Won't start

[Grant MacPherson]

Went on a poker  run Saturday and at the first stop my car wouldn't start,  nothing, no starter click, nothing. Key in run position and crawled underneath,  not an easy task for a 71 year old, anyway jumped the selinoid and fired right up. Left it running for the rest of the run. Once home shut it off and now starts fine. I am guessing  either a faulty safety neutral switch or ignition switch.  Any other thoughts?   I hate when problems are intermittent! 

 

 

[Chevy Dave]

I had this problem on my 70 with floor shift Turbo 400. The neutral safety switch was out of adjustment.  On the floor shift cars it is at the shifter. On the column shift cars I believe it mounted on the steering column. If you jumper the switch and it starts ok you found that its the adjustment or a bad switch. It sounds like an adjustment issue to me.

[Chevy Dave]

Try moving your gear selector slightly when you are trying to start. That's how I found out mine was out of adjustment.

[MCfan]

I made a quick run to a nearby Home Depot in my ‘70 4-speed (no gear selector) and it would not even click when I tried to start it. The neutral safety switch is disabled so I knew it wasn’t that. 
 

I had a similar surprise stall on my wife’s Lexus the year before and that turned out to be simply a slightly corroded, top-mounted battery terminal so I checked that. Sure enough, removing, cleaning and re-seating the battery terminals was all it took to get it started. I had never encountered that on a side-mounted terminal before. I suggest you inspect/clean your battery terminals. Good luck. 

[Scott S.]

Battery ends gave me a similar problem.... I'd go for a drive, stop and get gas, and she wouldn't start. 

Found that tapping the terminals with a hammer would make the ends make contact and was good for a few more starts, then had to repeat the whole procedure. 

But eventually the poor connections weakened the battery, so I replaced the ends when I replaced the battery..... No problem since.

 

[Grant MacPherson]

13 hours ago, Scott S. said:

Battery ends gave me a similar problem.... I'd go for a drive, stop and get gas, and she wouldn't start. 

Found that tapping the terminals with a hammer would make the ends make contact and was good for a few more starts, then had to repeat the whole procedure. 

But eventually the poor connections weakened the battery, so I replaced the ends when I replaced the battery..... No problem since.

 

Thanks, not the battery and I did rattle the floor shifter when it failed. Working fine for now, wait and see. I did run a wire from the selinoid to the battery so I don’t have to crawl under if it fails again. Just have to remember that bypasses the safety neutral switch. 

[MarchieB]

If it will start up fine when the engine is cold (starter solenoid NOT jumped) and won't do anything when its hot it could likely be the starter solenoid itself. It is common for them to fail after time when overheated and then work again once cooled off.

[Rob Peters]

4 hours ago, MarchieB said:

If it will start up fine when the engine is cold (starter solenoid NOT jumped) and won't do anything when its hot it could likely be the starter solenoid itself. It is common for them to fail after time when overheated and then work again once cooled off.

Hi Marchie, great to see you on the boards again.  You should rejoin the club and join us at our Eastern Meet next month.  It is going to be our largest meet ever.

rob 

[Grant MacPherson]

New Delco starter,  although it did take 3 starters to get one that worked!

[Scott S.]

16 hours ago, Grant MacPherson said:

Thanks, not the battery and I did rattle the floor shifter when it failed. Working fine for now, wait and see. I did run a wire from the selinoid to the battery so I don’t have to crawl under if it fails again. Just have to remember that bypasses the safety neutral switch. 

Hey Grant,

When I first got Montelishi, the previous owner had completely bypassed the neutral safety switch with a short pigtail at the connection under the dash. It was all fun and games until the pigtail fell out and she wouldn't turn over at all...... That's when I discovered how bad the under dash wiring really was.

[Scott S.]

2 minutes ago, Grant MacPherson said:

New Delco starter,  although it did take 3 starters to get one that worked!

That's what I suspected when I wound up getting a new battery..... I've got a "micro" starter that I thought was bad, but Auto Value bench tested it and found that my battery didn't have enough amps to spin it. 

Glad you got it figured out. 👍

Scott.

[Leghome]

AutoZone checked my mini starter and said it was good said it was good but the battery was bad. New battery under warranty but the starter was BAD. I don't think the parts store can check the mini starters because it did not fit well in their tester 

[Scott S.]

The tech at Auto Value explained that to me..... The actual starter tester isn't fitted for mini starters, but if you put the starter in some type of clamp, (he has a bench vise on his table) and connect the wires, one can test it. It's all just a matter of keeping the starter from jumping around while testing. 

[S.Maug]

never heard of auto value, our AutoZone stores, worthless  hard to get anything of quality these days.  work ethics have gone to @#$% .  as well as the materials were supplied with.  SHAMEFULL TIMES.

[Scott S.]

Auto Value must be a Canadian thing......

I know what you mean, Steve.... Lordco expanded into Alberta a few years back, and there was tons of hype about it. 

Tried them a couple times. If it wasn't on the shelf for you to find yourself, forget trying to get any help with it..... And their website isn't any better. 

Lot of them are that way now, but any time I'm in an Auto Value, someone's always asking me if I need anything within about 3 minutes.

[Dtret]

Seen an Auto Value today in Dayton Ohio 

[Leghome]

I always got my best deals at auto value it helped that I knew the manager for several years before he went to work there

[cny first gen 71]

Have an auto value not to far from me, I used to know the owners well. One did the business end the other did machine shop they used to do great work. On one of there calenders there was a 71 ss that used to belong to Bob Lyman now owned by Glen.