A few months ago I replaced my original ignition switch in my car, it had finally gone after about 20 years. Well after that, there were no problems for about 4-5 months. Whenever I went to start the car, I had to first put the key all the way back, and then go into the crank position to get the car to start, but I didn't consider that a big deal. About a month ago, every once in a great while, i'd go to crank the car and nothing would happen, just like a bad ignition switch. However, i'd try again, an it'd crank right over and start right up.

Recently though, the car won't crank no matter what. It does what it was doing before when the switch was bad, absolutely nothing at all. Every once in a while (10 tries or so) I can get it to crank one time. It'll just turn over for a second and then stop again. This makes me think there's a poor ground somewhere in the system.

I've checked all the grounds going to the starter/solenoid and everything checks out, and the battery is fully charged. Are there any other grounds I should check? I could drop the column down, are there any grounds there that would cause the problem? And is there any chance it's not a ground at all, but the switch actually went bad again?

All help is appreciated, and if anyone has some schematics that might help, i'd apprecaite that also.

-Thanks, Brandon

 

Well anyways..... I dropped the column last night and I pulled the ignition switch. I had an extra one sitting around so I threw that in. Now when I crank it, I hear one click and then nothing happens again, but this is consistant and it happens everytime, so I don't think the ignition switch is the problem. So voltage is definitely getting to the starter, but there's also a click, so that leaves me to believe the solenoid is working just fine as well.

Anyone have any ideas on where I should look next?

-Thanks, Brandon

 

Well no point to this thread anymore. In combination with a bad or improperly adjusted ignition switch I guess I also need to rebuild my starter.

I pulled my starter and my friend had and extra SBC starter so I shimmed it and threw it in. Sure enough it turns over and starts just fine now, so I guess i'll be either rebuilding the starter, or just buying a remanufactured one.

-Brandon