Defender 90 Engine Won't Turn Over Fast Enough To Start?

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I think your problem will be the starter motor as we had the same problem with our Na engine. It is not worth trying to repair your old starter motor as it sounds ****ed. I do have a old Na engine sitting in my garage with the Lucas starter motor on it, PM me if interested.
 
MikeC295 said:
Thanks for the fast replies!

I have noticed when I try to start it that the radio goes off and then comes back on again after I've stopped trying to start it but not noticed the lights dip to be honest although I will check this tonight when I get back.

I will also try disconneting the battery completely from the circuit as said by redhand. Although if the battery is completely duff wouldn't just having the jump leads connected bypass this anyway or would to much of the charge be drawn straight into the duff battery?

If it turns out not to be the battery is there any chance that the engine could sieze up and be really stiff to turn or does this not happen?

One of the things I noticed when trying to jump start it BEFORE I had charged the battery up fully was that the jump leads would start smoking a little however since I charged the battery they no longer smoke but it still doesn't crank the engine very fast - not sure if that means anything but thought I'd let you know anyway.

Again thanks for the fast replies and friendly welcome :)
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Is the radio on all the time?
Before ye try startin' it, turn radio, lights, heater or anything else that might take some power away.
Check yer filters to see if they're clean... or even better, just renew them.
Are ye getting fuel through?
 
MikeC295 said:
Want to try and get it going fairly soon so will have to pop into Halfrauds unfortunately. I think I will go with the HB019 as you say, this should fit in but will measure up just to be sure.

I still have a feeling that it's not going to crank over very fast though with this in as in the past when I have jump started it there was no problem getting it to turn over fast enough although it wasen't as cold then. Will see how it goes tomorrow night (if the battery comes fully charged up - does anyone know if they do?)
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The battery will come fully charged and if you have to use Halfords then so be it.... I would pay the extra £5 for them to fit it then if it doesn't crank over as hoped you can take a hissy fit and get your money back on the spot.
I had to replace my battery a few weeks ago and asked for advice on here.... http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f7/new-battery-recommendations-please-92053-3.html I did a reg no match for a battery with Halfords... didn't have one for the 300tdi 90.
I took the trip to Rochdale and bought the one I mentioned. Really pleased with it, fitted like a glove and plenty of power.
I had to jump start mine to get to rochdale and it started easily... hence I suggest you pay the £5 fitting as it may not be the battery.
 
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out of interest have you tried taking the battery out of your other landy and chucknig it onto the N/A to see if it actually is the batter or not. you know the battery in your newer landy is charged, and its hardly a difficult swap over

it does sound like the battery is fecked though, so will most likely need a new battery anyway
 
Unfortunately the Landy is in the field under about a foot of snow at the moment so getting it to Halfords will be impossible, it's not even MOTd, Taxed or Insured yet either.

I think it's probably due a new battery anyway so I'll get one today and try that out tonight when I get home. I had thought about taking the Td5 battery out and trying that but it was far to cold and my fingers were turning to ice so I'll just see how I get on with this new one tonight.

Fingers crossed this new battery will solve my problems.
 
£130 lighter and I have an 800amp battery, some heavy duty jump leads(25mm thick) and a can of easy start! Looking forward to trying it out now.
 
RESULT!! With the new battery fitted and a good warm up of the glow plugs it turned over nice and quickly. However it took a little while to fire back into life and the new battery started getting a bit flat so I hooked up the new heavy duty jump leads to the Td5 battery and away she went!

Really chuffed that I've got it running again and thanks guys for the help. I've moved it up onto the drive now and had it ticking over for about an hour now. All electrics seem fine apart from the heater which is barely blowing at all.

One thing I've noticed though is that when revving it up and taking my foot off the accelerator is that it stalls, not sure if this is just due to it not been run for a while. Going to run it in for service and MOT on Saturday and will get them to do an oil change then - will this help?

Thanks again everyone for your help :)
 
Well unfortunately there were no places for a service or MOT untill next weekend. But I still had a quick look at her over the weekend and managed to sort out the problem of the engine stalling. Turned out that the idle screw was all the way out so I turned that in a few turns and it now returns to idle no problem at all without stalling.

I had a quick drive of it again and forgot how slow it actually is with that 2.5NA diesel - although it does have an aftermarket turbo bolted on it does not work at all I don't think!

Got me thinking though about doing a 200tdi engine swop. I've seen a reconditioned one on ebay for £1000 - DEFENDER DISCOVERY 200 TDI 300 TDI RECONDITIONED ENGINE on eBay (end time 16-Jan-10 19:43:53 GMT) Not sure though if this includes the turbo? Does anyone know?

Also any idea roughly on fitting cost?
 
MikeC295 said:
Well unfortunately there were no places for a service or MOT untill next weekend. But I still had a quick look at her over the weekend and managed to sort out the problem of the engine stalling. Turned out that the idle screw was all the way out so I turned that in a few turns and it now returns to idle no problem at all without stalling.

I had a quick drive of it again and forgot how slow it actually is with that 2.5NA diesel - although it does have an aftermarket turbo bolted on it does not work at all I don't think!

Got me thinking though about doing a 200tdi engine swop. I've seen a reconditioned one on ebay for £1000 - DEFENDER DISCOVERY 200 TDI 300 TDI RECONDITIONED ENGINE on eBay (end time 16-Jan-10 19:43:53 GMT) Not sure though if this includes the turbo? Does anyone know?

Also any idea roughly on fitting cost?
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wouldn't you be better buying one of the many good 200Tdi engines that appear on ebay from about £300 and get it fitted - that'll cost you about £500 all in

buying a recon short engine and paying a garage is going to be costing you the price of another tidy 90
 
Yeah that could be a good plan. Would I be better off going for a Defender 200tdi engine than the Disco 200tdi?

Any rough ideas of the cost for fitting the engine in a garage? Would I be looking at around £300 in parts and labour plus about £300-500 for a decent engine?
 
MikeC295 said:
Yeah that could be a good plan. Would I be better off going for a Defender 200tdi engine than the Disco 200tdi?

Any rough ideas of the cost for fitting the engine in a garage? Would I be looking at around £300 in parts and labour plus about £300-500 for a decent engine?
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buying a disco engine will save you £250 unless you get lucky and mug someone for a defender one - there's negligible real difference between then other than the turbo positioning

there's tons of info on the net about doing this conversion - plenty having been done by people with next to no mechanical knowledge/experience

a disco engine would costs circa £250 - some sensible service items (clutch etc) add another £100 - £50 for oils - plus the labour

any garage should be able to do it in less than 20 hours - but if they charge you for running around buying the assorted pipework that's needed prepare to pay twice that - hourly rate of maybe £25 to £40 and hour

post your location up and someone on here might come help you do it for some beer tokens
 
Cheers for the reply. I've had a look into the Disco engine conversion and I think if I'm getting a garage to do it I'll see what they have in and take it from there. The place I use is called Diamond Garages in Butterknowle - Diamond Garage

Sounds like I should be able to get the complete swop done for under £1k then?
 
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