I was driving through some scenic roads through the Iowa country side when I stopped at a state park for a break. After about 15 mnutes I got back on my drifter and it wouldnt start. It would crank but not fire. After several attempts I wore the battery down. After letting it sit for about an hour as I searched for the source of the problem I took one more shot at starting it and it fired up. As the battery is probably 4 years old I drove into town and replaced it. Since then, I havent had a starting issue. Could it be that the old battery wasnt putting out enough amps to put a good spark in the cylinders? I'm a bit confused by it all.
Did you hear the fuel pump run when you tried to start it, and it wouldn't?
Yes, I could hear the pump run. I thought at one time I flooded it as I could smell a slight odor of gas.
Yeah, I've had similar incidents where it was, indeed, a weak battery. Could be you had both... weak battery and too much fuel. Since you replaced the battery, if it were a connection problem you likely fixed that too.
Thanks Chief!
Quote from: hawkfan on September 24, 2013, 18:50:40 PM
Yes, I could hear the pump run. I thought at one time I flooded it as I could smell a slight odor of gas.
Like Chief said - low battery voltage does not feed an ECM correctly and they can do bad stuff.
By default, if you're not getting spark, or enough spark, but you're getting fuel, then it is by definition flooding the cylinders, and you will smell fuel. The various sensors also can flake out, causing it to dump too much fuel, again flooding it and not starting.
My wife has a 2000 Windstar, and in the last 4 years it has failed to start 3 times. It only does it in hot weather, like August, and only when you drive it somewhere, get it good and hot, and leave it sit for less than 5 minutes or so. Heat builds up under the hood (I'm presuming) and one of the sensors goes bonkers (or the ECM itself) and then it won't start until it cools off for about 5 minutes or 10, then all is OK. Guess what, everything tests good back at the shop.
I hazard the guess that one of the internal battery sections was stuffed such that it worked sometimes and sometimes not - happened to me once ....
Mak
The battery went dead after about 4 attempts of cranking it. After it sat, I tried several attempts and the battery would die. Finally after about an hour of sitting, it started right up. I should have load tested the old battery but I was 180 miles from home.
I had a customer's car in for an intermittent no crank. Tried it several times, no problem. load tested the battery, passed with flying colors. I parked the car outside, and when the customer came for it, no crank...Took the load tester outside, and the battery read 0 volts, then, suddenly, 13.something. load tested again, it was fine, went to start the car, and it went to 0 again...cracked cell connector, sometimes made contact, sometimes, not.....batteries be strange animals....
Quote from: Troll on September 26, 2013, 15:59:14 PM
.....batteries be strange animals....
Yes they sure are. We had a battery in our service truck, that for 2 years never failed to start the truck, but about once a week when you went to crank the engine it would hesitate the first time you turned the key, then the second time it would start fine, and it would wipe the memory in the radio preset stations. Then one day at NAPA, after sitting 5 minutes, it was completely 100% dead - no lights, no radio, nothing. Weird. New battery fixed all the little issues.
Why did they do away with the kick start? My guess more profit for the mfgr or store.
My 2000 W-650 has one, and I put a kicker kit on my 98" S&S SuperGlide...You ever try to kick over a 98" twin with 10.5:1 compression, especially when it's hot? Once upon a time, I went to a Guzzi dealer, looking at a new Ambassador...I asked the sales dude...where's the kicker? he said... your car have a kick start?
Quote from: Troll on September 26, 2013, 18:38:24 PM
My 2000 W-650 has one, and I put a kicker kit on my 98" S&S SuperGlide...You ever try to kick over a 98" twin with 10.5:1 compression, especially when it's hot? Once upon a time, I went to a Guzzi dealer, looking at a new Ambassador...I asked the sales dude...where's the kicker? he said... your car have a kick start?
I remember, way back in the 60's I used to ride a Matchless G11 600cc bike, I had the ignition advanced just a tad too much and the bike kicked back into the arch of my foot, I thought I had broken it, the pain was so intense, I didn't ride my bike for weeks..Imagine if that had been a 1500..
John.
I HAVE HAD THIS PROBLEM FOR OVER A YEAR---LAST TIME WAS A WEEK AGO---AND BEFORE THAT 5 MONTHS AGO...EACH TIME I REPLACED WHAT EVERYONE TOLD ME WAS 'PERFECTLY GOOD' SPARK PLUGS WITH NEW ONES...AND BAM! NO MORE STARTING PROBLEMS...WTH?? I DO NOT GET IT, AND NO ONE ELSE CAN TELL ME EITHER?!? WEIRD OR WHAT??
Quote from: LadyDrifter on October 23, 2013, 22:41:30 PM
I HAVE HAD THIS PROBLEM FOR OVER A YEAR---LAST TIME WAS A WEEK AGO---AND BEFORE THAT 5 MONTHS AGO...EACH TIME I REPLACED WHAT EVERYONE TOLD ME WAS 'PERFECTLY GOOD' SPARK PLUGS WITH NEW ONES...AND BAM! NO MORE STARTING PROBLEMS...WTH?? I DO NOT GET IT, AND NO ONE ELSE CAN TELL ME EITHER?!? WEIRD OR WHAT??
Could have been broken spark plug, loose wires to the plugs... just loose enough to sometimes work, sometimes not.