Tranona
Well-known member
Never bothered with mine except first start of the day. However the OPs problem seems to be with the starter rather than the engine.
Bavaria Engine won’t start
- Thread starter Gardan
- Start date
johnalison
Well-known member
Apparently so, but I didn’t get that from his opening post.
Tranona
Well-known member
No. Usual problem of not enough information. Posts #13&14 give a hint, although still not clear.
j3tpropelled
New member
You say that the battery "is saying full". Can you observe the voltage drop when attempting to crank?
Could be a knackered battery and or poor connection battery to engine.
Could be a knackered battery and or poor connection battery to engine.
Gardan
New member
Drawing1 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
One illustrated. There are three below the injectors. They are very easy to replace.
With no life at your starter motor I think your first action is to check the terminals on the starter motor. For me, it looked fine but when I undid the negative, cleaned it (which didn't look like it was dirty) and redid it and that solved the problem. Then check your battery connections. They might look ok but mighjt be in need of remaking the connections.
Do you have a Both-1-2-off battery switch. Again they can fail to provide sufficient power to the starter. This failed after many years of use:
P1040422 by Roger Gaspar, on
Thank you all , some great help .
After reading your texts above my plan now :
1, to save time on my next boat visit ( 2hrs journey time ) take with me some spares , which I don’t mind replacing as boat is 20 yrs old so I see it as routine maintenance now .
(A) glow plugs x 3
( b ) new starter motor even though this one is fairly new .
Then
Charge and check the starter battery
Take off the starter motor terminals clean and reset
Check the glow plugs are heating up with another person
Check what’s happening with the solenoid with anityer person starting the engine up top .
Did I miss anything?
Question : where do you chaps/ladies purchase your penta parts from in the UK ?
jlavery
Well-known member
I've found Parts4Engines to be excellent. Good value and knowledgeable.
Baddox
Well-known member
That’s a bad approach where you’re guessing and throwing new parts at the engine in the hope it will fix it but are likely to cause more problems.
Changing the glow plugs is a bad idea – don’t touch them yet. They are fragile and likely to be stubbornly stuck in their screw hole. It’s easy to shear one off when trying to remove it and then you have made a big problem from a relatively small one. Changing them will not fix your starting problem.
Glow plugs require plenty of electrical current and will only work if the battery and cable system is OK. The observation that the engine doesn’t turn, points to an electrical problem unless something has seized.
Be methodical and start with the obvious and easy first.
Can you combine the starter and hose battery? Does the engine turn over once you’ve combined batteries?
Get a multimeter and measure the voltage across your starter battery terminals. A healthy voltage is >12.7, what DC voltage does it read?
Keep the meter on the battery and see what the voltage drops to when someone briefly tries to start the engine. What does it read?
If the voltage drops a lot the battery probably needs replacing, if it drops very little then power isn’t getting to the starter motor and the cables or connectors need checking / cleaning.
Can you hear a click from the direction of the starter motor when trying to start the engine?
Next, check what the voltage is at the starter motor when trying to start.
Gardan
New member
Hey Baddox , thanks for your time and informative comments . You are indeed correct and take on board your advice not to mess about too much .
As it happened I got waylaid with work stuff so called a mechanic down in wales .
He’s now visited the boat and thinks it’s the exchange electric unit ( not sure if that’s correct description) he said and this is interesting:
That he did all the checks some as you’ve described above and then he some how isolated the starter motor from the electrics starting and managed to bypass and kick the starter motor over so as to discount it was engine or starter motor issue , with the engine fired up he has now ordered a small cheap part ( electrical) and will fix next week hopefully.
Question : are you or is anyone familiar with how to fire the engine up in this way as I think it would be useful in an emergency if starting out at sea was an issue ?
Cheers and Thanks
Gardan
New member
Further to my last post and question about Emergency starting I’ve just been doing a bit of research on the net
I googled ‘Engine Remote Starter’ in the end and watched a couple videos on you tube showing how if you use a ‘remote engine starter ‘ which I’ve now just ordered from Amazon , you can by pass the electrics to effectively jump start the engine to test that you have an electrical issue rather than a engine issue , also very useful in an emergency at sea . That all said , I’m wondering if there are any nuances to penta engine that I have to disengage anything like fuel stop or anything before this might work .. I’ll have a go at this when at boat next .
I googled ‘Engine Remote Starter’ in the end and watched a couple videos on you tube showing how if you use a ‘remote engine starter ‘ which I’ve now just ordered from Amazon , you can by pass the electrics to effectively jump start the engine to test that you have an electrical issue rather than a engine issue , also very useful in an emergency at sea . That all said , I’m wondering if there are any nuances to penta engine that I have to disengage anything like fuel stop or anything before this might work .. I’ll have a go at this when at boat next .
Baddox
Well-known member
That’s good news and good progress.
There are ways to by-pass the starter button and electrics using a spanner or other metal tool across the solenoid terminals. You could ask your mechanic about how to and also all the risks before thinking about trying it.
There are ways to by-pass the starter button and electrics using a spanner or other metal tool across the solenoid terminals. You could ask your mechanic about how to and also all the risks before thinking about trying it.
Stemar
Well-known member
Just a thought - when checking starter motor connections, don't forget the -ve connection to the engine. I don't know this engine, but it's commonly bolted to the block, and is easily forgotten.
jac
Well-known member
Appreciate that OP has fixed the issue now but just one observation. OP stated that battery was full.
Probably doesn't apply to OP but many battery monitors are only connected to the domestic bank as that is the one that gets hammered whilst the engine start hopefully has very light wear. SO if it's a problem with engine start - start measuring volts at the start battery and go from there
Probably doesn't apply to OP but many battery monitors are only connected to the domestic bank as that is the one that gets hammered whilst the engine start hopefully has very light wear. SO if it's a problem with engine start - start measuring volts at the start battery and go from there
Gardan
New member
Hi All , just thought I would give a liitle update after solving the problem :
Turns out it was the ‘Relay Switch ‘ which whilst still alluminanting was faulty, so not sending full signal to the starter motor , we also changed the glow relay switch whiist doing the work .
Thank you all for your help .
Not Expensive the Relay Switch at £24 , perhaps worth carrying one as a spare as it’s so important to starting the engine whilst out sailing perhaps?
Kind Regards
Turns out it was the ‘Relay Switch ‘ which whilst still alluminanting was faulty, so not sending full signal to the starter motor , we also changed the glow relay switch whiist doing the work .
Thank you all for your help .
Not Expensive the Relay Switch at £24 , perhaps worth carrying one as a spare as it’s so important to starting the engine whilst out sailing perhaps?
Kind Regards
littledancersadhu
Member
Open /stuck/jammed starter relay
