My car is a 1950 Rocket 88. Tonight I thought I would get it out and investigate some funny noises coming from the suspension - I’ll save that for another post. I have a habit of leaving it in reverse when parked up as, if I don’t, reverse makes a crashing sound when I try to engage - leave it in reverse and all is well. Tonight I tried putting it into neutral and there was a heavy grating/crashing noise like gears crashing or perhaps the starter not disengaging. The funny thing is it now tries to start (with the grating noise) whenever I try to put it in to neutral. No ignition key required, no starter button to be pushed just try and select neutral. I disconnected the battery and left it a while - no change. If I am very careful and ease the selector towards neutral - but not all the way, it will go into neutral without the crashing but a millimetre too far and it sounds awful. I’m guessing the gear on the starter is jammed but I thought I would ask before I start crawling under the car which is getting increasingly more difficult as the joints and muscles get older.

 

Have you done any work on the starter or electrical system prior to this happening? You need to crawl underneath and see what is going on. Leave a battery cable loose and have a helper handy to test things and to disconnect the battery if it is the starter engaging.

 

Hi Eric,
Thank you for responding.
I had not done any work on the starter or electrical system but I have sorted it out thank you. I was convinced it was electrical so thought I would look at the Neutral Safety Switch and the actual Starter Button. Not knowing where the Safety Switch is I looked at the starter button first - made sure all the connections were tight and hey presto - it worked.

 

Glad you got it sorted and posted the fix.