Peter, Tell me how much the battery was??!!!!??? Hope to god you don't need a starter. Mine looks impossible to get to. Have you checked the condition of the ground strap at the back of the diff - copper braided cable. I did add one per the recomendation of a highly respected lambo tech on the board, from the bell housing to the forward crossmember. The other thing to check was on the firewall behind the drivers seat is a junction block that the cable from the battery and the cable from the starter join. He told me that very rarely is the starter a problem on the Countach's. Ground problems and voltage drop problems ie passing throught the junction block on the fire wall are the bigest problems. I found mine but it is buried, the part is listed in the parts manuals. Send me the bill. Joe Frazar
Check all the connections (that you can reach) to be sure, but the starter on any 30 year old car is suspect. One that lives in an oven like a Countach even more so. Tap it or fiddle with it if you like, but you'll never trust it (for good reason) until you fix it properly.
I popped started the car and drove 2 miles. Drove into the garage, turn it off, tried to start and got a click. Guess it's the starter. I'll get it on stands and get under there and try to whack it and check connections. WHAT ELSE SHOULD I LOOK FOR? I don't want to pull the motor. But, as 2NA says, if it releases I still have to worry about it until it's replaced or rebuilt. But the other question is about the voltage regulator. New exact Bosch unit it in. When I did drive it breifly I did glance at the volt gauge and it was at 14 & 3/4....may have been at 15 on acceleration but not sure. Is this normal? I can not for the life of me remember where it was at for the last 6 years.
As I mentioned in my first post, defintely the solenoid which should release the pulley to crank. I have also a voltage regulator in my car which gives 14,5Volt, this is common in northern countries like in scandinavia because they use the headlights a lot more. A normal battery has no problem with this, the voltage will drop automatically when the battery is entirely loaded.
As long as the voltage stays below 15 volts you are fine. Normal charging voltage is 14 - 14.5 volts. You don't have to pull the engine to remove the starter but a few things have to come off first.
Thanks Tim, good to know. Relief. Had minor knee surgery. Maybe later in the week I'll get it on stands and take a look.
+1 The dead battery acts like a sponge sucking up most of the juice. Once my Audi was so dead I would only hear a click, jumper pack, F350 with good cables etc.., no go. Once I disconnected the battery and connected the jumper pack directly to the cables, it fired right up. I always have a spare fully charged car battery on a tender in the garage for situations like this. I bet if you connected a new battery, your Countach would fire right up. I'm guessing those 12 cylinders take a bit more to turn over than your average engine. +2 Electrical connections do not last forever. I cannot count how many little gremlins I've fixed on cars just by simply cleaning every connection I could find.
