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MG MGB Technical - Recording: Starter issues


Can you listen to this and give me your thoughts the recording is not the best but I think you may get the idea:

http://members.cox.net/gerryg28/Recording3.wav


I am not sure if its electrical or starter again. When you crank it the starter does not seem to engage and dies before revving starts. Eventually it will fire up. The odd thing is that this only happens first thing in the morning, after that I have no issues at all and my car can stay parked for over 8 hours at work and it fires up straight away. I must admit though that a couple of times during the day that it did happen, and fired up on the second attempt, but this is not the norm for driving stop and start all day around town for the past two or three weeks. Primarily this is a morning issue and it’s a pain in the a____ to get up a few mins early and start the car, just in case that it does not fire and I have to find alternative means of getting to work!.I would like to rule out yet another starter, but before I start pulling it out I would like to cover other possibilities first.
GG Ginty

Battery? Drains overnight (look for current leak or just old) and charges during the day so OK for restarts. Try charging overnight and see if it helps. This is your cheapest first option!
Art Pearse

Thanks.. The battery is only three months old, but then one never knows. I'll try that but maybe I should test the voltage at the battery first
GG Ginty

Is this a 67 or earlier with an inertia starter? If so then it sounds to me like the engine is catching but just for one firing stroke which is enough to throw the pinion out of engagement with the flywheel. The engine doesn't keep going, and the starter just free-wheels.
Paul Hunt

I had similar problem develop on my 66 BGT. On mornings only, it did and sounded the same as yours. 8 hours later at home time, started normally. Short trips, it started normally. Morning starts progressively got worse. Played with timing, carburetion, plugs, electrics and HT leads but could not improve morning starts. Eventually realised one or two cylinders fired, but the engine did not have the momentum to continue the cycle. Did a compression test and found the compression very low between cylinders 3 & 4. Removed the head and sure enough, the gasket had blown between 3 & 4. Repaired and now starts perfectly in half a revolution.

Richard.
RH Davidson

Thanks Paul.

No this is my 74 with a stock lucas starter which I pulled from a 77. What I am having difficulty is why this only happens when the car has been standing for hours during the day, or overnight?. The problem is getting progressively worse, though eventually it will fire. Its as though the bendix is not catching and eventually it does and I am down the road
GG Ginty

A 74 (or a 77 for that matter) shouldn't have a Bendix, which is only used on the inertia starters, which is why I said 67 or earlier. It sounds exactly like it *is* an inertia starter with a Bendix. The pre-engaged starters used after that i.e. with the solenoid on the starter shouldn't be capable of free wheeling like that, as the pinion is pressed into engagement with the flywheel before power is connected to the actual motor to start spinning it, and is only withdrawn after power has been disconnected from the motor i.e. it stops spinning. In theory it is possible that the contact bar is still connecting power to the motor after the solenoid has retracted, but that would be *after* you had released the key, which I'm sure you would have said. Whatever, it is a problem with the starter motor.
Paul Hunt

This thread was discussed between 02/09/2009 and 11/09/2009

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