cold start device playing up?/

[Frag]

Yep early bosch pump `92 80 ps di,
I priced a coldstart solenoid from ford were around £70 i think....but they were`nt available at the time.
Not obselete,just not available with no expected date to ship i.i.r.c.

Went to local pump fiddler & tested around 5 he had laying about,all duff

Luckily previous owner of van had one he`d sourced & not fitted,got that one & it worked.

[escort]

hi are all the cold start devices the same ive been offerd a pump with one on it
can i test it off the van by applying 12 volt to it? cheers

[Frag]

Yes,put 12volts to terminal on rear of solenoid,earth to anywhere on pump body or the large brass nut part of solenoid...

If it a good one you may get a small spark when connecting,then you will feel black part getting warm before it pushes coldstart off......

[escort]

ok frag so it should fully extend in about 8 mins approx if its ok

[Frag]

Should only take 4 mins really if you put power straight to it......
Remember took 4 mins for switch to feed power to it as engine warms

[Timbo]

The cold start "solenoid" is actually a heater which expands wax in the unit to push the cold start off. As Frag says the cold start should be coming off after only a few minutes of getting 12 volts at the terminal. The heaters do suffer from bad connections internally and so sometimes they do not heat because of this and then later with engine vibration the heater starts to work again giving the long delay. You should be able to feel the black section and the terminal nut getting hot. There should only be a few ohms resistance from the terminal to earth. I found with one of mine that the black part was slightly loose in the brass and if I turned it round a bit the connection was restored. You do run a risk if you do this of it never working again though - so be warned. The problem seems to occour when the van is not used for a week or two.