Rover Won't Start. Cold Weather Tips?

Smilemon · Oct 12, 2008

I swapped my blown pertronix ignitor electronic ignition back to the points and condenser system. The car ran great for the fall season, but now that its winter I cant get the damn thing started.

Its dropping snow outside, like 4 inches in 5 hours, and its cold as fook.... The exmod turns over, but it wont start. I fired up my honda and toyota no problem and pulled them into the garage, but I'm kickin meself for not putting the landy in the warm garage last night... The front Wheel Drive honda won't make it out of my driveway tomorrow morning... I'm gonna need a monster of a truck to make it to school.

How should I go about troubleshooting this... It ran like a champ on friday night. But it was about 20 degrees warmer.

Thanks guys.

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

Smilemon said:
I swapped my blown pertronix ignitor electronic ignition back to the points and condenser system. The car ran great for the fall season, but now that its winter I cant get the damn thing started.

Its dropping snow outside, like 4 inches in 5 hours, and its cold as fook.... The exmod turns over, but it wont start. I fired up my honda and toyota no problem and pulled them into the garage, but I'm kickin meself for not putting the landy in the warm garage last night... The front Wheel Drive honda won't make it out of my driveway tomorrow morning... I'm gonna need a monster of a truck to make it to school.

How should I go about troubleshooting this... It ran like a champ on friday night. But it was about 20 degrees warmer.

Thanks guys.

Going back to the old skool times ( my suzuki sj ) used to be a bugger to start when cold.... was the main coil lead from the coil to the cap and u could also try some kinda switch contact cleaner in the dizzy ??? if not the check is to take a plug out and make sure a strong spark by touching the plug to ground while firing her up ... i would probably say the coil is at fault with the sudden temperature drop ... other then that maybe the fuel is frozen ???

John

metallicachick86 · Oct 12, 2008

a hair dryer? heat it all up enough to start it and get it in your warm garage?

Smilemon · Oct 12, 2008

metallicachick86 said:
a hair dryer? heat it all up enough to start it and get it in your warm garage?

Should I heat the dizzy and coil? What is "it all"

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

Smilemon said:
Should I heat the dizzy and coil? What is "it all"

Id try heatup the carb first ... then maybe work your through them

John

Smilemon · Oct 12, 2008

The points are brand fookin new. They have been in less than a month, new cap, rotor, ignition coil, and plug wires.... It started in one push on friday... Grr.. This makes me mad

Smilemon · Oct 12, 2008

Johnnydisco said:
Id try heatup the carb first ... then maybe work your through them

John

k... Ill give it a go.

clivees · Oct 12, 2008

I take no responsibility if this goes wring but i some times put a fan heater under the bonnet for 10mins.
Works every time.

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

clivees said:
I take no responsibility if this goes wring but i some times put a fan heater under the bonnet for 10mins.
Works every time.

Tried putting a blanket over the motor a short while after use obvioulsy keep some of the heat in ....

Smilemon · Oct 12, 2008

I had my little sister give it a few cranks while I did the "Wear Someone elses gloves and put your hand over the carb venturi till the damn thing sucks some fuel" move. Started in no time. I don' know what ill do if I ever get stuck in this situation with no helper... I need to be able to crank the engine from under the bonnet.

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

Smilemon said:
I had my little sister give it a few cranks while I did the "Wear Someone elses gloves and put your hand over the carb venturi till the damn thing sucks some fuel" move. Started in no time. I don' know what ill do if I ever get stuck in this situation with no helper... I need to be able to crank the engine from under the bonnet.

Does it have a manual choke ???

mjltigger · Oct 12, 2008

Smilemon said:
I need to be able to crank the engine from under the bonnet.

how many times have we all said this doing various jobs... almost bought one of those sill remote systems of ebay purely for the remote start function to be able to do it....

must be a way with the key at run position to trip the starter from the bay.. anyone know?

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

mjltigger said:
how many times have we all said this doing various jobs... almost bought one of those sill remote systems of ebay purely for the remote start function to be able to do it....

must be a way with the key at run position to trip the starter from the bay.. anyone know?

Think you just need a positive feed wire to the starter soloniode or however its spelt and the key in position 2... just remember to take it off after she fires up or you'll burn it out

John

mjltigger · Oct 12, 2008

so if it's something you might have to do regularly then a wire from the battery with a push switch in it would make a decent starter switch mounted under there somewhere...

Smilemon · Oct 12, 2008

@ Johnny, manual choke on the 34 ICH doesn't completely seal off the air. I think in this case the float was iced and it wasn't gettin fuel. A fleshy palm over the venturi solves that prolem.

@ Mjltigger, maybe a momentary switch wired up next to the carb would be the way to go... or an autostart

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

mjltigger said:
so if it's something you might have to do regularly then a wire from the battery with a push switch in it would make a decent starter switch mounted under there somewhere...

i guess so .... just make sure the switch can handle the current

you might need a relay to boost the switch

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

Smilemon said:
@ Johnny, manual choke on the 34 ICH doesn't completely seal off the air. I think in this case the float was iced and it wasn't gettin fuel. A fleshy palm over the venturi solves that prolem.

@ Mjltigger, maybe a momentary switch wired up next to the carb would be the way to go... or an autostart

No worries .... on some carbs there's a stop screw to set the choke stop ... worth a look ... but not quite the same climate here so never needed full choke to start ... Good luck in the morning

Smilemon · Oct 12, 2008

Johnnydisco said:
No worries .... on some carbs there's a stop screw to set the choke stop ... worth a look ... but not quite the same climate here so never needed full choke to start ... Good luck in the morning

Thanks, I got her in my garage and built a nice fire in my barrel stove, should keep her warm enough. The snow is coming down, about 4 inches since this morning. My Honda would have been hard pressed to get out of the drive for sure.

Johnnydisco · Oct 12, 2008

Smilemon said:
Thanks, I got her in my garage and built a nice fire in my barrel stove, should keep her warm enough. The snow is coming down, about 4 inches since this morning. My Honda would have been hard pressed to get out of the drive for sure.

Gr8 idea .... And a blanket under the bonnet over the carb area will also help... dont forget to remove it before starting .... John

cao · Oct 12, 2008

You said that it started with one push.
Could there be a problem with the ballast resistor circuitry or does it need one fitting perhaps?

Rover Won't Start. Cold Weather Tips?

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