My car used to start up just fine. I pulled the heads off when I blew a gasket and had them resurfaced. After I put them back on and put the car together, it has had a slight problem starting. When I turn the key to where it should fire up, it doesn't always respond. I have to pull the key back and try again sometimes 2 or 3 times. Its almost like the battery is dead or the ignition is out. I tried reconnecting the battery cables and that helped some, but it still does it sometimes.

Some things I think it might be, and why:
Could it be that I may have messed up my injectors when I took them off? I know I banged the tips of a few of the back ones as they were coming off. Could I have damaged them where it would only affected startups?

Ignition switch or something related going out? I don't know anything about ignitions because I've never had a problem them.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

 

Is the car alright when it's running? any misses or hesitations or noticeable problems idling?

 

Nope. Just when I put the key in and try to fire it up. Other than that its fine, with a ticking.

 

I have a similar issue with my car. I have not done any work to it recently, but it seems like the battery is not fully charging, if that matters.

Turn the key and nothing, turn it off and try to start it again and nothing. If I take the key out it usually will start the second time, sometimes it takes 3 tries.

I wonder if the passlock on the key is wearing out?

Dennis
95 Formula

 

ignition switch fairly easy fix unless you had yours physically short out like mind did whitch required fixing the wiering harness. Pretty simple took me like 30 minutes or so to actually change the switch. Hardest part is taking off the gear seafty cable thing, unless your's in a manual then it should be quite simple and straight forward. The only thing is you have to drop the colum to gain access to the switch.

 

Check your starter cable, my car was hesitating to start like yours then one day it just wouldn't start at all. Turns out the starter cable had corroded in two. I bought a new battery crimp end at autozone and put in on and taped it all up good and I've had no problems since then.

 

I was having a similar problem. I would get intermittant clicks then slow cranks as if the battery was low, even though it was fully charged. Yesterday, I replaced the starter and now the starter motor spins like a champ, but the Bendix doesn't engage.
So, now its time to do a little circuit troubleshooting, I guess.