Hello friends,
My 2003 disco roared to life every start and I never had an any signs of an issue with starts. Suddenly no crank. Tested relays, fuses and voltage seems ok at the starter battery connection and the ignition connection when key is turned (maybe a little lower than at the battery). Led me to think my starter went bad suddenly. Pulled the starter and bench tested it and it seemed bad. I got a replacement starter from Rock auto and installed it in. Still no crank. The battery is losing voltage with every attempt to start. I used a jump pack to make up for any low voltage and still nothing from the starter. The starter is a good fit but I noticed the spade tab connector is on the other side of the solenoid (bottom vs top which is easier to work with). Is this a problem?
I suspect I am not getting full voltage from the ignition to the starter. Anything else I should be looking at?
Any and all suggestions are appreciated!

 

All the ignition/crank system does is pull in the fuse box relay to energize the starter solenoid. You can jumper that relay to see if you have a problem before the relay or after. Most of the connectors on D2's for the relay line are not spade terminals but rather 5 mm ring terminals, yours is spade?

 

Try cranking in the 'N' gear first, not the 'P' in case the switch is flaky.

 

Thanks for the response. I hadn’t tried to jump the relays because I was getting voltage at the starter solenoid on crank but do relays sometimes partially fail and reduce voltage? I kinda thought they were all or nothing. The spade connector I’m referring to is the “S” connector on the starter.

 

Cranking in neutral did not change anything.

 

If you are getting power to the starter solenoid wire (spade connector) and it’s 12v then also check the wire from the battery to the stater motor on the lug and ensure you see 12v there. You want to check the lug and not the wire, there could be voltage drop if the connection is corroded.

 

Also be sure to check your main ground connection, remove the cable from the engine and check for corrosion under it.

 

this is rhe first thing to check. Pull it off, clean it and try again.a weal ground causes all osrts of issues.