Morris Minor Owners Club

I whent to start the old girl today after a few days off the road, and nothing I thought how strange!!! so out came the jump leads and away she went.( this is the first time that this has happened) I went for a 10 mile drive to my daughters switched off the engine and tried to start the moggy straight away and nothing!!! I tried to jump start her using my daughters VW and as soon as I put the jumps lead on (+) she started to turn the engine even tho the starter switch was off. I immediately took away the jump leads as this was not right,the engine stopped turning. I have no lights of any sort and all the fuses are ok. It has a alternator fitted. Can anyone come up with any ideas as to why this is happening please. I had to leave the car outside my daughters house and she brought me home.

Hi, sounds like your starter solenoid is sticking/ shorting. If you have been driving like this the starter motor will be taking all your battery power. When you started it at your daughters you connected to + with the solenoids made it will turn the engine but wont start as you have no ignition. Change the solenoid should solve it. You will need to charge the battery

Hi Paul Many thanks, I have the battery on charge at the mo, is there anything that I could do to see if the solenoid is infact faulty. Why should this suddenly stick. Is not possible to tap the solenoid like you can do with a sticking starter motor

If you connect the battery and the motor turns, give the solenoid a tap then connect again. The problem is that it is intermittent which is why it didn't do it the first time. See what other people think but a replacement solenoid is cheep enough

Sorry forgot to ask, Is yours a key or pull start. The problem would be the same with a pull start but it would be the pull switch.

Hi Paul, its a key start

solenoid then, I think. We will see what others say. Someone will have an opinion.

thanks again Paul. I will go to my daughters tommorrow and give it a tap and bring the old girl home ( I don't like her being out all night) I keep it in the garage with my other moggy they are cousins and dont like being on their own one is a 1960 2 door and the other is a 1962 2 door

May be the ignition switch is faulty - and pulling the solenoid in. Not ever heard of a solenoid being 'stuck in' - but I guess it's possible! However - I would have thought the starter motor would have made the most horrendous noise while the engine was running if this was the case! And - would now be 'ruined' if it had run like this........

Hello BMCE,

"I would have thought the starter motor would have made the most horrendous noise while the engine was running if this was the case! And - would now be 'ruined' if it had run like this........"

On a similar vein, I once worked on small diesel generator sets which had automatic start in case of failure of the running set. The engines had a cable driven speed switch that stopped the starter when the engine fired. Failure of that switch did indeed cause horrendous noise, sparks and did the starter pinion and ring gear no good at all !!.

Alec

Hi all, put in the fully charged battery today in the old girl and she started straight away without any problems. I drove her home and I will see what happens tomorrow. Like I said earlier it was the first time that this had happened, I there is a RAC chap living about 400 yards away and I told him about my plight and he said yes it is possible that the solenoid is stuck but he would have thought that it might have been something else that caused the problem, and if after I fitted the battery and still had problems he would come with me. So now I have to wait and see if the fault occures again in the next day or 2

Hi alec,bmce. re-stater motor the stater motor onIy operated the minute (even thou the ign was switched off) I touched the pos jump lead onto the donor battery. And my original query was about the solenoid sticking

It is possible that its a short on the ignition switch causing the engine to turn when the battery was fitted. Either way the starter would still draw and flatten the battery while driving. The fact that the engine turned as soon as the leads were connected proves that the contacts were made or there was power to the pull in circuit. Always difficult to diagnose an intermittent electrical fault. Fun though

Were you definitely connecting your jump lead directly to the battery - or were you connecting it to the solenoid ? And perhaps hit the wrong terminal ??

Hi Paul, yes I know I had 37 years with P.O Telephones & BT and the intermitting ones were fun!! . BMCE yes if the battery is the big thing that sits in front of the bulk head and as + & - then the answer was yes, even I know I battery when I see one after all I did work for BT Like I said all now seems ok I hope

From my experience - working for BT is no guarantee of anything..................
Just joking - we have to deal with all levels of experience on here - so don't take offence if the suggestions seem 'basic' - we have to cover all possibilities!

None taken I was of the old school not the wooly brained bunch that are there now . I reported a fault on my phone with I knew was a out side fault ( the clue being a cable had come down and all those being fed off that pole was effected).I rang 151 from a phone box to report it and was faced with a barrage of stupid questions one of which was yes but have you tried plugging the phone into an other socket or tried it in a neighbours house. I asked her what part of a cable had come down off a pole did she not understand I even told her that I had spent 37 years on subs faults ( customer) She even whent as far as to say that if the fault was inside then I would be charged for the repair

She was probably in India............

Mumbia to be precise, the like's, when BT was privitised they wanted to reduce the work force by a total of 180,000 spread over a couple of years.By the way Morris now working ok she must of had a off day