B20F Ignition problems - Urgent Help Please

[yorkshire480]

My 94 ES has been running well for the most part with the occasional problem starting up. This was always solved by wiggling the HT leads and never caused to much of an issue. Occasionally this was accompanied with a kind of false start where the engine would 'cough' before starting up. Recently I cleaned and checked all the distro parts and contacts and this seem to really help the problem.
However... yesterday morning she refused to start entirely.

Dash lights up....relays click....and the starter motor turns once (I assume that's what I hearing) - I was also hearing a quiet descending pitch from the back of the car (Fuel pump?)

Sparks are 6ish months old. Dizzy cap about 1 1/2 years old and it has magnacor leads.

Things done thus far:
Checked battery - fine
Pulled one spark - fine
Checked dist cap and rotor arm - look fine
Pulled and cleaned relays
Measured flywheel sensor resistance - fine
Checked incoming voltage to ignition coil - fine
Tried getting a spark from a plug attached to the HT lead from the ignition coil - nothing.

My suspicions have centred around the ignition coil so I removed that cleaned it and measured the coils.
Haines gives figures which do not match my mine: Secondary winding 1.5Kohms - mine was just shy of 5Kohms
Primary seemed to be correct. I also cleaned the contacts on the coil module housing and took measurements that Haines suggests - fine.
I have cleaned an retried the original coil and this morning I went down to GSF and got a replacement coil for a tenner. It's 2ndary measured higher at 7Kohms but having put that into the car - NOTHING! Still dead.

Is Haines correct? What should the coil readings be?

I'm as sure as I can be that I'm not getting a spark but I won't bet the house on it. I'm also sure I'm missing something (If I could locate the starter motor I would have hot it with a hammer by now!)

All suggestions welcome and I await your wisdom with anticipation.

[jamesy12345]

Hi Yorkshire, what do you mean "the starter motor turns once"...?

If no spark was the problem the starter would spin for as long as you turned the key

[yorkshire480]

TBH I'm not sure I can tell the difference between the starter and engine by ear.
It may well be the engine but it only ever turns once and sometimes not at all.

[jamesy12345]

How old is the battery mate? It may be just not enough power to spin the engine over

Try hooking up some jump leads to a good battery to make sure there is enough amps there to turn the engine

[yorkshire480]

I did suspect the battery as it's quite old so the first thing I did was hook it up to a charge pack which has a boost start function. No joy there.

Here's a video I made which might help.

http://youtu.be/XN0vhP5it8U

[yorkshire480]

I measured the battery a few hours ago and it's still well over 12 volts.

[glasgowjim]

The clicking sound you hear is the relays that is a sure sign of a low charge battery.
Especially if the stater turns round slow only once.

If the starter doesnt turn at at check the little lead/connection to the solenoid as my daugthers car refused to start in pouring rain one night and it was the wire to the solenoid that had snapped off at the connector. 1/2 an hour in heavy rain later the car was back on the road.

check that out.

if the voltage drops too low during heavy drain then it is the battery.

Why dont you put the car in neutral apply handbrake turn the ignition on and just hot wire the starter motor then you will know what if anything is making the noise engine or starter and it will show you if the battery is ok or not.

I would say this is the definitive test .

[glasgowjim]

Oh you can do a search on " stone age rechnology " for further info.

[yorkshire480]

Thanks Jim. I'll have to give that a go tomorrow now.

Any clues finding the starter motor. I've already had a look without success and Haines talks about jacking the car up might be tricky where it is at the moment.

[glasgowjim]

Go to this topic...

http://www.volvo-480-europe.org/forum/v ... 24&t=18749

scroll down to the speedo sensor post.

The starter motor and solenoid is the component connected to the thick red cable.

Oh and everything can be done from above .

[jamesy12345]

I measured the battery a few hours ago and it's still well over 12 volts.

i watched/listened to the video - it sounded exactly like Pollution when I turned her over for the first time after a couple of months. Even if the battery is putting out 12 volts it may not have enough amps left to spin the engine over. Or yeah something could be wrong with the connection to the starter but I don't have any experience of that with mine.

A marginal battery can give you 12 volts across no load...

http://ask.metafilter.com/205815/Cant-jumpstart-my-car

I took the battery off Pollution, charged it overnight and it started no problems.

[glasgowjim]

Do the test I described then you will know if it is the battery.

It is possible that the starter motor is jamming due to a worn tooth but the test I described should clarify this for you..

[yorkshire480]

OK people. I think it's mystery solved. I whipped the battery out and hooked it up to my charger/boost pack. It read comfortably in the green zone on the anmeter but I gave it a quick charge anyway.

In the meantime I located the starter motor and removed the heat shield thing covering it. Giving it a few whacks with the hammer did get a few more turns out of it but not enough to fire up the engine.

At that point I had to go to work (by bus ) but as luck would have it my client this afternoon manages a Kwik Fit ( please don't all boo and hiss at once ).
He offered to give me lift home and have a look at it. He was able to bump start it a couple of times and basically said change the starter motor.
He also said just bring it in and we'll sort it - hard to refuse really.

I do feel I've cheated by not hot wiring the starter motor but I think it's clear at this point that that's the culprit.

As ever thanks for all the help.

[jamesy12345]

Glad it is solved

[yorkshire480]

Quick update. New starter motor arrived last Tuesday. Got it out from above as per Jim's directions and it only needed the connectors on the new one adapting slightly to fit to the original wiring. Started up first time with a very satisfying roar.

On a side note: Changing the ignition coil was £12 well spent. Overall the engine is much smoother and better behaved to drive. I've also noticed my mpg seems to have improved considerably. A tenners worth of petrol is lasting far longer than it did. The gauge never seems to go down now!
If I'd known such an improvement could be had for so little I'd have done it years ago.

Now might be the time to do it as when I rang GSF for the coil the guy mentioned it was 'a run out part'. I'm assuming that means that once the stocks gone they won't be making any more? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Thanks again guys.