Re Slow Staring, Cranking, Earthing Problems Solved !

["kevin_sar <kevin.milliken@xxxx>" <kevin.milliken@xxxx>]

Hi All and Nick 

Just to keep you upto date with the historic problems that my De has 
had. The De has always turned over very slowly when cranking the 
engine over. It results with sometimes it will start somtimes it does 
not. This was put down to the battery being falt recharge the battery 
and it starts o/k. I could not believe this could be normal as it 
should spin the engine over quite fast not s l o w l y. 

I checked the volt drop between the positive battery terminal and the 
starter (no volt drop) and the negative battery terminal and the 
starter motor casing (2.5 volts drop!)(THIS IS WITH THE BEING CRANKED 
OVER). The problem seemed to be an unaccesible earth strap, however I 
think the the problem is the shear number of different earth 
locations before it actually gets to the the starter motor casing.

If I measured the non cranking voltage, there is virtually no voltage 
drop at all. The resistance I calculated was about 0.05 ohm which 
cannot really be measured on a conventional meter. 

I bought 2 metres of very heavy grade sheathed earthing cabling, 
connected and soldered lugs on to each end. One lug was connected 
directly to the battery negative post the other was threadled through 
the original hole in the battery compartment over the trailing arm
cable tied to the water hose mount then bolted directly on to the 
centre bolt which holds the starter motor on. This cable is in 
addition to the original equipment cable not replacing it.

The car had been standing for a couple of weeks and the outside 
tempreture was about 2 degrees, so I did not expect it to start. 
Turned the key, the starter turned about 5 times faster than it had 
ever done before and the De started a treat!! No problem. 

If any one has similar problems let me know, I will fill you in on 
any other details.


Kevin #5959