Starter motor won't turn the engine at all
Starter motor won't turn the engine when hot
Starter won't turn the engine fast enough
Starter turns the engine over but it isn't firing
The engine spins fast enough, but only fires when the key is released
For the moment, I'll stick to the SE5 and SE5A with the Autolite starter (remote solenoid), because a member has asked for help on SE5 starting problems.
Also, I'll stick to cars which are known to be working, rather than something which has stood in a barn for 10 years, so we'll assume the engine isn't seized. When you turn the key and only get a dull clicking sound, it's a sign that there is insufficient current flowing through the windings of the starter motor.
Cause 1 - flat battery ? Try the lights and the horn. If the lights are dim and the horn just squeaks then get another car alongside with jump leads. Connect the running car positive to the dead car positive. Connect the running car negative to the dead car negative. After five minutes you should be able to get the engine turning, although it might not fire.
Cause 2 - poor connections. Give both battery connections a wiggle, and see if either of them feel warm. If so, it is a sign of resistance due to corrosion. The current that should be spinning that motor over is being lost as heat. Check that the screws securing the cable into the battery clamps are tight. Then work along each cable in turn. Check where the battery earth joins the chassis, and where the earth strap joins the chassis to the engine. Check the two solenoid terminals for warmth or play, and finally check that the cable is secure on the starter motor.
Cause 3 - poor connection to the solenoid actuation. The ignition switch can go faulty and not provide enough current to operate the solenoid, or the solenoid earth wire might not be allowing enough current to flow. By the time I've eliminated causes 1 and 2 I've usually reached into the tool box for a metre of 17 amp wire. Touch one end to the battery positive and the other end to the small spade terminal on the solenoid with the white/red wire on it. If the starter motor spins the fault is in the ignition switch or the white/red wire. Double-check that the earth wire to the solenoid is attached to both the solenoid and an earth by clipping a test light to the battery positive and touching the probe to the solenoid case.
Cause 4 - faulty solenoid. I don't like this test, but the only other way is to fit a new solenoid, or skin your knuckles reaching down to the starter motor with a jump lead. Get a spanner that will fit the nuts on the battery earth and keep it handy. Wear glasses or sunglasses to protect your eyes from possible sparks, and wear a good glove that can take a bit of heat. Using a spanner with suitably-spaced jaws, short across the solenoid terminals. If the starter spins, the solenoid is faulty. If the spanner welds itself to the terminals and starts to glow, undo the battery negative terminal as quick as you can.
Cause 5 - faulty starter motor. This is the last possibility I consider, because it's the hardest job of all to do. I like to eliminate all other possibilities first because there is nothing so infuriating as wrestling the starter out only to find it spins perfectly happily when connected to a battery by jump leads. If there is room to get to it, I would suggest you clip a jump lead to the starter motor terminal when still attached to the car and touch the other end of the lead to the battery positive, but I've never been able to reach in to the confined space.
In over six years of running four scimitars and a Sabre six I've only had one starter motor fail, and only one remote solenoid fail. I've had three ignition switches pack up, and a few instances of a flat battery.
Back to the top of the starting problems page
This gave me lots of anxious moments in AAY during the first few months of rallies. If I stalled at a junction or in the middle of a test I had to wait for several minutes before the starter would spin the engine over. I checked all the leads and braids and bettery connections digilently, looking for a high resistance joint, but it turned out to be a worn out starter. Possibly the brushes were shortened and the spring pressure consequently weaker, or the brushes were sticking in the housings when hot, but replacing the starter cured the problem. It did seem to be perfectly OK when cold, although if you've read the Sabre Story you'll know we had a devil of a time starting the car for the very first time using that motor. A similar problem when I was rebuilding the "wreck to a runner" SE5 also turned out to be a worn starter.
Back to the top of the starting problems page
This could be due to a few reaons, the first of which is excessive drag from the gearbox due to either cold oil in the wintertime, or more ominously, partial seizure in the gearbox. Depressing the clutch might get the starter spinning the engine faster if either of those two reasons are the culprit.
More likely is that the starter is old and worn, and although it's drinking current at a rate that will flatten the battery in no time, it is still struggling to do anything against the drag from those 6 pistoms. This was the reason for the difficulty in starting the "wreck to a runner" car, so I'll point you back to another section Starter won't turn the engine over when hot
Back to the top of the starting problems page
We'll stick to a car that is known to run and is just being awkward, so we'll also assume the compression is adequate.
A general point first - don't spin the engine for too long hoping it will suddenly fire. And if you do think you've flooded it, press the accelerator fully down and spin the engine a few times to dry out the plugs.
There are two reasons for the engine spinning but refusing to fire; not enough petrol in the cylinders, or not enough spark to ignite the petrol (which includes a flooded engine).
1) not enough petrol. My SE5 which stands outside and only gets started once a week likes to loose all the petrol from the float chamber in warm weather. I've developed the ploy of using an old fuel pump to prime the pump on the engine and the carburettor. Pull the suction pipe off the engine fuel pump and attach it to the spare fuel pump. Operate the lever until petrol emerges. (If someone's siphoned all your petrol out and left the cap open so that rainwater fills the tank this method spots it fairly quickly).
Once petrol is coming out of the spare pump join the outlet to the engine pump inlet and pump petrol through until the float chamber valve shuts off the flow, when you will feel the resistance to the pump stroke alter. Refit the suction pipe the the engine pump and try to start. If you don't have an old pump you'll have to unbolt the engine fuel pump to use the hand-priming method, but it saves you flattening the battery getting fuel into the carb and then being unable to start because the spark is now too weak or the cranking speed too low.
2) not enough spark. The ballast wire spliced into the loom lowers the voltage seen at the + terminal on the coil to somewhere between 6 and 9 volts. When the solenoid operates the starter motor, it also puts a direct 12 volt connection onto the + terminal and effectively gives a stronger spark. If this circuitry goes faulty you'll struggle to start the car. A clue to it is if the engine seems to only fire just as you release the key from the start position. Using a length of 17 amp wire join the + terminal of the coil to the battery + terminal. Disconnect it as soon as the engine starts. If the engine immediately dies then the ignition switch or tacho is suspect.
Not enough spark really continues into the realms of faulty coil/HT lead/Rotor arm/points/plug lead/plugs, so be prepared to work through those in the sequence given
Back to the top of the starting problems page
An irritating problem, and one which I've solved twice, and failed to solve once. The engine spins merrily over but won't fire while the key is in the start position. If the key is released at the right moment then engine will fire.
On both my cars where this problem cropped up I traced the problem to the failure of the auxiliary starting circuit. The two cars were an SE5 and an SE5A, which have a ballasted ignition circuit. The coil is fed from the tachometer via a piece of resistance wire spliced into the loom. When the key is turned to the start position, an extra terminal on the solenoid puts a full 12 volts directly onto the coil, giving a stronger spark. To test if this is the problem with your car, turn on the ignition, and connect a wire directly from the battery +ve terminal to the coil +ve terminal, and turn the key. If the car fires up, you've just proved the auxiliary starting circuit to be faulty. The cure is to either replace the faulty solenoid, or track down the broken wire that isn't supplying the full 12 volts to the coil when it is needed.
I mentioned that I had failed to solve this problem once, which was on a Coupe fitted with electronic ignition. The Coupe was not originally fitted with a ballasted ignition system. Neither was my Sabre, and although I can start that easily enough by having the solenoid put 12 volts onto the coil, I couldn't get this Coupe to perform at all.
Back to the top of the starting problems page