Auxiliary Starter Button
The terminal pins on my Starter button are not the strongest... Very flimsy 1/4 inch type, and on a run-out, after meeting up with other Cobra owners at a cafe for breakfast, the inevitable happened... All strapped in and ready for the off after a hearty full English, pressed the starter button... nothing!
😫 😫 😫 😩 😩
Luckily, I suspected what the issue was, as the starter button was totally dead... An analogy being: 🤣
The Norwegian Blue Debate
Monty Python Complaint Scene:
- Mr. Praline: "Ello, I wish to register a complaint." You 'av sold me a dead parrot!
- Owner: "E's not dead... E's pinin'!
- Mr. Praline: 'E's not pinin, 'E's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker!"
- Mr. Praline: "I'll tell you what's wrong with it, my lad. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it!"
- Owner: "No, no, E's 'ah,... He's resting!"
- Owner: "Remarkable bird, the Norwegian Blue, idn'it, ay? Beautiful plumage!"
- Mr. Praline: "The plumage don't enter into it. It's stone dead."
- Owner: "No, no, he's not dead! He's restin'!"
- Mr. Praline: "All right, then, if he's restin', I'll wake him up... 'Ello, Polly! Testing! Testing! 1, 2, 3... Testing! Testing! (Throws the bird against the counter)"
- Mr. Praline: "He's not restin'! He's passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be! He's bereft of life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed him to the perch, he'd be pushing up the daisies! His metabolic processes are now 'history'! He's off the twig! He's kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!"
And I had an 'Ex-Starter Button'.
But I digress... so back to the plot!
My starter button (from Pilgrim V8) doubles up as an additional ignition warning light; i.e., it lights up when the ignition is on and goes off when the engine starts. So the theory for a roadside solution was to 'hot-wire' the button's input and output wires.
30 mins later, after wrestling with the dash fixings in the cafe's car park. The car started on the first try, and we were off. And I continued, throughout the day, to start the car by the hot-wire method. And during our 'mid-resolution' conversation, I was made aware of the benefit of an auxiliary starter button. The other GD builder in the convoy had installed one on his specifically for his type of scenario.
A twist to this story is, I tried to order a new button from Pilgrim V8, but they were out of stock, so I decided to try to fix the one I had... Ten minutes later, the button cover was off, and the offending pin (or half of it) was visible. So, I drilled a hole and replaced the broken contact with a sculpted piece of solder-tinned cable... And to properly secure and protect all the exposed terminals, and to prevent this from happening again, I encased the entire exposed end of the button, i.e., the terminals and wires, in resin... No way is this going to happen again! 💪
Did a continuity test, and to my surprise, all was well.
Fixed everything back together, did another couple of 🤞 tests, and all was golden... 🥳 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Drilled a hole in the undertray for the new Aux starter button, and job done... Then, as per usual, another project popped into my head, that being to modify the way the dashboard was fixed in place. Currently it's fixed in with CBS Big Head bolts and wingnuts... So, I'll lose the wingnuts, use the bolts as locator pins, and I'll mount some Neodymium Magnets as fixings...
...But that's a story for another day.
