Bad Starter?

[I Leak Oil]

Go direct from your battery to your starter. This will bypass everything inbetween and tell you it's the battery or starter or if it works it's something in between. Bad battery leads or connections are tough to see if they are bad and usually need to be proven out.
Jason T.

[Jeff Aronson]

Series III's in the US market came without the hole in the bumper for the crank. I don't even think they supplied a crank with the car!

Cranking is not easy work and you need to exercise caution. When you pull up and clockwise on the crank, pull sharply and release your hand from the crank upon completing the pull. You don't want it to back off on your hand - something will break!

Also, the car needs to be in good tune in order for cranking to work. It worked best when the engine is cool. Pump the throttle a couple of time and pull out the choke. Set the hand throttle up a couple of notches, and then spin. You need to have your car timed right and the ignition [points, rotor, cap, wires] need to send out a good spark. Check a plug and make certain that they're clean, too.

I've rocked a car in gear to find another spot on the flywheel and that has worked. My TR-7's starter started to act up, too, so I struck it firmly with a breaker bar. Sure enough, it worked fine. That "solution" has worked a couple of times.

Good luck!

Jeff

[jp-]

Give it a healthy wack with a good sized hammer. Moving the vehicle doesn't move a dead spot in the starter, it only helps if you are missing teeth on the flywheel. Not unusal for a Lucas product to need a good beating.

I agree with Jim. Use a hammer.

Rocking the truck should make absolutely no difference, as the starter is not engaged until the solenoid makes it fire. In other words, you aren't rotating the starter. If you were, the starter would be grinding the whole time the engine was running.

[LaneRover]

Though officially rocking the vehicle is not supposed to work with a dead starter because you are not moving the starter itself, it has worked for me in the past. It is kind of like believing in either creationism or evolution, at some point in the process there is a bit of, "Something magic happens".

LaneRover

[Winston-Rover]

okay, I got the starter to work this weekend by tapping on it with a hammer. it was still spinning really slowly - but the engine started after a few tries. does this mean it needs replaced? or should I try rebuilding it. how hard is it to rebuild? any tricks to rebuilding a starter?

also after a great deal of struggling I finally got it start with the crank handle!!! should be easier after the tune-up.

thanks to everyone!

[jp-]

If it spins slowly, it could be a bad starter, a weak battery, or poor connections (battery to ground, battery to solenoid, solenoid to starter).