Check the engine earth lead from the battery -ve post to the gearbox. And the +ve lead from the battery to the starter solenoid.

Next check that there's power at the starter solenoid terminal 50 wire when the key is switched to the starter position.

Definitely check the earthing strap to the gearbox. It may have sheared at its junction point under the battery tray.

Same problem with my Stilo (and the Baltic weather). I will investigate tomorrow!

Could be a 'flat spot' on the starter. I've had this happen on other cars. If you have to get a new one, starter motors are about £80 exchange from Eurocarparts (depending on the offer of the week ). we got one recently for our GP and it was good value and good quality. just a thought.
Bump starting is not recommended.

Okay. Spent the day tracking wires, checking continuity and connectors. No joy. Tried crossing the live feed from the battery to the starter motor feed (basically doing what the solenoid does) with no response. Starter is now off the car!

Thankfully only two bolts on the jtd starter but you need to drop the engine mounting to create enough space to take it out from below. It is another job for an Italian mechanic - long thin arms with extra long fingers and the ability to see around corners! Not quite sure where the short legs come in!

So far all I have done is run a test cable from a fully charged battery. Glad to say that there is no response from the battery - at least I have finally found an identifiable fault!

driver33 said:

Thankfully only two bolts on the jtd starter but you need to drop the engine mounting to create enough space to take it out from below.

Click to expand...

Should be 3 bolts holding the starter motor to the gearbox bell housing. One of them is very difficult to get to between the motor and the engine. If yours only has 2, perhaps a previous owner has removed the motor and not put the difficult one back. How many holes in the mounting flange?

I didn't need to drop the engine mounting to get the starter motor out when I replaced my JTD clutch recently.

Starter motor brushes all completely goosed and the brush holder was in a poor state. Replaced with new. Fitted to the car. Started first turn of the key!

Hard to believe that it chose to pack in at the same time as the fusebox issue....

With the car up on axle stands there was no way that I could see how the starter would come out and the workshop manual advises that it is removed. Four easy to get to bolts and it makes the refit a lot easier.

(Davren: Did you still have the downpipe attached when you did yours? You may be right about a bolt being missing but it is not the difficult to get at one. I will need to check if there is a hole through from the bell housing and if there is, find a suitable bolt.)

Main thing is that the car is running again and I can start to tackle the other issues such as the heater flaps and the phantom boot open warning.

I used my local starter/radiator specialist (basically a retired mechanic who works from his shed!). He fitted the brushes, cleaned out the carbon from the starter and tested it for £30.

There are plenty of people selling the brushes and holder kit on ebay or you could try your nearest motor factor. It is not a difficult job but you need a hefty soldering iron.

I bought a second hand starter from ebay as a contingency (it was ending on Sunday and I was worried that my own might be beyond repair). Any starter from a 1.9 jtd should do the job. Looks like it will be heading for a shelf in the loft!

driver33 said:

It is not a difficult job but you need a hefty soldering iron.

Click to expand...

It would have to be a really hefty soldering iron to solder them. The brushes connect to the thick copper tails of the stator winding. There's so much copper that heat would be drawn away from the connection resulting in a "dry" joint. Correct way is to spot weld starter motor brushes.

Davren said:

It would have to be a really hefty soldering iron to solder them. The brushes connect to the thick copper tails of the stator winding. There's so much copper that heat would be drawn away from the connection resulting in a "dry" joint. Correct way is to spot weld starter motor brushes.

Click to expand...

Yes, a really hefty "old skool" soldering iron. It is a perfectly acceptable way of repairing starter motors and how they used to make them in the old days when such items were built by Roberts rather than robots.

driver33 said:

Yes, a really hefty "old skool" soldering iron. It is a perfectly acceptable way of repairing starter motors and how they used to make them in the old days when such items were built by Roberts rather than robots.

Click to expand...

I agree, I've done it that way too. Gas soldering iron is a good idea as you want to do it quickly so the solder doesn't wick into the braid (it resembles the de-soldering braid used in electronic repairs!)

Spot welding is obviously better for production and no chance of solder wicking into the braid (making it stiff and liable to break). Question is though, how do you spot-weld something so small? I wonder if it's possible to get a miniature spot welder - would be handy for other repairs

-Alex

alexGS said:

I wonder if it's possible to get a miniature spot welder - would be handy for other repairs -Alex

Click to expand...

I had one when I worked for Rolls Royce. Specially made for the purpose by Lucas, I think it was. Also had a growler for testing armatures and a lathe and mica under-cutter for dynamo commutators.