[V8] no start

[dsaad at icehouse.net]

In your case, you had a bad ignition switch it would seem, so jumping the
solenoid as you said would probably start the motor.

In this case though, the internal high current switch for the motor is bad (or
that is my free online diagnosis anyway).

If you were in fact stuck in central nowhere, you could try first shorting the
solenoid wire, then adding the starter motor terminal. You would in effect be
doing what the solenoid is supposed to be do.

As a former owner of a Jeepster Commando, I can give you lots of ways to get a
motor running again - this was a fairly common occurence for me. It may have had
to do with my frequent habit of driving through creeks. Hard to say :-)

Removing the solenoid spring will give you another 30 amps of cranking power too
- should the need ever arise.
I actually drove my jeep for thousands of miles without realizing I had
forgotten this spring - the starter always worked just fine. I only found out
when the battery died - and the starter did not do the usual chatter noise, but
oddly after a few seconds of me holding the key in the start position and
pondering my next move, the motor kicked over and started.

And you can remove all but two spark plugs to give a weak/cold motor a chance to
start and warm up. That one got me out of the back country one year when the
outside temp was -17. (did I mention this was a soft top Jeep?)
It would be pretty dangerous too on a fuel injected motor unless you unplugged
the injectors.

Dave

Quoting "Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz at kla-tencor.com>:


> What I recommended was to jump the +12v line directly to the starter solenoid
> contact that the switch activates.  This has gotten me moving on the road in
> more than one Audi.  Other than making sure the transmission is in neutral no
> other precautions need to be taken.
>
> What does it mean if the engine cranks using this method?  I know that I've
> talked about installing the load reduction relay ... but I've always resolved
> the issue by replacing the starter ...
>
> Steve B
> San José, CA (USA)