Diesel Starting problem

electrokid · Post by **electrokid** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 11:54 am

I had the starter an battery fail at the same time earlier this year - stripping the old starter it looked as though there was a possibility that copper braid that used to feed one of the brushes could have been shorting out to casing during start - so putting an extra heavy load on the already weak battery and helping its final demise.

To check the battery - give it a reasonable charge then put the meter directly on the battery terminals - during start the voltage should not drop lower that 9 volts.

Keep all your batteries fully charged in this weather - a flat battery will have a very 'weak' electrolyte - which can freeze at -4°C - and expand as temperatures get lower and that will break the casing and destroy the battery.

Post by **Defender110** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 1:32 pm

electrokid wrote:
Keep all your batteries fully charged in this weather - a flat battery will have a very 'weak' electrolyte - which can freeze at -4°C - and expand as temperatures get lower and that will break the casing and destroy the battery.

Never seen this happen

electrokid · Post by **electrokid** » Sat Dec 04, 2010 6:12 pm

Me neither - Kiwi mentioned frozen batteries earlier in the year so I looked into why. Flat ones freeze at -4°C, fully charged at around -60°C.

Dollywobbler · Post by **Dollywobbler** » Tue Dec 07, 2010 10:29 am

Sorry for the lack of updates - very intermittent net access.

Two days ago, I got the BX started by using a jump cable between engine and negative terminal. Also got over 10v at the glow plugs. Once it had run, it started fine all day. Tried going out in it yesterday but the doors were frozen solid so I took the 2CV...

Earthing does look to be the issue for me I reckon.