Bandario

What a weekend; dropped in my new engine ( a plain old 6-port with 30,000 k's on it).
The idiots I ordered my flywheel and clutch from sent me a flywheel that wouldn't even clear the bell housing; so it went back together with the shonky old gear again coz i needed it back on the road....it isn't back on the road!!!

Everything is connected but my starter just clicks.
Using the magnificent search function on this site I followed all the advice that I could find. Cleaned all the terminals of battery and starter etc etc Put a couple of new grounds on.....
Here lays my major question:
I read all these grounding guides where they say negative battery cable ground to chassis at some point.

I'm fairly sure my ground has always been from the positive battery post!
Is this right?
Are you guys just referring to putting another ground from the neg post to the chassis? Doesn't seem to add up to me.

It's possible that my labelling was just a liiiitle shonky and i've put the ground on the wrong post, but I seriously doubt it; it's very very hard to get it near the negative and it sits right next to the positive cable.

Thanks for reading this, appreciate any advice.

Spraintz

iTrader: (1)

positive terminal and ground at the same time is kinda a contradiction. My point is that your "negative" battery terminl grounds to the chassis and adding an extra one will help. seems to me that you could only hurt somthing by "grounding" the positive terminal. Only other thing I can think of is that maybe the starter went belly up or something is not allowing the engine(rotors) to actually turn(misaligned clutch etc.)

If I am am wrong about the grounding, PLEASE somebody correct me. after all, I have been drinking tonight

BTW, I dig the word "Shonky" is that an Aussie thing?

AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TIIsport

Definitely negative ground. My battery sits with the negative terminal closest to the headlight, negative lead (black with yellow stripe) eventually gets to a bell housing bolt above the starter motor. Positive lead from battery goes to solenoid on starter. If all you hear is the click of the solenoid when you turn the key, bad connection somewhere, almost flat battery or crook starter. Good luck.

Bandario

Thanks guys; this freaks me the fvck out as I believe my car may have been running with a "ground" on the positive for quite a while....possibly even 16 years.

I'll pursuade it over to the negative terminal in the morning (got the battery on charge at the moment).

After building this thing up with my bare hands (with much blood and sweat along the way) it's so disheartening when it won't even bloody turn over.


Spraintz - BEING shonky is ace
Using shonky gear is definately not.
And good on you for bigging up Aussies haha

The company has offered to send a suitable replacement flywheel so I won't go slandering their name too much. But that is QUITE a fvck up on that particular company's part; now i'm going to have to do a very difficult job of in-car flywheel+clutch change and cop over 150 bucks of extra cost on my own head: very bad business on their part.


Thanks again.


Oh, by the way: either of you know the consequences of hooking up your battery to the wrong terminals is? for a period however brief?
Grandad said "the ground goes to negative!!!"
Then just switched them over!

I'm sure alternator wouldn't like it. Nothing worked like that I know that much.

TIIsport

Connecting the battery the wrong way would probably fry alternator/wiring at the least and possibly other stuff as well. When you refit it in the morning be very careful to connect correctly. Trace the ground wire from the engine to the battery just to be sure. Hate to have anything go wrong.

alwayssideways

have you tried recharging your battery. when even i get that click click click sound its normaly a dead or low battery

Bandario

****
Best start looking for a new alternator too I guess.
*sigh*

We'll see though, i might get lucky, it was only connected for a couple of seconds.

Battery is on charge right now.

Can't believe I stuffed this one up, how hard would it have been a couple of white out +'s and -'s !
ndaaar

Once again thanks for posting, hopefully i'lll be rotoring on again soon.

Spraintz

iTrader: (1)

i fyou hook up the battery to the opposite terminals you will instantly blow the "main fuse"(centermost fuse in the box right near the strut tower) it shouldn't damage anything else. the fuse is pretty cheap, but if you must replace it just know that it is bolted in even tho it appears to pull out like the others in that box.

good luck and have fun

Bandario

It will be satisfying cruising in something that I have built up myself I know that much When I finally get it on the road that is.

I think I might have gotten lucky; how would I know if the main fuse is blown? Everything that is working still seems to be working.

Spraintz

iTrader: (1)

lift off the the cover of that fuse box and you can see through the tops of the fuses and see if the wire is blown. with the main fuse blown some power things will seem to work but it will not start that way.

truespin88

There is no way a car could run/start if the positive terminal were grounded. That'd be like starting it without a battery.

HAILERS

If it goes click, click, most likely you have it connected ok. The positive cable goes on the solenoid...the negative connects to the long bolt that holds the starter on. Make sure both are snug.

So now jack the car up. Make sure its in neutral. Get under the car with a piece of wire that is bare at both ends. One end you hold on the Positve terminal on the solenoid. Then you touch the other end of that same wire to the very small blade post on the solenoid. The starter should spin over. If it just clicks and does not turn over......and you know the battery is charged and the posts are tight/clean....then get a hammer and strike the starter about mid ways sharply and try the same wire method again. If it now spins and cranks the engine over your problem lies in the starter. It may/may not now work by turning the key for some time. Then again it may not.

Bandario

Ok, there is absolutely no doubt that on my car the earth has to be on the positive terminal.

Connecting it the other way around just blows the main fuse straight away and thats a 7 dollar fuckup

My mums car has a positive earth too; maybe something to do with a weird aussie requirement ?

alwayssideways

also i forgot ,, i know on my car if the terminals arent tight enough the car clicks even if it had enough juice

digitalsolo

iTrader: (2)

Positive reference would be a better way to put it....

If so, that's seriously whacked up.

TIIsport

Definately negative ground Bandario. If you are blowing a fuse there is a short somewhere.
Whereabouts in Qld are you? Get onto AusRotary forum & see if there is someone near who can help.

Bandario

It's ALIVE! ITS ALIVE!!! Muhahahaha


I had the starter wiring totally wrong; since I wasn't the one to pull it out I figured 2 prongs on starter, 2 terminals; how much more logical can you get?

One of them goes to the body of the starter duuuh, god i'm an idiot. All this stress for something so simple.

The battery thing is still a mystery to me; 2 cables coming from positive, only one off of negative, anyways, the electrics are working.
Now to get the engine running properly.

To say that my engine currently runs like ratshit would be the biggest understatement of the week.
Getting some new plugs tomorrow, but i've thoroughly cleaned the ones that are in there and I seriously doubt if this level of shiteness can really be due to those plugs.

It has NO power (as in I can't make it up my driveway) and it won't idle.
I understand that the tuning is going to be way off, but I have my suspicions that it's only running on one rotor.

If I have been sold a dud motor, I pity the fool.

How likely is it that it could get this shitty just from bad tuning and old plugs after an engine swap?
Maybe one of the injectors isn't making a good connection or is leaky or something?

Many many thanks for your suggestions and stuff; got me thinking.

Spraintz

iTrader: (1)

awesome, glad its looking up for ya
maybe coils not hooked up all the way, and not firing on a rotor.

prolly something cheesy