I've been fixing things with the 89 405 DL before seriously putting it up
for sale. Did the front wheel bearing a few weeks ago. Today I tackled
the starter problem, which wouldn't spin at speed and the engine often
will not turn over. Putting a charger on it for a short while sometimes
helps but it would still choke and not spin freely. The battery is fine
per hydrometer reading. Battery connections were cleaned which did not
help. So I looked for the starter motor but for the life of me could not
find it from under the car. Finally I traced the fat wire from batt. +
and located it, well hidden under the inlet manifold! I was cursing
whoever designed that engine !#%% It is next to impoosible to work on.
Anyway, first thing I did was, with a 12" long nose pliers, clipped an
alligator clip to the spade lug to the starter solenoid, connected it to
batt. + and voila it spinned at full speed. So now I have isolated the
problem to the circuit between the solenoid and the ignition switch.
Next thing I did was pulled the spade lug off the solenoid and cleaned
both terminals. Getting the spade lug off and on was a bitch and it
started me cursing again. After it was back on starter cranked normally
with the key. So all it needed was a cleaning of a bad connection.
After the job was done, I wondered what would have happened if I brought
the car to a service station to have it fixed. They probably would have
diagnosed it as a bad starter and $400 later it would be fixed, when all
it needed was a contact cleaning. Moral of the story: Check the simple
things first.
BTW, it's an 89 405DL auto, with 89 K. white paint in exc cond. not
faded, synthetic oil. always garaged by previous owner. all warranty
work done by dealer including new headlights and new cylinder head at
50k. A/C freezing cold, flapper motor and ECU works fine (I should know,
I fix them). Tires just about new. Car looks sharp. I'll be doing a
photo shoot and will be posting it in trader online or maybe Ebay. I
jotted down the service history of the car from Reynolds motor in Lyme
CT and wil post that also. Which do you think will have a better chance
for a sale, Ebay or Trader online?
I am selling it because I have too many cars and I want to deal only with
505s and 604s, which I know a lot more about than the 405. I bought my
first and only 405 out of curiosity and it is just not the car for me.
Hopefully it will end up in a good home.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu 22 Jun 2000 - 00:39:17 UTC