Iratic starting

[rodbuilder]

I have a Bobcat 328g excavator I bought to resell and have a problem with it. It's been really cold here in northern Illinois for the past few weeks and when it was warmer I didn't have a problem starting the machine, but when it got colder all heII broke loose! Surprisingly the Bobcat 328g does NOT have a Kubota in it, it has a Yanmar engine!!! Why I don't know but it does. Here's what happened............... When it was 25-30 degrees outside the machine lit right up after cycling the intake manifold heater a couple times. It does NOT have glow plugs. Yesterday (15 degrees) I tried to start it and the starter bendix hung up and ground the battery down to nothing, so I took the key and went to buy a new battery. A friend of mine who (like me) has owned a jillion trucks and diesels in his life suggested that the battery might be going bad and that he has seen this same problem many times - low voltage causing a starter to hang up and not release. I returned that afternoon with a new battery and tried it again, only to hear a bad "knock" when I hit the starter!!! It sounds just like a rod knock, but that's not what it is, because when it finally starts it sounds just fine. Because the noise only occurs when cranking the starter I'm thinking that something caused a tooth on the flywheel to get chipped, but how is that possible? Anyone got anything for me on this. How about a free repair manual download?? How do I get to the starter and flywheel on this machine? The stinking starter on this thing is toward the FRONT of the machine, not the rear, like on a Kubota.

 

[Tazza]

Even with a chipped tooth, i don't see why a starter would lock on and pull the battery down. Almost sounds like the grease or whatever they use to lubricate the bendix or the solenoid that pushes the bendix out is sticking with the cold temperatures?

 

[7LBSSMALLIE]

Even with a chipped tooth, i don't see why a starter would lock on and pull the battery down. Almost sounds like the grease or whatever they use to lubricate the bendix or the solenoid that pushes the bendix out is sticking with the cold temperatures?

starter solenoid bad how you get to it however you can. gotta b done gottata be looked at. around thru over or under? ill check manual tomorrow usally not much help. but always worth a look. o and by the way the the guy who desiged this has a college education. where could we go wrong?