All my lights turn on, fuel pump, dash ect. I turn the key and nothing. Just a slight tick sound coming from under the hood...no by the starter.

So I figured it was the starter. Took it out, cleaned it up, and had it tested and autozone. It worked fine. Checked my battery connections and they are tight. Obviously the headlights work just fine and the battery gauge on the dash is half way up.

What the hell could this be? How can I trouble shoot this thing.

Its a 95z28 automatic. And has an alarm in it. I bought it last month and it died at a gas station last week. Any way to just the starter to see if it will turn the car over with the ignition on?

Any help here.

Thanks,

Joe

 

is there a such thing where the starter works fine when autozone tested it but in my car somehow it doesnt work anymore.

How do I directly jump the starter with the battery to see if the starter will really crank the car or not?

 

most alarms have a starter kill fuction. I would double check that first and see if you can by-pass it. Then see if it will start. You should check all ground connection, making sure they are clean and tight. You may need to replace both the battery cables.

 

dont completely rule out the battery, even tho your gauge is showing half up that doesnt mean anything , since its not under load. for what its worth go get the battery tested. Could be simple as that.

 

Try jumping the starter relay to rule that out.

 

Could be the ign or neutral safety switch could be a loose connection on the starter.
If ya put a jumper cable direct to the starter and jump the small terminal to the jumper cable it will turn.

 

A clicking sound is usually the solenoid pulling in and then releasing from low current supply. It's not getting enough power to put it another way.

Usual causes are bad wiring connections, bad battery, bad starter and bad wiring.

The most common is poor connections due to corrosion at the battery terminals or ground to the chassis. Check all of them and especially the ground strap on the driver side from the frame to the engine. If all that looks good, check to see what the voltage across the battery is when someone cranks the engine. It should not drop below 11 volts DC. If the starter tested good under load for current draw and the voltage is dropping any lower than 11 volts, the battery is defective or is not the correct size battery.

Just BTW, starters usually go bad and begin to short internally at the windings. They begin to pull more and more current until they get to the point the battery will not keep up with the current requirements. That's why I said if the voltage drops low but the starter has been tested, it has to be the battery.

 

Jump your relays in the dash by the glove box to rule out security issues and then check the switch on the steering column like racer dude said. You might have to adjust it to get it to work correctly.