defender dinky Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 hi all, the wife's p38 had trouble starting ths morning, sound like battery dead, tried to jump start it did'nt want to know, and then i had a little mess round the starter motor wiggled a few wires all seemed tight, tried again first click of key bingo, now i noticed i could'nt see an earth wire on the starter motor, i think normally theres one comes off one of the anchour bolts to the chassis, am i right, because we had the roll pins done in the gear box and the prat had'nt done something and all the fluid came out when we got home, took it back sorted, but did he forget to put earth wire back on ????? cheers dd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stuck Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Never looked under a P38. Next time it happens try connecting a jump lead between the engine block and a known good "earth" ideally the -ve terminal of the battery. If it makes no difference with a charged battery you will know the problem lies else where. Edit: if whigling wires on the starter made a difference that's where I'd start looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballcock Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 On my Disco V8 there is an earth bolted off a fixing bolt to chassis but I do not know on the P38 although there should be at least one engine earth some where. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zim Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 On a v8 p38 there is no earth wire on either of the bolts that attach the starter. I can't remember where it's located, from memory it's possibly near the front of the engine on the o/s. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
defender dinky Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 i will have a search for it , might be some wire has melted on the engine somewhere may have freed it i'll keep looking, cheers dd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zim Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 If you wiggled a few wires. Then you didn't magically add an earth wire. You could have a bad connection on the positive wire to the starter, dodgy connection to the little tab (small wire on starter solenoid, from the key) or your starters' brushes could be worn out. G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sussex-landy Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 I have had this in the past and I had to put a new spade connector onto the small wire, I used the plastic sheath type and all was good, must have been a little loose or slacker over time, took the opportunity to spray some alcohol cleaner on and havent had a problem in the last few years. It was also in the bad weather two years ago so I figured the slack connection could have had damp in from the road and when the temp dropped it iced and swelled a little making the connection much less, this was my theory anyway. Worked for me so wont do any harm to change the ign connector. I also had this happen on my hybrid v8 last week and think it was the same issue as it was a little slack on the connector and plastic sheath had deteriorated to bits, so changed it and went well. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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