Hi I bought a kombi that has been sitting for 6 years put new oil, petrol and battery and she's not starting.
It turns over but not every time I turn the key and when she does turn over it seems to be turning slowly.
I've tried tapping the starter solenoid.
Another thing is while it is turning over it stops it self every so often.
Any other suggestions?

Sound like you might have the timing out or maybe the firring order does it give a bit of a back fire through the carbs

Starter could be polling, the bush in the gear box could be worn, simple replacement if required, check all the battery leads to the started and make sure they are free from corrosion and everything is tight first, also the power to the solenoid could low, try jumping a wire direct from the battery instead of using the key.

No back fire just very slow winding over.

So if you were to disconnect the coil, and try turning it makes no difference to performance / ability to turn over?

Earth strap still mounted from transmission to chassis?

Sounds like something is gobbling up all the current to the starter. What voltage the battery reading? (Might be a dodgey new battery or perhaps it drained through a leak in the circuit).

Have you tried jump starting it with another car?

Engine turns freely by hand? This might not be the case with sitting for so long.

If its been sitting for 6 years, it might have gunk / wasp nests in the combustion chambers, as well as corrosion galour from humidity, or you have dry rings. Open each spark plug, put in a cap full of oil, turn over by hand a few times. Then with 'start your bastard' starter fluid, squirt a gob full down the starter motor and see if it comes to life then.

IF there is rubbish there, naturally you'd wnat to confirm before turning over so as to not score the bores but you've already given it a go turning it over so you may as well run with it

Not a dodgy battery as I used it to start another vw yesterday.
Yep turns over easily by hand so not an issue there.
Will check the earth strap now

and turn over with coil 12v + disconnected. see if it makes a difference.

Although it might not be backfiring, it might be firing too advanced where the piston hasn't reached TDC, so the fire (that you won't here)works against the motor.

Has the earth strap off the transmission. Was a wester car so everything is covered in red dust.

So decided to remove starter motor and get it tested, a mechanic said his pretty sure this will be the cause to the problem so I'll start with that.


Got told that because it's an automatic it should have a larger starter motor can anyone tell if this is the normal manual one or if it is the automatic starter motor?