Problem - Car caught in a Floodand won't start.
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@7b2536ab39=Unicorn:
first i'd try getting a long bar and a socket on the bottom pulley and turn the engine manually to make sure its free, or until its free
Thanks man, sorry if i sound stupid, but I have no idea where the bottom pulley is…I'm guessing its pretty low in the engine, is it better to do this from underneath the car or from above?
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its better to do it from underneath, you know where the cambelt is? well its the pulley at the bottom of that, the cambelt goes around it turning the bottom end of the engine, its a big pulley, you can't really miss it, i dont think its covered up as the auxilary belt goes to it too, the one that powers the alternator, water pump and aircon
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It's just under the bottom red circle in that pic, but that pic shows the crank without the pulley attached.It has two belts running off it, should be pretty obvious now you know where :)
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Well I cant ask for a better description than that!
Unfortunately, I just went down to garage to have a look, but the pit is about 2ft full of water from all the rain, so I can't even get in there!! :(
Hopefully it'll have gone down later today or by tomorrow…
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Hey, finally managed to get under the car and have a look, is it the one on the left in this photo:
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if its the bottom one then yes!
hope it frees up so it'll start for ya.
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how easy is this supposed to turn?
I have a fairly small ratchet on there and it turns a bit when I hit it with the hammer, just a cm at a time or something.
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take the sparkplugs out and it'll turn easier! cos with them in you're fighting against the compression.
a small ratchet is no good go get yourself a brakerbar and socket
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yes it is quite hard to turn, try getting a longer bar on it to make a gradual turn rather than trying to shock it, aslong as it moved abit to show it aint siezed then you should be ok to try turning it over with the starter, if the starter doesn't turn it then you know the problem is either with the starter/battery or wiring, as you know the live part is ok have you tried putting an earth from the battery to the engine/starter?
yes it is the one on the left, the rusty one
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OK, I just stuck a bit of pipe over the ratchet and it turned quite easy. I don't see how this effects the starter motor though… All I get from the starter is a click.
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point was to check it wasn't seized - so the starter has no excuse. So now you know it is your starter or the electrics enroute to it. But you tried directly powering up the starter didnt you? So that would narrow it down to the starter!
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could be the starter solanoid (sp)!
could be worth getting someone to jump start it as the clicking is normally a flat battery or solanoid.
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yes as Marco says, it was to make sure the engine turned freely, if it weren't the starter wouldn't work, i think the last thing to do is to put an earth directly to the engine/starter, maybe get jump leads and put one on the battery negative and clamp it directly to the starter, or other metal part near it, if that doesn't work then more than likely its a problem with the starter as tinyrhino says.
I know you may see what we're telling you as pointless, but the amount of times i've bought something only to realise something else was causing the problem happens, on an old nova we thought the gearbox had died because the engine wouldn't turn, it had been sat for around a month, we changed the gearbox and it did the same…it turned out it only needed a ratchet on the bottom pulley to unsieze it :roll: im sure you'd rather check what it could be than spend uneccesary money :wink:
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wise words :D
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Cool, is it possible to just put the jumps from another cars battery, as mines still flat and takes ages to charge….
Also, which bold does the negative go to? I can see two possible bolts to clip it on.
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yes go get a car (one that works lol), get the jump leads. if it was me I'd do battery - battery first making sure the working car is turned on and running. had to do this last week with the wifes car as her battery died.
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ok i've just had a look at mine, the bolt furthest to the back is the negative, theres another wire coming from it that connects directly to the outer case of the starter, there should be another bolt with a rubber cover over it, this is the live, ies it is possible to connect the jumps from another car battery to it, do what tinyrhino says and try connecting it to the battery first, if it doesn't work try connecting the live from the other car to the live on the starter then the negative to the negative of the other car, but be careful, then get someone to turn the ignition key, if it turns over then its the wiring between the starter and the battery (we already tested the wiring between the ignition and starter a few posts ago :wink: ) if it doesn't work then after all the other stuff you've done previously then its time to get another starter
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Cool, thanks unicorn, I tried it today, but once again the battery had gone completely flat, so there wasnt enough power for the switch…
I've left the charger going on it overnight and will give it another try tomorrow.
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just try what we said with jumping it from another car. you'll know quicker than trying with a charger cos if the battery is duff then no matter how much you try charging it it won't work.
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Yeah, but he said to use ignition to try to start, so need some battery power to make the switch work.
I'll connected the live from the other car to the live on the starter then the negative to the negative of the other car. Also I'll connect the live on my car to the top spade connector.
