Attention under the hood

When the car was purchased there was the thought that the car had been sitting for 15 plus year and that the engine might need a little coaxing to get running. So though it was unlikely that the engine was seized we still had a fear the a little fear that moisture had somehow penetrated the head. The moment of truth came as we attempted to turn the fan drive wheel ( not the fan wheel itself)........ it turned, and turned with not too much effort. At this stage it is more than likely that we got our hopes up a little too much. We imminently placed the 15 year old battery on charge with some hope that the battery would be charged and retain enough charge to start the car.




After charging the battery overnight, there was enough charge to turn the lights on maybe twice for a ten second period if lucky. Deciding that the battery was far gone, out came the jumper leads. We hooked up mums car and had it running while we attempted the next stage of out "start up trials". This time there was however the sufficient amount of charge to keep the lights on and test that the indicators etc were functioning. And they all were working perfectly, with the exception of the brake lights as we had no pressure in the brake lines. The trafficators had been disconnected so that is a job for the future to be fixed.


Still the motor had no movement in terms of being kicked over by the starter, so i became the starter with my crank :) . Still no kick. The next job was to remove all the spark plugs and the rotor button from the distributor and clean them & also check the gauging of the plugs. The points were also cleaned in the distributor and then the motor was tested for spark. This was done with a screwdriver with an insulated handle being touched between the open points. With it being ascertained that we had spark, once again we tried to start the car again. STILL no sound or sign that the starter motor was functioning so we thought that was the problem.......but it was not the case what so ever.


Later on that week mum and i payed a visit to a mechanic friend in kilsyth. We asked him a few questions and he answered them with the solutions that he thought maybe possible. Anyhow two days later i had a phone call from him and he was in the suburb next door to ours. He called in and diagnosed the problem in moments. The starter button had been jammed.....