SERIES 3 STARTER MOTOR ISSUES

Hi Rob,

Here is the original issue:

I changed the starter motor originally as the engine is off an old 1972 Air portable, which was reconditioned in 1986. When the engine failed to turn over, I took the starter off, stripped it and the bushes were near the end of their life, so given the age, I bought a new starter. When I put the new starter on, I had the same problem, until I removed the plugs. The engine then turned over (hence the hydrostatic lock solution). With the plugs back in, the engine started and no issues until now.

So with the pos and neg cable renewed to the starter, I attach jump leads directly to the starter and bypass the electrics, neg attached at bell housing and not attached to the chassis. The motor initially engages, wit h a clunk and then nothing, if I then re apply the pos lead, it will turn over very slowly and then stop. The cable then gets hot and I am none the wiser. I was working on it this afternoon but no further forward.

Are your jump leads good quality? Try shorting the solenoid out with a screwdriver what do you get besides the big spark?

Jump leads are newish and heavy duty, the solenoid is new and does engage when screw driver is put across, along with the sparks..... I have had the engine running again with the starter handle and battery charges fine, but on last start and stop of the engine, the battery was showing 4 -5 v on the multi meter and the fan started to come on intermittently. Battery then goes back to 11 - 12 v and then drops back down, so not sure if there is another earth problem on the system or in the dash, i have stopped for the evening now, as it is now -2 outside......

DSM637 said:

Good evening, apologies for not replying earlier, returned the starter motor and the company bench tested it, it is fine, they have replaced the starter, but it has the same fault. Due to the poor weather, I have not had a chance to look into the fault more, but I will look at removing the starter and putting it back on as square as possible, incase it is catching on the flywheel teeth. On looking in at the flywheel, it all looks fine and I can turn it over with the cranking handle, with the engine running, there appears to be little or no untrue running from the flywheel. I may take the engine out over the weekend and engage the motor to see what is happening.

Click to expand...

youve not got a 24v starter and a 12v system

Hi James, just checked and it is a 12v 1.1 kw 11 toothed starter, I think the FFR had 2 lugs on the side, not one on the rear and the new one is identical to the old one. Fair point though, and could have been an oversight on my part.

I would rewire the starting circuit - bat to engine on one of the starter bolts, from there to chassis earth. Pos to solenoid and solenoid to starter and resolder all the end connections. You can take all the vehicle positive loads off the spare large spades on the positive/bat side of the solenoid. You can rewire the starting circuit without touching the rest of the wiring and you will then know all the high current circuit is good. The starter will draw 200-300amps on first cranking, more on a diesel, 400 or 500 so the quality of the end connections has a huge effect. The voltage will measure fine with no load but even a tiny resistance will cause huge problems as the heating is the square of the current. As the bad connection gets hot the resitnace goes up and the volts come down so you can have 12v at no load and 6v or less once you try to crank. I resoldered all my startring leads and connections and fitted a huge battery but I didn't clean the starter brushes, one cold morning cranking for 20 secs the alloy starter end cap melted because of corrosion under the brushholders causing a high resistance.

I have series 2 1/4 diesel engine ihaverebuilt got it on test bed .
Fitted starter engine turns 1/4 turn and starter spins.
Took out glow plugs engine turns fine.

Does it turn easily enough by hand with socket on crankbolt , did you check it turned freely after torquing up each main bearing during rebuild
Is battery fully charged
Have you original glow plugs and checked they are not shorting out

Turns freely battery fully charged heater plugs are fine.found damage on ringgear am going to try changing it because bendix will not stay in.

Let’s hope that solves it any pics of landy , I have my 2286 on engine stand waiting for refurb , I put a 200tdi in without the turbo or inter cooler starts a dream
Welcome to Landyzone by the way , best take your postcode off your location doesn’t need to be that accurate

Thanks .

Looks good , those deestone extra traction well noisy but look the part