Calibra Progress *!= 56k*

[stevie lee]

oh good, hopefully you've narrowed it down... that starter motors filthy!. probably had gunk in it, so it couldn't turn and then got hot and fried itself, happened a few times with mobility scooters..

glad to see you aint packed in yet.. keep going!

ooh shiny discs..

[filbert]

Where is the "earthing wire" your on about?
Keep going you'll get there.

[Agent]

Silly question - but have you checked the fuses in the car?
If any of those have blown, you can take an educated guess as to where the issue is

[fraggie]

checked them all and nothing blown...

the earthing wire is the black and white mush between the two cylinders

[filbert]

Originally Posted by fraggie

the earthing wire is the black and white mush between the two cylinders

Could be my eyes but I'm still not sure, are we looking at the last 2 photos, of the starter motor.
And by "two cylinders" do you mean the starter motor and solenoid, if yes then that's not an earth, it's the main live feed to the starter.

[fraggie]

its not, its an earth as the live is on a massive terminal behind it

[filbert]

I still can't see it, you have 2 earth leads from the battery, the smaller one goes to the body near the battery, the larger one goes to the engine somewhere, is this the one? I can't see from the pic, but if it goes to the starter it should go on the mounting bolt (starter to bellhouse) from the pic it looks like it's going to the solenoid, only live wires will go to that.

[fraggie]

its not a very good photo

To be honest it doesn't matter much anyway, the solenoid isn't clicking so its either getting no power or its beggared. If its getting no power then ill have to trace the loom back, if its getting power i have a spare starter and noid to go on for a straight swap.

we're fairly certain now the leads on the battery terminals are correct.

[Tumble]

if you have a spare battery as well, disconnect the terminals and test the starter directly with that before you go ripping it off the engine - that'll tell you one way or the other if it's the wiring or the starter.

(apologies if you've already thought of that btw)

[fraggie]

ok folks, this saturday me and my dad will make a big final attempt at getting the engine running but if replacing the starter doesn't work or we cant find any broken wires then ill be needing the help of a friendly auto electrician. All the ones around here all say they wont do the job outside of thier workshop... but i cant get it to thier workshop and i dont fancy being bent over and shafted by the cost (ive spent too much already).

If any kind electrician in the Nottingham area wouldn't mind helping out for a little money (negotiable ) then you'd make my day...

if we cant get it going im going to seriously have to consider getting all the bits off it and breaking it as i need a car desperately now.

Hopefully if its a simple job on saturday ill be posting back with good news but if not then any help would be extremely appreciated

Cheers folks!

Bill

[filbert]

good luck for saturday, I'm in leicester if your stuck I could possibly help, but we would have to talk first.

[fraggie]

right! eventful day today and a little closer to getting it started!

First off i'd like to apologise for a very small amount of pictures today, it was a very packed day and the camera hardly came out.

First off I got the car on its temporary back wheels so the front could be raised for the investigation...




Well as you all know the key was turned a couple of weeks ago to no avail!

Today we tested the wiring on the car and found the wiring to the starter motor to be fine! This meant a dodgy starter / solenoid! Luckily i had a spare and after testing that we found it was fine.

As some people here may know the starter motor on the V6 is an absolute arse of a job to change whilst the engine is in the car. The altenator has to come off etc, its not a fun job!

Anyway a few hours later and everythings ready for startup mk2...

The engine turns over but doesn't fire

As you all know 3 things make an engine fire.. air fuel and ignition.

After taking off the fuel lines we found them to be bone dry and no pressure was building.. after some more testing we found the fuel pump was knackered!

Quick phonecall to the motorfactors... 113 quid plus vat A quick phonecall to carl from Forvaux and a second hand working one for a tenner

Got back and got that put on, we get fuel pressure but its still not firing

Took out one of the spark plugs and hooked it up / earthed it and turned the engine over to show no spark

As it was getting late there wasn't much time left but i had a distribution pack spare so we changed that over but still no spark.

Thats where its been left tonight. Started at 7am! Ill have to get a proper mechanic to trace the lack of spark now as I dont have the kit to be able to test it (unless anybody has some nifty methods )

At least its getting closer!

Cheers

Bill

[stevie lee]

sounds close - you checked to see if the batteries flat/knackered?

still.. at least the rain might have washed the muck off the front bumper, saves you cleaning it doesnt it

only advice I have is to break apart all the wiring connections, spray them with contact cleaner (i cant remember the name of the stuff we use on mobility scooters) rejoin them and try it again.. quite a lot of times we have found gunk/bit of leaf/hair inetween a connection that was causing the whole scooter not to work, one quick spray and it was good as new..


once thats sorted next comes the fun bit - finding out the body kit is the wrong size...

keep going - it'll all be worth it in the end and you'll get a story to tell your grandkids one day..

[fraggie]

ive narrowed it down to four things that could be wrong...

ignition amplifier
crank sensor
fuel pump relay
ecu

hopefully its a cheap one

[fraggie]

well, an eventful day

i managed to get my dad to buy me a crank sensor...



i replaced the old one...


bit mucky! I tried turning it over and nothing

I then tried changing the dispack back to the old one just incase i'd changed it for a duffer... the engine started for about 2 seconds!

It soon died again which meant something wasn't totally connected...

The eathing points near the dispack looked a little dirty so i jizered them down and ground them back to bare metal using a grinding stone just to ensure a decent connection... turn of the key and...



Ill let the vid do the talking. The sound quality isn't brilliant as its far too loud from the engine bay and i was on my own but finally its started

I was running it for a little wire to ensure everything was working and i spot some fluid leaking out of the bottom of the car

I smelt it and it was petrol it seems the flexi petrol hoses have perised and aren't making a good enough seal to the metal pipes!

Next weekend will consist of bleeding the brakes, replacing the flexi fuel line and wiring up the new mirrors but its a massive step in getting the car back on the road

Cheers

Bill

[filbert]

Sounds a bit like a singer, but it's running, so you'll be up the road next week