Problems starting my 109..

Hello First time to visit this forum - had a quick nosey round to see if I was repeating any questions and couldn't find anything similar..

I'm having a problem getting my 109 to start! It's a 1978 2.6 6-cyl series III. I've tried pushing it backwards whilst in gear to free up the starter as a friend suggested but this hasn't worked.. also tried cranking it without success..

When I turn the ignition all I hear is a quiet clunk as I turn the key - and the fuel pump go. If I do this when its dark with the lights on - they dont dim at all.

Any suggestions what I should try next? Not very motor-capable so no idea what could be wrong when I look at the engine!

check the starter solenoid which should have a cable coming from the battery and one cable going to the starter. as wellas atleast one smaller wire. on the 2.25l it is seperate from the starter but on the 6 it may be on the back of the starter. get yer self a multi meter and put it between the smallwire( which you have disconected by now) and a good earth, then get someone to turn the key you should get battery volts (13volts-ish) if you have volts there it probelly yer solenoid.if you don't it probelly yer switch. let me know how y'awl get on.

I had a problem like this. I didn't have a meter at the time, but found that the starter solenoid/relay was located on the bulkhead, in the engine bay and behind the engine. As slob says, on 2.25l petrols the solenoid is remote (mines is a 24V FFR vehicle just add a bit more complexity).

The solenoid, I am lead to believe, is the same as that fitted to the old Leyland mini-metro - remember those? Its a sealed unit and can't be overhauled. It had a large threaded COPPER stud on it -nice and conductive. However, the nuts holding the cable terminals to said stud were mild steel and rusted to buggery. I managed to remove and replace with brass nuts - which seem harder to find than you might think.

Rust is a crap conductor. The steel nuts might have been sheradized once, but aftr 26 years had gone rusty. The transformation in starting was amazing.

To hedge my bets, I aquired a push starter off my dad who has dismantled several Series 2A landies. These starters mount in more or less the same place as the one described above, except there is a large knob ;-0 to press and less electrics.

The other problem is a bad earth where the earth strap connects to the chassis. This can get rusted to buggery too. However, on the FFR vehicles there are multiple earth connections so not usually a problem.

Don't know much about 6 pot land rovers though.

**** boy!! here i am trying to take the guy through it nice and easy like and you come in with yer fancy words like 'sheradized' and FFR.. jings if he was up to speed on theese things he wouldn't be asking .. in other words i didn't want to throw to many things at him at once. one little bit at a time till we fix it. then the next time he'll have a better idea what to do..

sorry if its too much.

the thing is not everyone understand all this techkneecul stuff, so rather than flood them with too much ship, i think its better to go throught it step by step. that way they get a chance to understand a bit more about how the thing is susposed to work.and they don't get frighten orf by big words.