1 More things to do in lockdown when you're bored... Tue Apr 07, 2020 6:29 am
Suzi Q
Life time member
The other day, as I pulled up and stopped the engine, I found myself taken aback by a continuously whirring starter motor.
What on earth can you do? Everything's switched off - you can't switch it off any 'more' even though your stupid, base instincts try to make you do this. The situation certainly grabs your attention, because as well as being confronted with an interesting old brain teaser, you've got the added knowledge that the whirring will continue until the battery gasps its last. Then what?
Hmm, the sum total of my eventual 'fix', was standing there, looking concerned, and 'hoping' - that the thing didn't catch fire before the battery died. I probably didn't make much difference.
I now know, via the past and present members of this forum of course, that a slightly welded starter relay was to blame - possibly due to a low battery voltage causing chatter, overheating, and fusion of the contacts.
So I fitted this:
...which is cheapo, 300 Amp* cutout switch with one terminal screwed directly onto the battery post, and the +ve wire transplanted onto the other. Now master, I am in control!
*Chinese Amps, now I'll probably have that fire.
What on earth can you do? Everything's switched off - you can't switch it off any 'more' even though your stupid, base instincts try to make you do this. The situation certainly grabs your attention, because as well as being confronted with an interesting old brain teaser, you've got the added knowledge that the whirring will continue until the battery gasps its last. Then what?
Hmm, the sum total of my eventual 'fix', was standing there, looking concerned, and 'hoping' - that the thing didn't catch fire before the battery died. I probably didn't make much difference.
I now know, via the past and present members of this forum of course, that a slightly welded starter relay was to blame - possibly due to a low battery voltage causing chatter, overheating, and fusion of the contacts.
So I fitted this:
...which is cheapo, 300 Amp* cutout switch with one terminal screwed directly onto the battery post, and the +ve wire transplanted onto the other. Now master, I am in control!
*Chinese Amps, now I'll probably have that fire.
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Sometimes I'm not really Suzi Quatro.