simmosimkins
Member
Ok 2.2 man tc used to have a starting issue on a daily basis, now down to once in a while, determined to get to the bottom of it. Very occasionally the starter will turn the engine very very slowly, have another go and the car starts instantly. I have fitted new battery, (old one seven years old, probably due for replacement anyway!) new battery earth (old one starting to untwist) new engine earth cable (old one wrong place and untwisting again) put new brushes in alternator,(now charges at 13.8 instead of 12.5) rebuilt to Lucus standard with genuine Lucus parts the original starter motor (these parts are becoming hard to find so why not do it now, and on disassembly glad I did, lots of worn stuff in there that's for sure) and before I did all that I thought I had made a good fist of cleaning/tightening all terminals. Although issue has vastly improved it is still not fully resolved. Once again I decided to check all terminals. The first nasty surprise was the crimped cable connector coming from the bulkhead to the drivers floor pan earth bolt appeared both tight and clean, until the connector fell off in my hand! Secondly on re-examining the earth bolt itself the nut that holds the earth bolt to the floor NOT the nut that holds the cables to the earth bolt does (a) not appear super tight and (b) on trying to tighten then undo it the bolt appears to be spinning. Looking underneath the car I expected to find a bolt head to lock whilst undoing the nut from the inside. What I did find was a large plastic cup, maybe 1/2" in diameter. I don't want to further damage this earth bolt arrangement, so can anyone tell me is it ok just to lever this cap off, or is it likely to damage the connector further. To me it seems obvious to just prise it off, but I don't want this to one of those things that the only obvious thing is you wish you hadn't done after you have done it!! Any help greatly appreciated.
