Cold starting

[Dave Meredith]

Merry xmas to you all!

Bright sunny day and my wedge 350 wont start! I live on a hill so I've been
able to get it started by letting it roll down the hill. Only trouble is I can
only travel to hilly places if I want to get back

It's got a new battery. It starts fine when warm. Any ideas guys?

thanks

Dave

[blaineuk]

does it turn over, is it turning over fast enough, is the cold start injector still conected(although not always needed)??

[leorest]

Hill bump starts might explain the popularity of Wedges in Wales... but not in Holland!
If it bumps easily it does sound like the starter motor is a good thing to ahem... start with.

[grahamw48]

IF it's turning over slowly, could it be starter earth ?

Check battery terminals too.

If it's been standing around in the cold and damp, dizzy cap/HT leads ? (Clean, and spray with WD40).

Also check the moving parts in the dizzy, and LT connections between it and the coil.

Sorry if you already know about this stuff.

[honestjohntoo]

Expect you know all this but a bump start with no cranking load allows coil to see full 13.5 volts, so test voltage at coil positive when cranking.

If coil positive falls below 8.5 volts you get miserable spark worstened by any weakness such as moisture, dirt, plug gapping, timing, old/tired components, etc

Corroded battery connections cause voltage drop at the starter motor leading to slow spin-over and, depending upon how the system is wired, if coil positive is fed from that connection then coil voltage will be even worse.

Finally, despite being NEW, check battery passive/charging voltages to establish its true condition.

[Dave Meredith]

Thanks for the info chaps

The starter motor is less than a year old and the engine is turning over quite quickly. The car is garaged.

I don't know much about the cold start device or even where it is but I'll check the obvious bits and let you know.

Dave

[350zwelgje]

With me ignition timing (way out), fuel mixture setup (CO-adjuster being very dirty) and fuel pressure (rising rate pressure regulator at 1:1 being set too low) have given me some things to look at in the first years of owning the wedge. As mentioned before, the basics should be checked and right first before starting to investigate the more complex stuff. In my case the ignition timing was the worst factor to cause likewise problems .....

Rob

[GV]

Work back from the plugs to check the spark - I agree with John's assumption regarding the coil - sounds like you have an ignition problem. If the spark is weak especially in the cold you will get the problems you are having. If the earth from the starter was poor it would not crank over.