Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Didn't start, then started, eventually!

My 1993 Plus 8' has less than 17,000 on the clock. It has the Rover 3.9 fuel injected engine.
I went to start it today (it's been sitting for a week as we were out of town), and it didn't turn over fully. It seemed like the starter got stuck on the ring gear. The battery was fully charged (I keep it on a battery tender), but it wouldn't turn over more than about one cog. I kept trying and eventually it turned over properly, but it wouldn't fire. I checked all connections, and the fuel pump was humming as usual. I checked the plugs and some were damp with petrol, so I changed them for a new set. I kept cranking and eventually it caught but died immediately. It did this 3 or 4 times, then I got it to start properly. Took it for a drive and all was normal. Anybody have any ideas what could have been the problem?

Hi Ian

I have a 96 +8 and had a very similar problem earlier this year, like you battery was charged with charger car started ok then few days later would not start. The issue was the battery. On a +8 if yours is like mine it is a very small, originally found in Mini's, not a lot of umph for a Rover V8. Starting draws a lot of current for fuel pump, ECU, and starter, so if any of the battery cells are failing the car probably will not start. This was confirmed form me as the first replacement I put in failed after 2 weeks and after checking everything else concluded it was duff and took it back and fitted a Bosch one and then all was ok. I would take the battery to a specialist and get the full Mamp/hour reading with it fully charged. If its below 30 Mamp/h it is probably on its way out, in terms of being reliable to start a V8.

I hope this helps.

If problem persists after a battery change, the starter motor may be getting a little tired ...whilst it may not yet be worn out, the contact faces on the coil / and brushes may be dirty making the starter take additional current and resulting in its slow action of turning the engine over and dropping the voltage to the spark plugs.

When you look at the starter motor it will have a cylinder on the top, this is called the coil.
This normally has a live feed to it from the battery.
When you turn the key to start the key, this energises the coil, which is magnetic so pushes the coil over which makes electrical contact and allows the battery to feed the starter motor & turn the engine over until you release the key.

The starter motor is normally a ' lucas ' item which is quite commonly found in the UK.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/S190-Rover-Mor...=item337f995dc9

I also tried to jump start but it still only turned one cog. Forgot to mention, right before it eventually fired up there was a loud bang from the engine, may have been from the air cleaner?

On re-checking things, I noticed the top bolt holding the starter motor was very loose. I re-tightened. That may have been the reason why it apeeared to turn just one cog?
anyway, all is well now.

Result, well done.

Glad to hear you got to the bottom of it , and little expense.

Good news indeed. Nice one. R.