Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Starting technique

I'm in to almost a year of 3W ownership. Touching wood its all been very civilised and stress free. My only issue being the randomness of starting the thing.

There doesn't appear to be any pattern to the days it starts first time or the days it takes 6 attempts. I changed the battery (Exide) as the starting issue always seemed worse during hot weather, it's always on a conditioner when parked so I'm thinking that should rule out any low voltage issues. I was advised to turn on the ignition on and wit 30 seconds, repeat to allow the fuel to get where it should and then start it. The reality is it very rarely starts first time. It doesn't continually crank like a conventional engine which I assume is a trait of the bike engine, so if it doesn't fire within a second it sort of coughs and nothing happens.

I've read how they can sometimes take a few attempts to start so I'd be interested to know your routines for start up. I know its had some tuning upgrades done by Morgan so might this affect the starting?

Any suggestions would be great even if its just to stop my shame when I try and play it cool as I sit there whilst it won't start.

"It doesn't continually crank" sounds like a problem. Mine will crank continuously. Perhaps you do have a battery problem?

I turn the ignition on until the fuel pump stops running then turn it off, and repeat a few times. This seems to help with starting, I learnt this from an older thread on this site. You don't need 30 seconds, just wait until you hear the fuel pump turning off and repeat.
I also changed to a battery with a higher CCA rating, and it certainly turns over faster with this, so I think that can help too.

It's not unusual for the engine to need 20 or 30 seconds of cranking for a cold start, particularly in winter. If it is the same for a hot start, such as after filling up with petrol, then you might have an issue.

The tuning upgrades shouldn't affect the starting.

Personally I never found cycling the ignition before starting to make any difference, just wait until the fuel pump noise stops before cranking.

How old is the car and which battery did you replace the Exide with?

Bear in mind the pots the starter has to turn over are larger than those of the eight litre V10 Viper. The puny 30 amp hour battery and attendant cranking amps are way underspec'd for application.

The exide definitely got worse as last year went on so after reading of the issues others had had I thought it worth changing. I cant remember the exact battery but just got a boggo acid one that was on the alternate parts list. It initially would continually crank but now thinking about it hasn't for a while, so perhaps isn't quite up to the job. Now, how to smuggle another battery under the fun police's radar.....

I had a similar problem on my 3 wheeler, it was the start relay operating intermittently replaced and have had no problems since. Symptoms are similar to the battery not having enough charge or in some circumstances the starter motor not engaging. The relays are located next to the fusebox.

The S&S has "Easy Start" camshafts which drop the compression whilst the engine spins up which eases the load on the starting system.

Good point Chris which I'd forgotten about. I wonder if owners are adding a bit of throttle when turning engine over. This would certainly increase load on starter as well demonstrated when kick starting my bike with blocked idle circuit

When the start relay developed an intermittent fault it behaved exactly like Karlosfandangos M3W. More often it is the relay contacts that are dirty. I took the relay apart and cleaned the contacts and that solved the problem.
Engine now turns over continuously for as long as you press the starter button where as before it would stop after a few turns and you would then have to repress the start button to turn the engine over again. The engine starts eventually but the symptoms are very similar to the battery not having enough charge.

Thanks for the info. I had a look and located the relays then used the wiring diagram to hopefully identify which was which, this is what I've come up with..





I'll try swapping the lighting relays across as they are all identical and see if it turns over. Hopefully it's a crusty relay and I dont need another battery.