Sylvia has been giving me intermittent starting problems the last few years. Rarely has it been so bad that she wouldn’t start at all, but it’s gotten progressively worse.
While on my way to catch a ferry after visiting friends in Amsterdam I stopped in Germany to get gas. I wasn’t on a very tight schedule, but did want to arrive at the terminal in time to relax a little and enjoy the trip. After filling up, the car refused to start. The dreaded (but by now familiar) “click-click” happened each and every time. Usually after a few attempts the engine fires up, but here in the middle of nowhere, Germany, a half an hour later I was starting to sweat a little.
A nice old man was kind enough to give me a jump (but the problem isn’t a low battery), Sylvia finally took the hint and roared to life. I didn’t turn the engine off again until I was on the ferry!
So it was time to get to the bottom of this. A fellow owner had made his own investigation and caught the pinion gear red-handed stopping before it engaged the ring gear. At the time both of us thought that the “click” sound was due to the gears hitting each other, but not continuing past that point to engage. Later we discovered that they never got that far.
I started by measuring the voltage in the battery and checking the starter relay. 13.8v in the battery, the relay was worn (apparently arcing) but worked fine and passed current.
Next up was to check all grounding points. Each one showed good and constant ground, meaning that the problem lies elsewhere.
I would have suspected the starter motor, but it’s been rebuilt. In fact both of them have (always good to have a spare), with US sourced OEM parts (see one of my previous posts about the same, found here).
The detective work continued by measuring the voltage at the starter when cranked. The wire from the battery to the starter is huge, probably 1 guage or so. The one to the solenoid is smaller, and is spliced to a wire that leads into the cabin and the relay. We found that the splice was stealing over 1/2 a volt, and by the time it got to the starter solenoid there were only 9.7 – 9.8vDC, while there should be at the very minimum 10.5 – 11vDC to engage the solenoid and trigger the starter.
Judging from the looks of the cable, together with its age, it’s past due for replacement. A new one is on order from Campana in Italy. If the problem persists, at least one variable has been eliminated.
Will it start..?