Solenoid clicks....won't crank

[Harlow]

Working on the 318 coronet I pulled home. When I go to start it I hear the solenoid kick out but it won't crank. The weird thing is, if I try it again it won't click at all. I have to disconnect the battery and try to crank it again to get the solenoid to click again.

I cleaned the ground, the battery posts and cables. That battery was fully charged.

Next thing I tried was jumping the solenoid with a screw driver. Same thing as turning the key. If I disconnect the battery and reconnect it I can get it to click but nothing more.

I tried taking a long screw driver and giving the starter some good whacks. Still no luck.

What should I check? I'm thinking its not the neutral safety switch, and its not the starter solenoid since it won't crank even if I jump it across the two terminals...

[adrian1]

Are the grounds to the engine good? Sounds like there's a ground wire thats loose or dirty somewhere.

[Back N Black]

Check with a multimeter and see if there is a load on the battery when you try and start it. Maybe the brush's in the starter are toast. The starter itself may have a bad ground at the mounting points, you could run a jumper wire from the body to the starter casing to give it a good ground.

[Steve P.]

I agree with all the above. Most times people are just happy to get their car running again, but just replacing parts doesn't teach what the problem was caused by.

IE: many will replace a starter solenoid and the car fires up. They will be good with that, but many times it was not the part, but moving terminals off and on. This scratches a new connection and could have been the original problem.

I like to bypass wiring and switches to help determine the real problem. Jumper cables are your friend here. If you use both wires from the battery to the starter directly, you take out everything in between. If doing that works to start it you know the problem lies in what you bypassed. Just break it down from there.



Side note:  Please remember that these posts are read by thousands and others learn from them as well. You may know this already, but others are picking up tips as well.

[Nacho-RT74]

NSS switch simple cuts the power to relay, but since you have clicks, does meen power is running to starter motor.

Click must be from the starter motor clutch system, so starter motor is getting power, mostly sure just making work the solenoid ( those are the clicks sounds ) BUT NOT to fields and/or brushes. I would say the internal disc/plate in to solenoid assembly is broken or damaged somehow.

If not that, then armature is shorted or fields are isolated or damaged

[flyinlow]

  What Steve said.  Take a good set of jumper cables jump pos. batt.  terminal to main power terminal on the starter. Then use a screwdriver to jump the starter . If it cranks you have high resistance in the wiring. If not pull the starter and bench test it.

It only takes a fraction of an ohm to stop a 12 volt system from delivering 120 amps to the starter.

Clean every connection : battery , engine ground, start relay posts. Corrossion has a 40 year head start on you.

[kcederwall08]

I had a somewhat similar issue when first starting my car, and all I did was remove the starter. I then tested it out of the car, and it worked fine, so I put it back in and I havent had any troubles with it since. This may be a completely unrelated issue, but it may be worth a try, since its fairly easy.

[GN]

Mine did the same thing, so I just replaced the solenoid. Started right up.

[GN]

Sorry, it was the starter relay.