My last "final" report on this was premature, but I believe that
I have now solved the problem.
My original problem was that the starter on my '80 MGB, was very
sluggish, acting as though I had a weak battery. The battery was
new, but just as a sanity test, I swapped batteries with my Healey
which had a known good battery. Next, I replaced the clamp on
the postive terminal and cleaned up both battery posts and the
ground connection.
When I checked the mounting bolts on the starter, I found that the
front cover was loose. I tightened the long screws which hold this
on, and thought that I had solved the problem. The next cold morning,
however, the problem resurfaced.
Acting on the suggestion of someone from this list, I checked the
voltage drop between the postive battery terminal and corresponding
terminal on the solenoid. I measured a drop of about 0.25 volts.
I got a similar value between the negative terminal and the
case on the starter.
As a final test, I checked the voltage drop from battery positive to
the downstream side of the solenoid. Again I got about 0.25 volts.
While doing all of this I had, out of habit, reseated the spade connector
for the wire which connects the solenoid to the starter relay. Now,
when I went to restart the car, the starter cranked with its usual
enthusiasm. Two days later, the problem has not resurfaced when I
started the car in the morning.
So my conclusion is that I may have had just
a small bit of corrosion on the connector that I reseated and that
the solenoid itself was not making a good connection.
I have my fingers crossed.
Peter Schauss
ps4330@okc01.jccbi.gov
schauss@worldnet.att.net
1963 Austin-Healey 3000 Mk II
1980 MGB
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