Lude Generation

We were so close to getting the car started! cam pulleys on (one of each though as the exhaust cam has had the key welded on at a slight angle so only the modded adjustable pulley fits that and a standard one on the inlet :/), re timed it, all belts on.
Tried starting and the starter wont engage properly, it'll turn the engine a couple of times then clicks. had the jump leads on my vectra and even holding the revs to give it more power when i cranked the engine it was even draining the vectras battery and still doing the same!
The ludes battery is absolutely dead though so i was pretty much bypassing that and went straight onto the Vectras one, could that be causing the issue?

We tried 'gently' tapping it with a lever bar which helped a bit, the car started for a few seconds then cut out (guessing no fuel in the lines lol) but yeah it started getting hot so we gave up

What are my best options to resolve this as i dont really know what to do lol.

Cheers
Rob

If there isn't enough power from the battery it can can cause that. If the starter motor is sticking, put the car in gear and rock the car back and forward a few times. Then try and start it

yeah thats what i was thinking about the battery :/

The only issue i have about rocking it is this :


cos im waiting for the coilovers and brakes all to turn up it looks like this
Ive got a spare battery, its a bit bigger but should do the job and il run it off jump leads from the vectra just for a bit of extra juice lol

Sounds like a duff battery mate, almost all my cars do exactly the same if I don't drive them for a while

Odd that you couldn't start it from the Vectra though - have you checked the voltage accross the battery whilst it's running? My Accord couldn't start other cars without me gunning the throttle because the alternator was a bit weak

It could be the jump leads you are using aren't beefy enough. I know the Preludes take a lot of juice, I had the same when my battery died a couple years back, jump leads weren't enough.

Try charging the battery for a couple days, should see you right.

SHE LIVESSS!!!!!!! bloody took some going though!
Charged the old battery as good as it would get and also used the jump leads, would still only crank over a few times before it would click again, but finally managed to get her started lol.

Couple of issues though:
I had to keep the jump leads on the whole time it was running otherwise it would eventually cut out.
When it was running the voltage was at best 10v, i would say average 9v, with the jump leads on with the vectra idling too (alternator belt needs tightening? plus the vectra isnt the best car to use for jump starting lol)
when i was cranking it, the voltage went from around 13.5v down to about 2.5v after about 3 turns of the starter motor, so im guessing bad battery lol

It was running really rough until you rev'd it a bit which bought the voltage up so im guessing because the voltage was so low it was struggling to idle properly?

I'm going to get a new battery when i have some free time which should hopefully help and ive also ordered new alternator and power steering belts as their not great lol.
She seems to run ok with the 2 different pulleys too, il keep an eye on them but yeah doesn't seem to be causing any issues all i need to do is move the timing belt as its hanging off a couple of mm

Gayno wrote:It could be the jump leads you are using aren't beefy enough. I know the Preludes take a lot of juice, I had the same when my battery died a couple years back, jump leads weren't enough.

Try charging the battery for a couple days, should see you right.

Yeah i know what you mean by taking a lot of juice to get started lol, they've normally done their job ok but i think the old battery was too dead to make much of an impact starting it

So all in all im happy that shes now running, just gota wait for these coilovers and brakes to turn up give it a couple of weeks and she'll be on the road again
Cheers everyone for all your help

Greatish news!

Moved the belt back into its right place and re timed it absolutely perfectly!
Got her running (still rough which i will explain) but the alternator is now working so can run all by itself so grown up!

still misfiring and wont let me rev above 3k rpm? Didnt know a car this old would have a limp mode lol!
Checked the spark plugs and they were black! cleaned them up, had it running and kept the revs around 2k, checked again and still very black. So she's running really rich but i dont know what ive done to have caused it :/
but when shes idling its not too bad but when you rev it its strts spluttering and yeah stops at 3k :/ annoying!