The V8 Owners Forum -

So close yet so far,I have the rv8 in the back of my vwT25 all adapter parts fitted,new flywheel and clutch. When atempting to get it running this afternoon it seems as if there is not enough power getting to the starter,which is brand new,also the battery earth lead is getting mighty hot????
Could it be that there needs to be an earth lead on the engine,there is one on the gearbox.

Any suggestions welcome.

Danny

A decent earth on the gearbox should be sufficient, provided it is decent, and well connected at both the gearbox & chassis end. A bit of corroded old bootlace won't be up to it!

Does the engine spin relatively easily with a socket on the crankshaft pulley?

Chris.

Yes engine is quite happy to turn on a socket,but when attempting to start earlier today it seems to turn relativly fast initially then gets slower,it nearly fired up once or twice. The earth strap on the battery to body was getting hot?? This is why i thought earthing may be the problem.

Danny

might be the size of your cables are too small. Usually cable heats up because it is overloaded for its size. Too small a cable also restricts the amount of power.

I may be a cable of the wrong type, My mate wired his V8 pop with HUGE industrial 3phase earthing cable, the engine would not even turn over,
Rule of thumb, use a cable with lots of strands, I use industrial ark welding cable, never had a problem on any starter when using this cable.

Thanks for the replies,I`ll give it another look tomorrow,will replace the battery earth strap as a course of action.
Will let you all know if any change tomorrow.


Danny

ok i think that the problem could be that the starter motor doesn`t have enough grunt to turn the engine over,its brand new as well,$$$down the drain.
The starter is getting mighty hot,and only turns over at a reasonable speed when it is cold, does anyone know where i can get one with a bit more poke,it has to fit the vw bell housing,i was wandering if there is anything that can be done to increase its torque? or,dare i say it, make a hybrid one. I must also add that i know nothing about starters, as is probably obvious.

Danny

which starter do you have? There are four or five different ones with different power outputs.

Its a Lucas and is for up to a 1982 VW T25 1.6 and 2.0, its basically a standard starter., i just assumed that the v8 would have lost some of its compression and that a brand new standard starter would be up to the job, its either that or i have missed something on the wiring, but i have checked and double checked that the wiring is in order, its almost as if its shorting out as sometimes the starter turns over quite quickly.The next time i try and start it the van its as if the battery is flat, It is a new battery and should be more than up to the job.

Its getting annoying now........!!!

Ah ok cant really help you there as I know nothing about VW stuff, I thought you were using a rover starter If you can find it anywhere see if you can find the power of the starter. The good rover ones are 1.4kw.

Yeah i have to use the vw onw as it has a new ally flywheel to fit in the bell housing and so the rover starter would not make contact with fly wheel.

Is there a compatible starter for a diesel? The Rover will be much harder to spin over than a 2.0 litre engine!

You could always try bump / tow starting it initially.

Chris.

I ran a formula V in the mid 80's

On the starter motors they used to engage in a bush in the gearbox to hold the thing rigid and stop the cogs trying to move apart (starter and flywheel)

There are different sized bushes . starter ends and if you have one that is not a good fit the shaft flexes and causes incredible drag on the starter making it a non starter.

This happened in a normal VW motor so possibly totally out with your conversion but worth checking.

(VW motor on the Formula V was aircooled 1600. Fully balanced, Heads were stage 4 from 1100cc motor big valved, skimmed to increase compression, then machined to fit the 1600 sleves. I was told CR was about 14.5. Ran on Avgas at alittle over 100 octane, with castrol R to help lubriacte it - full leaded back then! And it would rev to 10 000.)


Ian

The starter is the same set up but i changed the bush when i got the new starter as a course of action,there is definatly no flex in the shaft. I will do some research to see if i can get the starter beefed up-maybe getting it rewound or bigger magnets or something.

Thanks for all the replies folks,

Danny

Will the diesel starter fit your bellhousing??