Jammed Starter, Or Valve To Piston Contact?

[GLPoomobile 958]

It'll be a few weeks until I can look in to this so I thought I'd see what the general consensus is on here for the time being.

 

My headgasket started to fail a while back between the 2 belt-end pistons at the front of the head. When this came to light, I realised it accounted for some starter problems I'd been having for a while. Starter would groan and struggle for first couple of tries, and then suddenly be fine by about the 3rd attempt. I put this down to there being some coolant in the cylinders causing excessive compression.

 

The cars not been used since early December while I waited for the funds to get the HG sorted. Now it won't start at all.

 

I get no sign of life from the starter, not even a click from the solenoid. Even if I use a wire direct from the solenoid to the battery I get nothing. With the voltmeter connected, I see a voltage drop when I try to start it, so the solenoid is obviously trying to do something.

 

I wondered if the engine was hydrolocked from too much coolant seeping in to the cylinders because of the HG failure. So I took out the 2 spark plugs on the cylinders where it's failed and tried again. Still nothing.

 

I thought perhaps the starter was jammed, so I put it in gear and tried rocking the car. It'll only move 6 inches forward and back before it meets resistance and I can see the engine move when it hits resistance.

 

I can't fathom what's going on here. If the starter is jammed, surely it should either unjam when I rock the car, or not allow the car to move at all when rocked if jammed really badly. Likewise, if the cause of the resistance was piston to valve contact (no real reason why this should be the case, as it ran fine before I parked it up), then surely the starter solenoid would click and the starter would try to turn the engine until piston to valve contact put a stop to proceedings.

 

Any ideas?

[Alfie 6]

It'll be a few weeks until I can look in to this so I thought I'd see what the general consensus is on here for the time being.

 

My headgasket started to fail a while back between the 2 belt-end pistons at the front of the head. When this came to light, I realised it accounted for some starter problems I'd been having for a while. Starter would groan and struggle for first couple of tries, and then suddenly be fine by about the 3rd attempt. I put this down to there being some coolant in the cylinders causing excessive compression.

 

The cars not been used since early December while I waited for the funds to get the HG sorted. Now it won't start at all.

 

I get no sign of life from the starter, not even a click from the solenoid. Even if I use a wire direct from the solenoid to the battery I get nothing. With the voltmeter connected, I see a voltage drop when I try to start it, so the solenoid is obviously trying to do something.

 

I wondered if the engine was hydrolocked from too much coolant seeping in to the cylinders because of the HG failure. So I took out the 2 spark plugs on the cylinders where it's failed and tried again. Still nothing.

 

I thought perhaps the starter was jammed, so I put it in gear and tried rocking the car. It'll only move 6 inches forward and back before it meets resistance and I can see the engine move when it hits resistance.

 

I can't fathom what's going on here. If the starter is jammed, surely it should either unjam when I rock the car, or not allow the car to move at all when rocked if jammed really badly. Likewise, if the cause of the resistance was piston to valve contact (no real reason why this should be the case, as it ran fine before I parked it up), then surely the starter solenoid would click and the starter would try to turn the engine until piston to valve contact put a stop to proceedings.

 

Any ideas?

No chance youve got a seizure there GLP? Chuck some diesel down there along with some engine oil. wouldn' do any harm I reckon

[welshpug 1,657]

have you tried all the plugs out? that and rolling it along in 2nd would see if its actually locked.

 

could unbolt the starter and try the above as well.

 

doubtful you'd have valve contact seeing as it was fine when you parked up

[GLPoomobile 958]

WP - when I get back from holiday and can find the time (working crazy hours and too knackered at the weekends) I'm going to pull the starter off and test it. And yes, trying it with all 4 plugs out would have been the sensible thing to do, but I didn't think of it until after I'd come home (it's parked 5 minutes away).

 

If it's the starter, why can I move the car about a foot in gear before I get resistance?

[Alfie 6]

WP - when I get back from holiday and can find the time (working crazy hours and too knackered at the weekends) I'm going to pull the starter off and test it. And yes, trying it with all 4 plugs out would have been the sensible thing to do, but I didn't think of it until after I'd come home (it's parked 5 minutes away).

 

If it's the starter, why can I move the car about a foot in gear before I get resistance?

I'd go steady moving it like that TBH. Thinking about the coolant ingress, maybe corrosion on top of the bore with the leak aroundabouts? I guess that the starter removal idea would be first tested tho'

Edited February 28, 2010 by Alfie

[Alastairh 47]

Have you tried turning the engine over by hand? It really does sound like a proper f***ed starter to me considering you already knew it was dicky.

 

Al

[luggy 13]

With regards to a possibly stuck starter, Ive had this happen where I couldnt even bump start it and had to call the AA, as I recall he took the plugs out stuck it in fifth and pushed the car backwards disengaging the starter pinion from the flywheel ring gear which sorted it .

[taylorspug 7]

Sounds like the starter is proper knackered to me, i used to have one that would do exactly the same thing on my MI, not even a click from the solenoid. It would always play up at the worst moments too!

[GLPoomobile 958]

Since I'm just updating some of my old topics, I'll put this one to bed too.

 

As per this topic, I think the problem is solved now.

 

Spun the engine by hand and there was no problems, and timing marks look OK. Refitted the starter and it's working again. So think the starter was jammed.