Helo,

First a bit of background, I gought an unfinished kit about a month ago. It was in pretty good nick, but had not run for a number of years. The starter was totally dead, so I got a replacement from a Transit in the local scrappy (£10). Bench tested that and it works perfectly.

The new starter was installed and sired up to the battery, it engages and turns, but the engine is only turning a quarter turn at the time, and that only with a lot of effort and fuss.

I can turn the engine using a 12" ring spanner over the crank with very few problems, and the engine is making quiet hissy sounds so it sounds like the valves, pistons etc are doing their job. It has fresh oil in it but had been standing for a very long time with the old oil (black and nasty) before the oil was changed.

Can anyone offer any advice? The engine is a 1600 pinto, which I was assured was in running order when I bought the car (I was also assured that it was a crossflow, back then I knew no better).

If I do not get it working then I will be forced to put in an 1800 Zetec, so all help gratefully received

Cheers,

Edward

is it any better with the plugs out? plus, have you tried a good jump start? Also, try starting it with a jump lead from the block to the -ve, to test the earth.

Even earthing directly to the body of the starter does not help. I will try with the plugs out now, that is a good plan.

Cheers,

Ed

just a thought, a the transit pinto has lower compression that regular engines - maybe the starter isnt up to the extra squishing involved in turning a 10:1 engine (or whatever it is...).

having the plugs out will confirm/deny that anyway.

Just tried it without the plugs. It seemed to help a little, but not much. The engine turns maybe a quarter to half turn and stops, a quick swing of the crank with a spanner and it moves another half to suarte turn and stops again. We just went through this cycle abuot a doxen times with no real improvement.

I have no idea how difficult it should be to turn a crank, but since it can be done one handed with a fairly small spanner and not much effort, a starter motor should have no problems. The engine in the transit turned over fine when testing the motor at the yard so I doubt if that is the problem.

Cheers,

Ed

Have u tried another battery??

The battery should be fine, it ran the starter in the Transit and has been freshly charged. It is showing 12.5 volts in a multimeter so should be all good.

Do you think it is still worth trying another one?

Cheers,

Ed

Check the starter ring gear on the flywheel ,may be worn . Try removing the battery cell bungs and with a voltmeter connected across battery terminals get someone to crank engine on starter, watch cells and voltmeter. If cell or cells are bubbling and voltage drops off quickly you have a faulty battery . A low tech method which may show a faulty cell . If battery is O.K. starter may be suspect. An old pinto engine tuner tip fit a starter from an automatic which has more cranking power, may need to extend battery positive lead. H.T.H.

Thoughts....
As you bought this rather than put it together yourself.... the history is lost.
The fault sounds to me (sat at my pc i must add ) that the bedix is jamming with the flywheel ring gear. I would say that it is either a faulty starter, the wrong starter, wrong ring gear.
I would guess wrong starter.
Best of luck

I agree with Hornet could be the bendix coming out too far or not correctly aligned so its jamming up on ring gear.

Should be a pre-engaged starter on a Transit, not a bendix inertia one. If it's turning it's engaging. Could be starter motor brushes or anything, take it back and swap it. I got one with a damaged commutator that did the same thing but if it stopped on the flat spot it wouldn't spin at all, just like having a dead battery.

Agree with the above -*if* you can turn the engine over by hand with a spanner, a starter motor should have no troubles if everything is in order...

Stu,

That was my understanding. The most likely culprit seems to be the teeth on the flywheel, since sometimes disengaging and reengaging the starter will make it move again, and moving the crank by hand always get another quarter turn out of the motor.

This is dead easy to check though - to be honest, if it has gone then the engine is being replaced by an 1800 Zetec. I can get one of these from the local scrappy for £50 complete with all pumps, electronics and ancillary bits and it will make a much better long term engine than a 1600 pinto.

Cheers for al the help so far, I will let you know how things progress.

cheers,

Ed

I had a similar problem in that my engine wouldnt turn, the symptoms where:

No sound when start engaged.
Large current being drawn from the battery
Absolutely nothnig moved.

The cause seems to have been the sandwich plate, i had butchered the original on the crossflow to make it fit the type 9.

The solution was to remove the starter motor, (Which was quite tight.) and grind out the plate a little with a die grinder.

When i reassembled it worked fine. I can only assume that the starter was jamming against the flywheel or something.

HTH

David

Nothing wrong with the flywheel teeth. However, I have discovered that some Transits used 9 tooth pinions, rather than the standard 10 tooth.

I am not at home at the moment so cannot check but it looks like its monkeys to muffins that I got a 9 pin one.

Oh well, off to ebay with it. And back from ebay with one of those £2.50 cortina starters that are there just now

Cheers for all the help,

Ed

You are sure you are getting a proper earthg to the starter are'nt you.It does sound simple but have you checked.Put your meter on the battery and see if the voltage drops when the starter jams, it should dramtically, if its jamming

I am sure the earthing is good. I filed a bit of the starter casing to bare metal and attached the earth there just in case there was a problem and the same thing happened. I will count the teeth to make sure, but I am positive that it must be the wrong pinion gear.

Cheers,

Ed

Ok that should do the earthing. Only other thing i can think of other than the starter being the wrong one is

Is the valve timing ok. The pistons are not just hitting the valves slightly are they or if its got duplex valve springs they are not binding are they this would happen at 1/4 intervals as well but you would probably hear it and should feel it with the spanner turning and the plugs out.

If you remove the main starte motor to solenoid wire and then engage the solenoid you can then turn the engine by hand and see if it only gets tight with the starter engaged in the flywheel.But keep that motor wire well away from any power source or risk losing your fingers

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Originally posted by omega 24 v6
Ok that should do the earthing. Only other thing i can think of other than the starter being the wrong one is

Is the valve timing ok. The pistons are not just hitting the valves slightly are they or if its got duplex valve springs they are not binding are they this would happen at 1/4 intervals as well but you would probably hear it and should feel it with the spanner turning and the plugs out.

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