[T3] Re? Car Won't Start.

[Jim Adney]

On 24 Oct 2014 at 21:44, J. Jonik wrote:

> The Latest is that....today I took old starter for a free check up. 
> It had very wiggly ring, the biggest one at the active gear-pinion
> end.  Looking at it, it's not even seated in dead center. 

The MT starters use a bearing in the tranny case to support that end 
of the starter shaft, so, with the starter removed, it's normal for 
that end of the shaft to float around a bit. There's probably nothing 
wrong with that starter.

The AT starters are different, but they will work just fine in an MT 
car.

> So, on advice of a friend mechanic, I took battery in for a test,
> including a "Load Test" after trying again, in vain, to start the car.
> Battery passed with flying colors.  Brought it home and put it in
> the car...and the car STARTED!!!    I thought I could feel the extra
> torque from that larger starter. How just testing the battery could
> make things work is a mystery.  They said charge was ok and all...and
> the Load Test found it up to spec, and the clamps and terminals have
> been very wire-brushed clean all along. 

You disturbed the bad connection when you removed/installed the 
battery, so now you know where the problem WAS. Make SURE you spread 
the clamps so they are ALL the way down on the battery posts before 
you tighten them. When this is done correctly, the posts will stick 
up a bit above the top of the clamps.

> BUT...the Gen Light Stayed on.    When trying earlier to solve things,
> I put in some longer, less worn generator brushes. Didn't help with
> starting though.    How that could cause the Gen light to stay on, I
> don't know.I THOUGHT I lost a small screw, the one for the brushes,
> inside the generator....but taking out generator, tapping, tilting,
> shaking etc produced no little screw.   Unless there's some magnet in
> there, the screw is on the street. 

If you lost a screw, you also lost an electrical connection inside 
the generator. That would disable it.

> Old Cars seem to just Get Symptoms and things that aren't covered in
> books.  Or is it more about old car owners? 

You've been chasing random things in the process of trying to get 
your car to start. I'm afraid you've been creating problems faster 
than you've been solving them. You need to slow down and think about 
these things before you jump in and start taking something apart that 
doesn't have anything to do with the problem at hand.

-- 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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