A Maintenance Day.

Loads of work done today, I've changed the three drive belts, for coolant pump/starter alternator, domestic alternator and generator. All three belts were showing signs of fatigue, and now is the right time to change them. Also I changed the air filter, cleaned out the deck board and counter gutters and drains, checked the anti freeze in the engine and the Webasto heater, and I think I've pinned down our engine starting fault.

Three new belts fitted.

Here's where the fault lies, inside that black cover.

There's an 11 way connecting block inside that black cover, and the two halves are held together by a cable tie. I snipped the cable tie and the two halves came apart very easily and, no surprises, they were corroded. I worked them together many times to establish a better connection, gave it a squirt of WD-40 and wrapped a new cable tie around the assembly before putting the covers back. I can see what was happening, the corrosion was creating a resistance at the connection and there being not enough energy in the solenoid to fully engage the starter motor, therefore not switching the starter motor on. It all adds up now, That's why I was only getting about five volts on the solenoid when the ignition key was turned. This time there was zero volts on the solenoid but I had 12.7 volts on the back of the ignition switch, so the fault has to lie somewhere between the switch and the solenoid, and other than a cable breakage, this is the most likely spot.

On a completely different subject:-

Bad Moon Rising.

More tomorrow...