Morris Minor Owners Club

having some starting trouble at the moment. last three mornings have had to leave the car out overnight (not too cold but obviously damp and dewy) and while it usually takes 2 or 3 pulls to start, leaving it out overnight has meant that after one failed attempted start-up the battery apparently goes too flat to turn the engine over adequately for even a second attempt at starting her up.
suspecting a dodgy battery, this morning i took the precaution of charging the battery up before i made the attempt to get her started, and i was puzzled when it registered "fully charged" within about 30 seconds of plugging the charger in. ie it seemed to have lost no charge from being left out overnight. however, once again, after one failed pull, it went so flat that a second attempt was not possible. what puzzles me is that on each occasion she has responded to the crank handle, and each time the engine has fired up on about the third or fourth crank. anyone got any thoughts or ideas on what it might be? the battery seems ok, at least according to the charger reading, and once she is warm, she starts first time every time for the rest of the day with no trouble at all. also, it runs perfectly smoothly once i've got her going. i'd carry on cranking, but i've now got blisters on both hands!

Could be either a bad connection on the starter supply or one of the earth straps, or a faulty starter motor. You could try using a pair of jump leads to power the motor directly.

If not a supply or earth problem, sounds like battery ageing (antimony deposits). An aged battery often shows full charge a few seconds after connecting to a battery charger, but fails under starter current load.

Your local garage may have a heavy load battery tester.

Aye - your battery has lost most of it's capacity - so charges up quickly and discharges quickly - it's acting like a very small battery!! Costco do excellent batteries for not too much money - and Macro have a 'sale' at the moment, although i can't vouch for the quality of their batteries. May as well get one before you put your back out hand cranking the thing!

I wouldn't trust a battery charger to tell you if a battery is fully charged - generally that just means low current to the battery.

As mentioned already, a tired battery can give a false result - (A high load tester would give a realistic answer).

If you can't fin a local garage / spares place to do a high load test, try it with a volt meter after leaving overnight - if it is ~13 after charging and <12.4 in the morning then that's a bad sign.

well, i took the battery to a walkers tyre place, and the guy said the battery was kaput. it was still registering "fully charged" but the load tester revealed it was knackered. replaced the battery, and it now starts fine, so thanks for all the input. it's still a little reluctant to start first time, though, so i will probably add a few new parts anyway, like solenoid and earth cables and a new distributor cap.

Earth cables are always a good idea - but the solenoid should be ok - generally either work or not work, no half way stage. Dizzy cap/rotor arm/spark plugs/points/condenser/HT leads - pretty much in that order - all a good idea.

Give the coil leads and dizzy a spray of damp repellant\ignition sealer. Sam sells it at Epic up the road from you. Maybe a damp problem. (I know how it rains up your road )

The spray thing is a short term 'get-you-going' fix (WD40 etc) - but new parts are the way for long lasting success.

Yup, if a Minor is reluctant to start it needs a service. Points/Plugs/condensor/rotor arm/dizzy cap then tune up.

In five years of owning my Minor it was only once reluctant to start, and that was user error, as I forgot to pull the choke out and it was -10 outside

Mind you, since fitting the homemade TAC ignition module, it does start without choke due to big fat spark, it just doesn't idle that great with no choke from cold.