[TR] TR3A electrical/starter trouble

[William Pugh]

Bad Battery ...

On Mar 14, 2012, at 6:09 PM, spook01 at comcast.net wrote:

> I would chalk this up to the known triumph revenge of "leave me in the
winter by myself, I'll get you in the spring, you b--t--d."
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless Phone
>
> ----- Reply message -----
> From: KingsCreekTrees at aol.com
> To: <triumphs at autox.team.net>
> Subject: [TR] TR3A electrical/starter trouble
> Date: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 19:48
>
>
> Hi Everyone;
>
> I have an early TR3A that, as usual, I have stored for the winter. Today, I
> gave it a full ignition tune-up and changed the negative cable (it's still
> positive ground/earth) because it wasn't gripping the battery terminal
> tightly  enough (upon starting, this was causing a loud click and sudden
> absence of  ignition light, last year).
>
> While I was at it, I also made sure all connections were fine, including
> cleaning up the ground cable, where the coil mounts (it was fine  anyway).
>
> Then, I tried to start it: Ignition on, press the button and nothing. The
> ignition light dims a bit, no clicking, ammeter shows discharge of, say, 10
> amps.
>
> If I try it a few times, I can hear a faint clicking from the
> gear-reduction starter.
>
> I re-cleaned the battery connections, gave the starter a couple of good
> hits, charged the battery (it was fine anyway). Still the same symptom,
> although  the clicking from the starter seems a bit louder and more
consistent
> (though  it's still quiet).
>
> I'm not very good at diagnosing electrical faults, so I wondered if anyone
> might have any hints. Much better with mechanical faults. Also, could it be
> a faulty solenoid? I seem to remember that the gear reduction starters
> come  with an integral solenoid, obviating the one mounted on the
> firewall/scuttle.  Can I just by-pass it? At the moment, I have a cable
going from the
> starter to  the solenoid, then one from the solenoid to the battery. I would
> have thought  that, as they're both on the same terminal, that it wouldn't
> make any  difference.
>
> Sorry this is so long...
>
> Tim
>
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"Life is too short to drive Boring Cars"

Bill Pugh
Wallace, CA
Casper
1957 TR3
TS16665L
anabil007 at comcast.net