Series 3 ignition problems

It does sound like a dodgy connection somewhere betwene the battery terminals and the rest of the car.

If you have treid it with jump leads and there is still no joy it is probably not the battery terminal contacts, but its probably worth taking them off and cleaning them and putting them back on nice and tight. . Where does the +ve power lead go next after the battery?. Does it go to a stud on the starter (or solenoid) and then the rest of the wiring loom is fed off here too? Are you sure that this connection is good?. Maybe taking it apart and cleaning it is a good idea.

Worth checking the earth straps too. I recently replaced my main earth strap from the engine/starter as it was turning over slowly. The old cable looked fine (but hard to tell under the gunge), but on closer inspection was very frayed inside. A new strap made it loads better!

I had same problem on mine it was the earth lead from battery to chassis. It was suposed to be soldered but it was manky at the chassis end, so I made a new one and soldered it and had so problem since. On mine it has a - cable battery to chassis and one from chassis to engine, and a + from battery to starter (90 nad)

-- Jon

On or around Mon, 14 Mar 2005 11:49:02 -0000, "DavidM" enlightened us thusly:

crappy connection in the circuit - I'll give you very good odds. classic symptoms.

check all round:

battery + post to terminal battery + terminal to wire battery + wire to terminal (at starter) battery + terminal to post on starter

battery - post to terminal battery - terminal to wire battery - wire to terminal (at chassis) battery - terminal to chassis

for starters.

Thanks all for the replies, good to hear that people have seen similar faults. I'll get to work with the voltmeter.

Think I'll buy a couple of heavy earth leads for battery>chassis and engine>chassis. The starter has certainly been slower to turn recently, as described by Tom.

Cheers David

On or around Mon, 14 Mar 2005 14:24:46 -0000, "DavidM" enlightened us thusly:

The only way to be sure of the joint to the chassis is to undo it and clean it. scrape (file if you can get at it) the bit where it mounts, assemble dry, bolt it up tight and for my money put some grease over it after bolting it tight to try and stop it rusting again so quickly.

The screwed type of battery clamp can be cleaned and the wire soldered into it, instead of/as well as screwing it, for better connection.

I want to replace the earth to a few places, and add an additional one from the battery to the engine just to make sure. Can't find anywhere that sells the heavy braided cable though. Any suggestions?

David

Use welding cable and crimp lugs - they should be available from your local welding supplier for a sensible price.

On or around Tue, 15 Mar 2005 07:59:50 +1300, EMB enlightened us thusly:

aye, or buy the largest size elcheapo jump leads you can from halfrauds.

there are 25mm² ones on sale pretty cheap. the clamps are crap on these anyway, and you can use 'em double to get more capacity - they're a bit thin as a single wire. Mind, if you start from the battery - terminal and take one wire to the chassis and another to the engine, and leave the existing engine-chassis wire in place, it ought to work.

DavidM composed the following;: