Journey to get Dedra back on the road.....

[toby2449]

guys, have done something wrong, put the battery back on the car today & the starter motor kicked into life, but i hadn't left the engine bay!!! any ideas what could be causing the starter to kick into life on its own???

[chugga boom]

i would guess the 1st place to start would be the started solenoid and see if the thin starter lead has shorted to the main battery lead, if you short accross them without ignition on it will still crank the engine over ,

[toby2449]

chugga, ta for coming back to me, but i aint got a clue what u said, engines are really my weak point

[chugga boom]

on the starter motor you have the main motor body and a smaller cylindrical item on the top of it which is the solenoid to operate it, the main battery lead connects to it and a small thin wire which activates it from the ignition switch, if these wires were to short together or something bridge accross their respective connections it would turn the starter motor over without any ignition, just check out the connections 1st to make sure nothing is obviously wrong, hope this helps and let us all know how you get on , james

[toby2449]

thanks James, i've got a day of work tomorrow so i'll have a look to see whats gone wrong. I'm literally learning this stuff as i go along, most of what i'm doing turns out good but sometimes i do mess up!!

[chugga boom]

i'm full of admiration of someone prepared to have a go , theres parts of my projects that i just hand over to my dad to sort as he can usually do a better job but solving problems does give a good sence of satisfaction when it goes your way  another thing to try is dis connecting the thin wire on the starter motor if nothing obvious is wrong, if it still spins over i'd say bizzare fault on motor if it sorts it then somewhere along the line there is a fault with the black cap on the back of the ignition switch or wiring, hope you sort it james

[toby2449]

yeah, if i ever get the Dedra back on the road, through an NCT (MOT) etc i'll be over the moon. The way i look at it its a dirt cheap car, i'm constantly learning as i go along, & hey if the worst were to come & i did something stupid & blew it up then its all part of a learning experience (though hopefully it'll stay in one peice!)

A few years ago I probably couldn't have checked a car levels, let along attempt a project like this, its certainly worth it, & when things go my way & i actually fix something its such a buzz!

[fay66]

yeah, if i ever get the Dedra back on the road, through an NCT (MOT) etc i'll be over the moon. The way i look at it its a dirt cheap car, i'm constantly learning as i go along, & hey if the worst were to come & i did something stupid & blew it up then its all part of a learning experience (though hopefully it'll stay in one peice!)

A few years ago I probably couldn't have checked a car levels, let along attempt a project like this, its certainly worth it, & when things go my way & i actually fix something its such a buzz!

That's the way most of started out Mark

Brian
8227

[toby2449]

waiitng on my rear lights to come, hoping i get them for the weekend!!

[toby2449]

well again, work commitments have ment my time working on the Dedra has been extremely limited, however good news is that the starter motor now works properly, i had put the wires on the wrong way!! Oops!!!

But she started today, & there are now no fuel leaks after i'd replaced the fuel regulator. Left the engine running for a fews minutes as she's not been running at all for a couple of months, until a screeching noise came from the engine, i reckon it must be belts need changing??

Also, odd thing to say, the engine seems to "rock" alot when its running, any thoughts??

[fay66]

well again, work commitments have ment my time working on the Dedra has been extremely limited, however good news is that the starter motor now works properly, i had put the wires on the wrong way!! Oops!!!

But she started today, & there are now no fuel leaks after i'd replaced the fuel regulator. Left the engine running for a fews minutes as she's not been running at all for a couple of months, until a screeching noise came from the engine, i reckon it must be belts need changing??

Also, odd thing to say, the engine seems to "rock" alot when its running, any thoughts??

Hi Mark,
Pleased to hear you've got the starter and the fuel regulator sorted.
If you haven't had the belts changed then get them done ASAP preferably without a lot of engine running before they are changed, don't forget to change the idler bearings as well, these are a must at the same time.
If the engines rocking a lot it might need new engine mountings, but it would certainly be worth locating an engine steady bar and the brackets from a 2.0 lt, don't really understand Lancia not fitting it to the 1800's unless it was to save cost.

Brian
8227  

[toby2449]

Cheers Brian, have no fear the engine will get little or no use until the belts are changed. I suppose this is a mechanics job, & not something i could do at home then??

My rear lights finally arrived (actually they arrived on 16th June, but the girl at reception in the company i work for never told me!) i seem to recall someone saying somehting about a slight change in the wiring for the new lights??

[chugga boom]

when you either do the belts or get them changed make sure you get new tensioners and its also advisable to change the water pump at the same time james

[toby2449]

James, you're just costing me more money now!

[fay66]

Mark,
I'd suggest getting someone whe knows what they are doing with this engine to do them first time, as it's pretty critical you get it right, I never did any of my 5 Dedra's, I always let someone else who knew what they were doing, & had the correct tools and knowledge do them carry out the work for me.
Must admit I've never changed the pump at the same time as James suggests, on the other hand he's better at it than I am, and I've never had a Dedra standing without being used.

Brian
8227