rookie440

Hello all,
After happily enjoying the charger for 2 wonderful years,
The day we headed out for eddyville raceway (for the first time) It refused to start. When I turnded the key
2 things happened.

1. As usual, the electric fuel pump in the back was clicking away.

2.the new sound, a faster, more repetitive click , in the front of the car, replaced when it usually turns over)

(Could ft possibly be the starter??)

The Engine:
440
Heads
Cam
Intake
Possibly pistons to achieve 13:1 compression?
Dynos at 560Hp at the wheels

For those who reply, Thank You,Your experience is taken thankfully.

PS Will get video of an attempted start posted tomorrow

440roadrunner

This "fast clicking", more like a buzz, is a CLASSIC example of a poor cable or poor cable connection.

FIRST and VERY first thing to do is pull the battery connections and clean them. Even if they "look" OK, clean them anyway.

Now if the buzz continues, or it won't crank, time for your test lamp or voltmeter

Do one of three things so you can read the meter/ light while cranking the car:

1 Use long clip leads so you can prop the lamp/ meter up and see it while using the key

2 Draft a second person to twist the key for you

3 READ CAREFULLY. You can "simulate" using the key by a SPECIFIC method. This will not easily work on a stick car with a clutch safety switch. Make sure the trans is in park/ neutral, and remove the YELLOW "push on" wire at the starter relay. Use a clip lead (or screwdriver) to jump between the exposed push on terminal and the "big stud"

In the photo below, I'm referring to one of the two top terminals. One of them (they are interchangeable) has the yellow wire, the other goes to the neutral safety switch. You can switch them around. Older stick cars only have ONE of these terminals, the other being permanently grounded.

You must jumper the yellow connected relay terminal to the big battery stud at the bottom in the photo



Now simply hook one probe of your light/ meter to GROUND. Try cranking the car with the meter hooked to the following points of test

1 Hook other probe to battery ground CLAMP. No voltage means OK

2 Probe battery NEG post directly. No voltage means OK

3 Probe battery POS post. Voltage should NOT be lower than 10V during "start"

4 Probe battery POS CLAMP. 10V or higher=OK

5 Probe "big stud" on relay. 10V or higher is OK

6 Probe big stud at starter. 10V or higher is OK and if engine won't crank, trouble is in solenoid/ starter. Make SURE you are contacting the starter STUD and NOT the battery cable wire end

ONE of the above is NOT going to check out if the engine won't crank, and that will tell you.

99% of the time, this is a bad battery connection. One "popular" trouble used to happen right at the starter solenoid connections. These original factory cables had both wires molded into a plastic connector. Engine vibration would sometimes break the wire internally.

rookie440

We charged it up and it ran!

But, Roadrunner440, I convinced my dad to get a voltmeter,
and I struggled to find the part you were referencing at..
Is this the same part??
and ground?? is this a cable, or what.

Sorry to be kinda stupid about this, but I really wanna figure this out!

Thank you Roadrunner!

440roadrunner

That's it!!! That relay does two jobs

(Somehow I missed what year your car is.........and stick or automatic)

1 On automatic cars, the brown wire in the bottom of your photo goes to the neutral safety switch and grounds one end of the relay coil in park or neutral

On 70/ later stick cars which have a clutch safety switch, the same wire does the same thing -- you must depress the clutch

On earlier stick cars, the brown wire is missing, and that terminal is soldered to the relay case, permanently grounding it

The yellow wire comes from the ignition switch and is hot in "start" activating the relay

2 The second thing these relays do is lighten the load on the ignition switch. The ignition switch fires the relay, and the relay fires the starter solenoid.

Notice the two largest "bare" connectors. The "big stud" is battery, the "square" screw goes to the solenoid. If you jumper across those two with a screwdriver, the starter should crank.

Timmoparman

Hey,Are you sure you have at least 12 amps.

rookie440

I get it now,
The Car is a 69' , and has 727 torqueflite.

The Yellow cable goes to the ignition switch (Key)
The Brown goes to a Neutral Saftey switch.(No starting in gears other than Park and Neutral)

Thanks for the jumping trick. That may come in handy in a situation!

AWESOME...
Problem Averted, and a small lesson wiring.

Thank you, Roadrunner440!