starting issues

[born-to-race]

I just picked up a beat 250ex to mess around with. Can't get it to start. I get a single click from the solenoid when I push the start. Tried shorting the solenoid, I get another click but the starter doesn’t crank- it almost sounds like it wants to crank. Fuse is good, connections are good, ground connection is good, ground wire is good. Battery is at 11.x V, lights light up. Don’t know if this helps but when I press and hold the starter button I have ~2 V at the starter itself.

I know there are a billion threads like this and I did do extensive searching to no avail.

Thanks for any help.

also any close-up pics of the battery/ starter relay connections would help

[gojk]

Originally posted by born-to-race
I just picked up a beat 250ex to mess around with. Can't get it to start. I get a single click from the solenoid when I push the start. Tried shorting the solenoid, I get another click but the starter doesn’t crank- it almost sounds like it wants to crank. Fuse is good, connections are good, ground connection is good, ground wire is good. Battery is at 11.x V, lights light up. Don’t know if this helps but when I press and hold the starter button I have ~2 V at the starter itself.

I know there are a billion threads like this and I did do extensive searching to no avail.

Thanks for any help.

Check that the negative is grounded properly. Maybe even take it off and clean the contact point on the frame and the terminal.

[born-to-race]

The ground is solid. I'm thinking my battery may be shot as I should be getting ~12 V at the starter should I not? I will get a known good battery and some booster cables and see what happens.

[born-to-race]

I put booster cables on my battery and nothing changed... so moving on. I figure my starter may be shot so I unbolt it. I ground it on my engine block and press the start button- it spins :rolleyes:

but its not spinning with authority, seems weak. So I take out my handy voltmeter. The voltage at my battery drops to ~4 V when I hit the start button.. thats not right. Why such a big voltage drop when I try to start? Surely 4 volts isn't enough power to turn the engine over (I know I can't disregard amps but still)