having problems getting my car to start. thought it might be the starter pulled it and it checked out good. I reinstalled it and it wont turn over at all. Before it would turn over occasionally and sometimes start. The battery is brand new and charged. All I get now is a click and silence. What next? Could it be the ignition switch or neutral safety switch? Is there a way of testing these? Thanks
69 cutlass s

 

One more time...

Is the starter ground strap / side support in place?
see post #1 and photos in: https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...ter-brace.html

I used to think that it was not needed. Normally, on most days, that's true. Electricity takes not just any but ALL PATHS that it can. Then comes that one day when no paths are left. Such was my fate.

Selling a car- 76 LeMans with an Olds 350 I put in it after the P350 died. wanted it to be in good shape, so I peeked in the starter, replaced brushes, mitaswell clean and PAINT the case, right. Reassemble, bench tests ok.

Put in car. Strap is a huge PITA, leave that off. Starter no Workee. WTH?

Remove starter, bench test, works fine

Put in car, NW. Grrrrr....

Remove starter again, BENCH TESTS FINE.... ground cable clamped on the oh I forget, solenoid bracket? End cap bearing nipple?

Put her back in the car
NO WORKEE.
#$%^@%^@%@^@@^^@$%&@^

Have the wife turn the key while I tap the starter with a Ford Tool.
SPARKS between freshly PAINTED case and nose piece. Bad ground connection.
Installed the strap, fixed it forever.

Installing the strap was a PITA
R&R'g the starter several times, a piece of cakewalk.

But, we digress.

OP, find out if you are losing the circuit on the way INTO the starter or on the way OUT OF it. And verify the battery is strong. New is NOT necessarily good. Do you understand the basics of finding out where voltage is and is not, using a voltmeter?

 

Make sure the purple wire at the solenoid has 12v when the key is placed in the start position. Make sure the heavy red cable terminal is clean, tight, and serviceable at the starter.


Clean both the + and - terminals on battery and the battery cables. Make sure they are shiny and tight where they connect to each other.

 

 

Did you check the voltage at the solenoid when you hit start with the key?

 

ok let's see I pulled the starter and had it tested again as well as the battery both good. cleaned all the terminals add a new ground strap from engine to frame. good clean ground from battery to engine ground from engine to body. I bypassed the ignition switch and the neutral safety switch the pinion gear pops out and stops. I grounded starter and tested it where the the pinion would not engage the flywheel and the gear pops out and returns but no spin. where do I go from here.

 

I'm thinking either a bad solenoid, the contact or disc in the solenoid, or the starter drive is binding and not letting the solenoid extend all the way.

 

If the solenoid throws the pinion gear out, but the starter doesn't turn, then either the high-current contacts in the solenoid are bad, or they are not making contact because the pinion gear is being blocked from moving fully forward into the flexplate gear, which is pretty much what Eric just said, right above.

Either bad contacts, or a mechanical problem preventing full engagement, which is preventing the solenoid from throwing out far enough to actuate the contacts.

- Eric

 

It's been a long time since I worked on Olds starters, but, IIRC, the solenoid post was sometimes a problem, but could be removed and turned around 180 degrees to provide a good contact surface; they were sometimes worn/eroded to the point of not making a good connection. You would just get a "click" when hitting the starter switch.

I worked for Mopar..........for 16 years, and they had the same problem, only the post could not be turned due to it's angled shape; it had to be replaced; but you could also turn over the copper washer to the oposite side, to provide a better contact surface!

 

The solenoid seems the most likely problem, but there could also be a problem in the starter itself. If you take the starter out, open it and do a visiual check at the minimum. A few things that can cause the same symptoms are brushes worn down to the plastic brush holder, an open armature, and on some types of field cases there were aluminum fields used. These fields were spot welded to the copper strap that goes to the solenoid just inside the case. This connection was prone to breakage. This bad connection would be good enough to allow the solenoid to energize, but not be capable to carry the amps needed to run the starter. The starters using aluminium fields can be identified by being the type with a longer narrow end of about 3 inches being narrow as opposed to the earlier style having only about 1 inch of a narrow area. Not all of these style cases have the aluminum fields, but the ones that did were know to be a problem. Often the starter will check good if doing a free run test without a load on it.

 

solved the starter problems now for the neutral safety switch. I removed it and discovered that it was broken. I went online to order one I discovered that although my car is a column shift (69) my switch looks like the 68 switch. The 69 switch has four terminal sets and the 68 (and mine) only has two. The plastic tab on the bottom of my switch has a slot in it and the pics online do not show any slots. The 69 switch shows a hole in the plastic tab. Which switch do I get ?

 

The 69 should have 4 pins on the neutral safety switch, 2 for the neutral safety, and 2 for the reverse lights. There should be 2 heavy gauge purple wires (starter), and 2 smaller green wires (for the reverse lights). If the car has a console the switch will be in there.

 

Now that I think about it, the 68 switch should also has 4 pins. It would have a neutral safety switch and reverse lights. I bet the switch is the same part # from 69 to the mid 80s model year.

 

Thanks for the info. After many searches on the internet I found one that should match exactly. The web site is called AutoPartsObsolete. I haven't received the part yet so I can't comment on their service or quality.

 

What did you do to solve the starter problem? Solenoid?

 

Congrats on getting your starter ironed out. X2 on what you did to correct it?

 

Thanks having all this input really helped. I'm still a beginner. The best thing about fixing this problem (outside of driving the car) is that I have good knowledge on how the starting system works..

 

Now on to the fuel system

 

What was actually wrong with the starter, please post what you did to correct the issue so others in the future may have a direction to follow.

 

I believe that the solenoid was bad. Even though it bench tested good the battery terminal was extremely loose. When starter was tested it was laying on it's side, maybe that had something to do with it. I didn't tear into the solenoid. I cleaned up all the connections added a ground strap from engine to frame. New positive battery cable ( it was showing lots of copper at the connections) and new starter. Installed it and everything works great.

 

Cool, again glad it's fixed.