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Starter won't engage...

1971Chevelle

1971Chevelle

Veteran Member
Senior Member
I mentioned this in my post in the brakes section. I hooked up a multimeter to the external solenoid this morning, then turned the key to the start position. I am only getting 8.9 volts at the
external solenoid, but it should still kick. The GM solenoids require a full 12 volts to activate, but the external ones kick with less (I use it to supply a full 12 volts to the starter solenoid, which
is different than how other people do it - my starting circuit voltage has been low for years). I fiddled with the ignition switch on the column, but nothing changed. I am going to try to jump
the terminals on the external to see what happens. Maybe it just failed.
 
I decided to dig a little deeper under the dash. All of the residual wiring from when I had an alarm system was still there, including the jumper I had made
to reconnect the neutral safety switch wire. I removed all of that wiring, then spliced the neutral safety switch wire back together. Now the car starts
again. That helped to clean up some of the mess under there (it still isn't great, but it is better).
 
The car ended up not wanting to start again. So, I dropped the column to mess with the igntion switch. It turns out that it was failing, and one of the terminals had some corrosion (the kind from moisture) on it. I put a new one in and it is starting fine now. I do need to fine tune the position, as it isn't exactly where it should be. But, at least it is starting.
 
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