Hello All,

I've got a '87 740 GLE that will not start. Will not turn over.

When the ingntion is turned to the II posistion all I get is a click under the hood.

Pulled into the garage one day after it had been running fine...well relatively fine. The next day...click.

Replaced the starter. Replaced the Hal sensor. Tried to hotwire from starter tab to positive battery terminal. Cleaned battery cables. Still...click.

In the I posistion, the tach nudges up slighty in II posistion the tach does nothing.

Interesting thing happened. When I took off the hal sensor connector, I got the same click. Leads me to believe(in my vast inexperience) that the problem is before the spark i.e. hal sensor.

Tested resistance at primary terminals on the ignition coil. Measured 1.5 ohms.

Can anybody help, or come and give me a ride to the store?

Brian Egeston
www.brianwrites.com

"Interesting thing happened. When I took off the hal sensor connector, I got the same click."

Yep. You could send the sensor to Syracuse and your engine still wouldn't crank. The Hall sensor's far removed from the starter motor, functionally and physically. Particularly if you send it to Syracuse.

I hate to ask a dumb question--though I'm a genius at dumb questions--but is your battery fully charged?

If so, then find a voltmeter and measure the battery voltage while you try to crank it. The voltage should be near 12.5 volts before cranking and drop to around 8-9 volts while cranking.

But if it's not charged, then it's time for that revolting task....
--
Don Foster (near Cape Cod, MA)

Don,

Thanks for the quick response. I have not tried checking voltage while cranking, however, I have tried jumping it with my wife's car. She's got a new car. It was either get her a new car or get a new wife.

Anyhoo, I was reading around the Net some more and thought about the sequence of components that start the car. 1. ignition 2. battery 3. ignition coil 4. starter 5. distributor or something like that.

Since I'm not getting anything signal to the starter or distributor, could it be the ignition coil? I read that they rarely go bad, but I tested the resistance from the primary terminals which was too high and then the secondary terminals which should read between 6 and 9 ohms. Instead it read 0. Do you think that could be the problem? God, I hope so.

I've taken it off(it took two minutes vs two weeks for the starter) and a used one is only $20.

Brian Egeston

Forget that other stuff for now. It's Battery, Starter and three wires:

1) The big red cable from Battery Positive to the starter (fastened with a nut to the threaded post on the solenoid—the small "can" on top of the starter.

2) +12 volts wired to solenoid terminal 50 (Small flat terminal below and to the outside of the big post on the solenoid,

3) The big Blue connecting the Battery Negative to the engine and/or chassis metal, which is the "Ground". Nothing works without it.

Disconnect the Blue Ground cable at the Battery first (always Blue first), and then disconnect the red cable to scrape/sand/file both end terminals (and the Battery Positive Post) shiny clean.

Do the same for the blue wire and its Battery post—and the other end at the car/engine "Ground" points.

Then try it and let us know what happens.
--
Bruce Young,
'93 940-NA (current)
'80 GLE V8 (Sold 5/03)
'83 Turbo 245
'76 244 (lasted 255,000 miles)
73 142 (98K)
'71 144 (track modified--crusher bound)
New 144 from '67 to '78
Used '62 122 from '63 to '67

Iwould suggest bench testing the old starter (hook it up to your jumper cables and jump the solenoid)
It should kick hard and spin enthusiasticly.
If it does work, you problem is for sure in the car's wiring.
if it just 'click', or whines and turns @2RPM like the last one I changed, you may have got a defective replacement unit. It happens enough that I usualy test them before installation, esp on cars that take more than 5 minutes for a starter swap.