Good Evening Classic Olds...

My husband has a '72 Olds 4-4-2 with a '71 455 in it. We took it out earlier this year with some persuasion... As in, we had to roll it out of the garage and bang on the starter a bit to get it to turn over. He took it out for a 5 minute spin and put it away again.

We had a car show last weekend and we couldn't get her to start. Would turn over / click roughly 3 or 4 times and then nothing. We rolled her out, smacked on the starter a bit... No luck. With tail tucked, we pushed her back in the garage reluctantly.

Well, we tried to start it up again during the week and it turned over a handful of times before a sharp SNAP sent it to where it wouldn't turn over /click at all.

So we replaced the solenoid. Again it turned over / clicked about four times before dead silence. He felt there may've been a short in the starter itself. He humored me and took the battery from my "Wolf" and no dice. We do have interior lights and headlights, they dim slightly whilst turning the key.

So he got a new starter. We just installed it this evening and to his disappoint, it STILL won't start. It turned over / clicked twice and then nothing. He messed with the ground wire and acknowledged it was hot to the touch for only attempting to start it three times. Roughly 10 seconds later I heard what sounded like boiling... It was raining outside and the garage door was open so I didn't think much of it. It still didn't sound right so I leaned over and realized it was coming from the battery. Needless to say we disconnected it briskly.

He connected and disconnected the ground wire from the block even if it showed no sign of corrosion. No luck. He is absolutely positive he got the wiring correct to the starter (backed by my "notes" when he announced the wires whilst removing.) I'm still learning a lot of the mechanics of a car. I know some and know how to detail, but this stuff I'm still learning

Does anyone have any troubleshooting or ideas?

 

I had the same issue with my 69 442.
After trying almost everything, found the negative cable was corroded internally, [green gunk around the copper, but looked new, externally] and the P.O. never re-connected the ground wires to the valve covers!
Easy fix - never again a problem.

 

Have you gotten your battery checked and charged? I don't know if he can do this with the starter on the car, but with the key in the ON position, if he jumpers from the big lug on the starter to the "S" post it should crank and start the car. Make sure the transmission is in park and emergancy brake is on, a wheel chock for insurance. Be very careful.

If you don't feel comfortable doing this, remove the starter and do it with some jumper cables off your battery. The solenoid should kick the gear all the way out and spin.

 

A boiling battery is not a good thing. I would either borrow a load tester, or take the battery to a shop and have it load tested. Something is not right with it so be careful.
This may not be the cause of your starting issues, but it should be your number one priority at this point.
As for the starting problem (assuming your battery is OK) I defer to my more learned colleagues.
Good Luck.

 

This is a very normal problem with these cars and all previous postings are right on.

1) check battery
2) check cables
3) check solenoid
4) check starter


Or do what I did after years of failed starts and replace the starter with a high torque race starter. I got so tired of replacing parts only to have the issue pop up again months later time after time. The hardtop has started constantly for a year now, but every once in a while it gets stubborn This weekend, nothing but clicks, ground cable looks corroded so that's where I will start but I bet positive cable will be bad at the starter as well..

 

There is a post here on the starter brace that was factory on Olds. Olds Fart commented about the brace being an added ground, and sometimes the starter housing can lose its ground to the starter nose as it is steel on the aluminum nose.

 

Pls, do check the battery. Or if it's older, just repace it!!! I had a 77 Cutlass Supreme with kind of the same problem. After messing with all the known things to check I hit the starter and "BOOM" just like a shotgun going off. Battery acid was all over and luckily knowone was hurt. Put a new one in and everything was fine after that. I didn't know at the time what these things could do.

 

You should of been around back when batteries needed to be activated, and there were charging areas in gas stations. I've seen numerous batteries explode and your right Steve it will scare the bejesus out of ya. I've also seen it happen when we were jumping a car with dead battery, one little spark and boom.

 

I've never heard a boiling battery before, so needless to say it startled me lol!

I am sorry to have taken so long to get back to you guys and the valuable information you have offered and shared. We got the 4-4-2 to start last night after he attempted to short-start it from the starter.

The battery is dead that was in it, so we put the Cutlass battery back in and he tried to short-start it again. It started to turn over, so he took the chance and dropped it back down. Turned the key and the Rocket roared back to life. He let it idle for about 5 minutes then shut it off, turned it on, and repeated that process multiple times. No hesitation.

He had somewhat of a conclusion with the solenoid, but safe to say a dead battery was the culprit. A very "here's your sign" culprit, eh?

 

Glad it's fixed. BTW, we all have had a here's your sign moment, some of us more than we care to admit.

 

I have to admit I'm guilty of plenty of more than I'd like to acknowledge. Between the horse and car hobby... Definitely plenty of opportunities