starbiscuit
Well-known member
Hello all,
Sorry to keep posting questions.
My bus starts great when it's cold. Good cranking speed, fires quickly.
But if I try to stop and restart once it's warmed up, the cranking speed is much much slower. Sometimes it fires, sometimes not.
When it's in this "slow cranking" state, if I can get the battery voltage up from normal 12-ish to 13 or 13.5 by jump-leads from another (running) car, or jumpstart powerpack, it cranks faster and it starts fine again.
And if I leave it to cool down for half an hour or so, it cranks at normal speed and fires up.
It's a bog standard 1600SP. Some-time-in-the-past not original pistons/barrels, but still standard capacity. As far as I could tell, standard everything else apart from an alternator conversion, but the "hot slow crank" problem came first.
The battery is relatively new. To check, I swapped it with a bigger one off my other car and it's the same deal.
The battery + and ground leads are new due to the old ones being corroded and insulation cracked.
I have removed and cleaned the battery ground chassis connection near the rear lights, replaced the transmission ground strap, cleaned the connections on the starter.
I've read a fair bit about hot start relays, lots of strong opinions (of course) both on "do" and "don't" fit one :roll:
I might fit one anyway, to reduce the current through the starter switch, but I'm not sure how, if the starter actually spins, that the relay would help it spin faster.
Every other car I've owned has always started better hot than cold, so I'm a bit out of my depth here.
Before I go and chuck £60-80 at a new starter, is there anything else I should check?
Thanks for reading.
Sorry to keep posting questions.
My bus starts great when it's cold. Good cranking speed, fires quickly.
But if I try to stop and restart once it's warmed up, the cranking speed is much much slower. Sometimes it fires, sometimes not.
When it's in this "slow cranking" state, if I can get the battery voltage up from normal 12-ish to 13 or 13.5 by jump-leads from another (running) car, or jumpstart powerpack, it cranks faster and it starts fine again.
And if I leave it to cool down for half an hour or so, it cranks at normal speed and fires up.
It's a bog standard 1600SP. Some-time-in-the-past not original pistons/barrels, but still standard capacity. As far as I could tell, standard everything else apart from an alternator conversion, but the "hot slow crank" problem came first.
The battery is relatively new. To check, I swapped it with a bigger one off my other car and it's the same deal.
The battery + and ground leads are new due to the old ones being corroded and insulation cracked.
I have removed and cleaned the battery ground chassis connection near the rear lights, replaced the transmission ground strap, cleaned the connections on the starter.
I've read a fair bit about hot start relays, lots of strong opinions (of course) both on "do" and "don't" fit one :roll:
I might fit one anyway, to reduce the current through the starter switch, but I'm not sure how, if the starter actually spins, that the relay would help it spin faster.
Every other car I've owned has always started better hot than cold, so I'm a bit out of my depth here.
Before I go and chuck £60-80 at a new starter, is there anything else I should check?
Thanks for reading.