Drive Train swap

Due to a couple unfortunate mishaps involving my 23 yr old son, I found myself with one TF160 with a blown engine and one with a twisted front chassis (plus other front body work damage). The solution of course (as a starter) was to create one good car from the two less than perfect examples now sat on the driveway. I therefore set about dropping out the rear rolling chassis (including drivetrain) out of one to install in the other. An easy straight forward task I hear you say. In reality I wasn't as difficult as it seemed at first although a few sheared bolts didn't help the speed of transfer.

However having now completed all the work (except the brake and clutch bleeding) I tried to turn over the engine with little joy!! The starter motor engages with a click (I assume the solenoid) and then nothing. On removing the offside rear wheel and viewing the timing mark on the crank shaft pulley it seems as if the engine is turning over at least half a rotation. After this I did top up the brake cylinder reservoir just in-case the engine management system was holding out because it had sensed the fluid as being low. Tried again, same thing "CLICK”.

I cranked the engine manually to double check the engine hadn’t mysteriously ceased in the 2 months since it was running perfectly. I have tried "tapping" the starter motor in case it had got stuck (although the engine turning at least half a revolution indicated that the starter motor is at least moving slightly).

I'm now scratching my head and not sure on my next move so thought I would turn to my friendly MG community for some help.

HELP !!!

Thanks in anticipation

Chris M

Bugger.

It's possible I suppose that the clutch may have stuck to the flywheel having stood for a while . Any suggestions about how I might free it !!

Thxs

Chris M

Last time I had a clutch stick to flywheel I pushed clutch to and and turned the key worked for me. Obviously need to bled brakes and clutch first, quite a funny sensation going down the road under starter motor power before it frees.

possibly a stupid question, but is the battery your using fully charged?

Not a stupid question as I wasn't 100% sure myself ( even though my battery conditioner was showing it as fully charged ) , so I also put jump leads onto my other car whilst it was running

Ex-wifes TF had an issue where it would not turn over, I suspected starter problem, but actually issue was a leak at inlet manifold which had flooded one of the cylinders. Whereas a petrol air mix can easily be compressed, the fluid couldn't so engine would not turn. Take plugs out and see if it will go through a full cycle with a socket wrench on the crank pulley nut.

Another thought is the crank angle sensor http://www.tom-seven.stillgame.ch/wiki/doku.php?id=crank_angle_sensor if that's not reading (fail or disconnected) I have a feeling the ECU will stop the engine turning over.

Do you think would be picked up by an OBDII device ?

Yes, I would imagine there would be a stored fault code for crank sensor

AHH... Yet another thought... You've not by any chance swapped ECUs?? Because if the ECU doesn't get the coded signal it expects from the security system it won't start

And yet another one worth mentioning, though I don't think it's your problem is that if the security system has lost sync with the fob it won't let the car start. Pressing each of the buttons on the fob five or six times in a row should force a resynchronization and allow the car to start.