Problems with starting

[Capri_Steve]

Last night my car took ages to start after sitting for about half hour after a long drive, then left over night, it wont fire up at all. Will turn over, even made some random fast crackling noises but would not splutter or cough or fire at all. Is it from driving around all night in the damp fog or anything like that? Hope someone can be of help, cheers, Steve.

[RedditchJay]

sounds like a damp dizzy....................

[Capri_Steve]

There a cure? I sprayed dizzy cap with wd40 and tried to clean it a bit, but still got nothing, theres a lot of moisture around my bay though, damp/oil(my catch tank overflowed)/petrol so at a loss of what to do next....

[petrolhead]

Does sound like a damp dizzy but I'd start from scratch. Take a spark plug out, keep it connected to the lead but earth it by holding against a bare part of the engine block. get someone to crank over the engine and see it it sparks. If you get a strong spark then it prob isn't your dizzy, its fuel related.

 

If no spark, test the voltage going from the coil to the dizzy. If there is a large voltage going through that central lead then it is your dizzy- probably the condensor (buy one anyway if its not that then keep it, it is a must have spare)!

 

If there is no voltage going to the dizzy then the coil is prob at fault. They are about £25 from halfords. hope this helps.

 

petrolhead matt

[Stu_B]

don't touch the spark plug though - I used to do this to my mates when my field bike wouldn't start "just hold the spark plug and I'll kick it over to see if it's sparking" hahaha!

[Johnson]

If there is no voltage going to the dizzy then the coil is prob at fault. They are about £25 from halfords.

 

petrolhead matt

 

Be warned, my local halfords dont stock coils on the shelf anymore, you have to order them in to busy selling chavved up crap!

[trevb]

Hows your water and oil levels! i find if mine is a bit slow to start if either are low!

 

dont know if that helps, but its good to start at the basics, and a lot cheaper!

[RedditchJay]

or........... if you still run points are the stuck together with damp ? ?

[Capri_Steve]

Ok, well, my mate came round, he put jump leads across and it fired first time, which i couldn't work out. After a day of messing around with just about everything, searching the ring road in town for my trumpet and aux venturi, they decided to fall out on me aswel today, i connected my starter motor (the spade connector jumps off itself) and felt it was all oily (my catch tank leaked all over it when it jumped off the last time it was driven) so i cleaned that and connected it, and it fired first time, albeit when it was warm though, going to test it again later, hopefully the symptomns i had can be related to starter motor problems, anybody?