Hi, I just pulled the starter on the 580 as the bendix was just spinning. I fitted a new bendix and it started a treat for a couple of days. Now when I turn the key the dash lights come on but as I go to start position, everything goes off and nothing happens, then after waiting about 10 - 15 seconds the dash lights come back on. I started at the battery, which is 6 months old, cleaned the terminals there and all looks good. Went to the starter cleaned and retightened terminals and all looks good there. I switched the ignition to on, put the multi meter on the starter hot wire and the other to earth and get 10.7 volts yet if I go hot wire to negative connection on the starter I get 12.8 volts. I'm not really sure what else to do now, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thank you.
Brushes shorting ?
Check you frame grounds.
Grounds was also my first thought. Even new batteries sometimes have failures. Try another battery.
Welcome to HEF Paul ! The battery negative cable attaches where? That is the connection I would be checking (and any other grounding straps if used) like Vetech said. If the battery negative cable was checked and cleaned at the block/machine side then I would suspect green crusty stuff is growing inside the cable where you can't see it. You can try bypassing the cables using jumper cables.
The battery negative fastens onto a terminal coming out of th starter then a ground strap links the bell housing starter bolt to the frame. So frustrating because when I took the starter off, it was gunged up around the brushes and even a little water inside. I cleaned everything up, dried everything, rebuilt and just made the comment it hadn't started as well in years, tempted fate I think. I'll go check all the grounds again now it's stopped raining, thanks.
Did you test the starter while it was on the bench??
I did a bench test, refitted it and and it worked fine for around 6 to 8 stop/starts during the day then on the final start, nothing. I have tried flashing the heavy duty feed from the battery to the starter, onto the small spade which I think comes from the ignition switch, and nothing happens. I also tried shorting a spanner across the two heavy posts on the solenoid and nothing happens. I tried a continuity test with the battery disconnected and I am getting continuity on the small spade at the top, to the solenoid body, and also from the small spade to the bottom right pole, does this seem correct?
If you had it working on the bench and now it's not working, go backwards to prove the starter is good. Remove the starter and retest it on the bench, same way as before. With the as you said, and your posted efforts, the starter is suspect.
Looking logically at my problem, the 580g I have has a pair of cables going direct from the battery, + to the solenoid and - to the post on the end of the M50 lucas starter. there is then an earth strap from bell housing to the chassis.Would I be correct in thinking that all the power that runs the rest of the machine electrics is picked up at one of the other two connections made at the solenoid positive post? I also see some posts where people mention relays, the only relay I can find is just above the starter, which the basic wiring diagram I found suggests this to be related to the glow plug system. The diagram also shows a seat relay and a seat switch, could anyone point me in the direction of these please?
Eureka, I think I found it! The positive and the negative from the battery go direct to the starter. I discovered by accident as my mrs turned the key, that by touching the end plate earth connection and the end plate starter motor bolt ,it started to crank. On stripping the starter down, again, i removed the end plate to find the negative post is just a bolt. This being steel set in an aluminium end plate had seized in solid and oxidised, hence the bad earth you guys mentioned but I could not find, even after cleaning every electrical contact I came across. As someone else said, it has been a huge learning curve and I know far more about my machine now than I did NEARLY 2 DAYS AGO. I hope this helps someone else and would like to say thank you all and a very merry Christmas.