gave the wires a right good wiggle and tightened the nut again. The problem has never returned.

Sometimes the solenoid (a solenoid is an electrically operated switch - sorta) would make a click but most times it wouldn't make any sound at all.

As stated earlier, the drop in voltage at your battery (this doesn't mean your battery is faulty it's just the bad connection that makes it look like it was) would be enough for the electronics to register it as a fault and light up your warning light.

If you still need a picture, I'll go down to mine later today and take some if you get back to me.

Ron.

SHEDJIM said:

You could get under it, shine a torch up the back of the engine on the drivers side. Look for the big roundy type thingy with a smaller roundy thingy attached. Will have wires going to it, wiggle the white one or if you can get it off clean it up with WD40 stuff or just wiggle em all.

Shouldn't cost to much for a garage to sort out if you have to get em to do it for you. Hope it starts in the morning.

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As clanforbes said it is easily accessable from the top (if yer a midget you need a stool or summitto stand on).

Just had another thought. There is a much easier way to keep it going without bills if it's just a loose or dirty connection. Once you identify the starter and which wires to wiggle, get one of your smaller childrens to squidge underneath the landie and look up while you reach down from above and wiggle said wires, then next time let the wee buggers do it for ya - after all, it is their school run innit?

I always found kids loved that sort of thing, well my wee daughter did. It was almost cause for divorce when I let my 4 year old get oiled and dirtied up to her elbows as I rebuilt an old engine years ago, she had such a pretty little frock on at the time too all pink and fluffy looking - stupid wife. I wonder if this is why she turned out as a bit of a tom-boy. She loves to do her own brake pads n simple stuff like that. But sadly is of the frame of mind that if it starts then it's ok, hardly ever checks the oil or nuttin from year to year. Ahhh bless 'em.

well It's started first time for last 4 times.

so......... either

my beast is scared-just the thought of being wiggled by me appears to cured it/frightened it into behaving

or

I telepathically wiggled something and that was enough

or

I wiggled something by accident whilst driving

or

the cosmos has decided it would be unfair to start a new year in such a crappy way

or

tomorrow it goes up the pole for good and no amount of wiggling will get it going and I end up at the garage anyway

i would still get someone to look at your solenoid as its the contacts inside that wear/burn away ,it is quite common on td5s if it is solenoid it will only increase its unreliabilty over time

a mate of mine had exactly the same problem on his tractor, turned out to be a mixture of a dead/dying battery and a rusty/dodgy connection in the ignition barrel.. HTH!

110woman said:

well It's started first time for last 4 times.

so......... either

my beast is scared-just the thought of being wiggled by me appears to cured it/frightened it into behaving

or

I telepathically wiggled something and that was enough

or

I wiggled something by accident whilst driving

or

the cosmos has decided it would be unfair to start a new year in such a crappy way

or

tomorrow it goes up the pole for good and no amount of wiggling will get it going and I end up at the garage anyway

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I'm even more convinced now that it's the two wee wires I described (or tried to) as mine came and went too.

If your going to tighten the terminal on the starter, disconnect the battery 1st, otherwise when the spanner touches the body and the terminal at the same time, you'll get sparks and a bump on the back of the head.

pecker said:

If your going to tighten the terminal on the starter, disconnect the battery 1st, otherwise when the spanner touches the body and the terminal at the same time, you'll get sparks and a bump on the back of the head.

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Yep, this would apply if you were tightening the main battery to starter cable (the big thick one about the thickness of your small finger) but not to the two small wires connected to the wee bolt, they are only activated when the ignition key is turned to the start position (Pos 3.)

It is always wise to dis-connect the battery when doing anything electrical - so it is good advice.

problem is back with a vengance. It has clearly had enough of starting straight off and is worse than before-taking about 3/4 times each time of silence and clunk before it eventually starts .

Going to see if I can wiggle things at the weekend

and its booked into garage for next wednesday- if it limps along that long

did you look at solenoid kits

no-

haven't so much as opened the bonnet to see if I could see wiggle wires

beast is filthy and drive is wet and by time I'm home it's dark- so nothing happened- if weekend brightens up might attempt it

no i meant on ebay ,i wouldnt want you to end up buying a new starter when this is the part you need,if the starter itself was worn out it would turn properly at any time ,i would be surprised if wiggling wires will help you ,a you have to get at it from underneath ,b its a common fault that we do

jamesmartin said:

no i meant on ebay ,i wouldnt want you to end up buying a new starter when this is the part you need,if the starter itself was worn out it would turn properly at any time ,i would be surprised if wiggling wires will help you ,a you have to get at it from underneath ,b its a common fault that we do

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Wiggling can be done from the top. As she is now saying it goes clunk rather than silence, I agree with you about the solenoid repair kit most likely being needed. On the whole the starter motors on td5's are pretty good and the contact kits are about the only bit that goes wrong with them.

Oy Woman...reckon you could get it to Heathcote this weekend? I can get my bro in law to wiggle your wires...

110woman said:

problem is back with a vengance. It has clearly had enough of starting straight off and is worse than before-taking about 3/4 times each time of silence and clunk before it eventually starts .

Going to see if I can wiggle things at the weekend

and its booked into garage for next wednesday- if it limps along that long

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I hate to say it, but I told ya so. In post #30 I mentioned that the problem I had would come and go, sometime ok for a week then it was a no go. It's the wee wires we are all telling you to wiggle.

so far - its getting worse and worse each time i have to re-start- up to turning key 26 times before it caught

have managed to do all of the things i had to do today at about 6 locations without switching off- more of the planet killed

bought garage forward to monday coz pressure of will she/won't she getting too much

Storm - thanks for offer of loan of your brother in law- out and about with eldest down in Winchester so fingers crossed - hope i can limp thru to monday