Not Cranking

[Slovik]

Just finishing up my s52 OBD2 swap and I went to start it for the first time. I get a click but no crank from the starter. I had the starter checked at the auto parts store before installing. The flywheel is a shaved m20 and the starter is an m20. Do all m20 starters work with all M20 flywheels? Battery is strong, power to DME. Could the starter jamb, hate to take it back apart again. Any and all ideas welcome.

Thanks,

Seth

[Thrizzle]

I had a click and no start at first as well. I had a poor engine ground. Mounted the engine ground up to a better spot and it started.

[Slovik]

I have mine from the standard spot on the inside of the frame rail to the engine arm, where did you use your ground

Thanks,

Seth

[Thrizzle]

I had mine to a janky clip on the strut tower, relocated it to a solid spot on the strut tower.

How are your other grounds? You should have 4 in total I think?

[Slovik]

I have 3 I think, the 2 coil grounds and the main ground. I will reground the main one, I think I may even just run out and get a new grounding strap as mine is 21 years old.

[SwiftE30]

I had the same problem. i had my starter jam even after i checked it out. They can get stuck sometimes. All i did was take a long piece of 1x1 wood and set it up against the starter and tapped the end of it a few times with a hammer. Started right up after that.

[Slovik]

You know I was thinking that, back in the day (I'm old) my Father's Fiat 128SL responded to that and I've never forgotten, It's worth a try.

Thanks,

Seth

[Slovik]

No Go on Tapping the starter and I replaced the main ground with a new one. Any other ideas?

[Thrizzle]

Should be 4 grounds-2 at the front battery tray, 1 on the right side of the engine, and one is at the front most part of the top of the engine, right by the ccv

[SwiftE30]

i know the ECU is supposed to be grounded through the harness, but some people have had this problem and simply added an extra ground wire from the ECU case to the strut tower, or wherever you want... according to them, this fixed their problem

[drez14]

+1 on the grounding. I bought a new ground strap and sanded down the ground spot on the pass side frame rail.

[Slovik]

Thanks Everyone, I will be trying all the grounding tomorrow.

[328ijunkie]

just short the starter. Big terminal on the bottom to the positive in the middle. See if it works. Use a ~16 gauge or bigger wire. If it doesnt you have other issues.

[e30rapidic]

put a charger on the battery. Went over a swap 50 times and everything checked out but it still wouldn't crank.

All the lights and gauges were coming on but the battery didn't have enough juice to turn the engine. Hooked a charger up and voila...

[drez14]

Also,
Early on in my swap i was able to crank, then all of a sudden i was not. the started would click but not turn. After further inspection, i realized that one of my injectors was stuck open and filled one of the cylinders with gas causing it to lock.