Starter Motor

[wall street]

Hi

I run a defender 90 with a 3.9V8 and twin optimas yellow tops wired in parallel.

After leaving the vehicle standing for several months with the batteries out I recently came to refit and restart. I checked the voltage accross the batteries which measures 12.5V. Doesn't this mean the batteries are fully charged and ok?

On starting the vehicle the starter motor seemed to be very laboured before eventually firing. After running to operating temperature I went to restart and all you could hear was the starter solenoid operating.

Is this a battery issue or a starter issue. The strange thing is the batteries are less than 12mths old and the starter is 3mths old.

Many thanks

[BogMonster]

No. Fuly charged battery usually shows about 12.7-12.8 volts on most multimeters (in my experience the reading tends to vary by about 0.1V between a selection of different cheapie meters)

12.5 is a battery that needs a good charge IMHO, but it should still start the vehicle unless there is a dud cell.

Hard to say on the non start problem - check all the wiring etc for bad earths would be my advice.

[Ivan]

This wouldn't happen to be a new Prestolite starter motor would it ? I have just had to replace 2 brand new ones on my 3.5V8i. First one packed up after about 6 weeks, second one only lasted 3 weeks. I have just had a new Bosch one fitted and, hopefully, it will have sorted the problem. My problem started with the starter motor spinning but not engaging the flywheel. Then it would not even spin at all. When I took it back the guy in the parts department told me he had been having trouble with new Prestolite Starter motors.

HTH

Ivan

[wall street]

Thanks all battery good charge and fires up first time.