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Hey, hopefully somebody can give me some helpful tips. I'm trying whatever i can think of. So when I turn the key, the starter will not crank at all. The lights, wipers, etc. work and the battery has good voltage, but the starter will not do anything and there is no noise from the starter/solenoid. It will turn over when you jump the starter relay, which led me to think the relay was bad, but after replacing it, the problem is the same. I bench tested the ignition switch and it checks out fine. What else should I do??? possibly bad fusible links???
No on the fuse link, that would kill power to other accessories
Probably a wiring/ neutral switch problem. Here's how this works:
One wire from the ign switch feeds power to the starter relay coil, but it must receive a ground from the neutral safety switch in park/ neutral.
Try wiggling the shifter from park to neutral while holding the key in "start."
On your starter relay, there are two push-on terminals. ONE of them is hot from the ignition switch "in start." Unplug one wire, check both with a test light to see if one is in fact hot when the key is twisted to start.
Then hook up that wire, and use a clip lead to ground the other exposed relay terminal. The car should now crank.
If it does, the problem is in the neutral safety switch or the harness down to it.
Now you'll have to get under the car, find the neutral safety switch near the shift linkage on the driver side near rear of trans. I believe you have the single terminal switch. Clip lead the terminal to ground, hook up the connector up at the relay, and recheck if the engine will crank
Be careful making these checks, and unplug the coil high tension wire, and clip it to ground. The car will CRANK IN GEAR during these tests
If the engine cranks, above in the test, either the trans linkage is out of adjustment, or the switch is bad. I've read, on the www, that finding the older single terminal switch is tough. You can substitute the newer three terminal switch, just use the center terminial. You'll have to buy a pigtail for the correct connector as well.
no, no noise at all from the solenoid. I'm going to check on the neutral safety switch. I've asked around from other knowledgeable people and they said to check that out also.
No on the fuse link, that would kill power to other accessories
Probably a wiring/ neutral switch problem. Here's how this works:
One wire from the ign switch feeds power to the starter relay coil, but it must receive a ground from the neutral safety switch in park/ neutral.
Try wiggling the shifter from park to neutral while holding the key in "start."
On your starter relay, there are two push-on terminals. ONE of them is hot from the ignition switch "in start." Unplug one wire, check both with a test light to see if one is in fact hot when the key is twisted to start.
Then hook up that wire, and use a clip lead to ground the other exposed relay terminal. The car should now crank.
If it does, the problem is in the neutral safety switch or the harness down to it.
Now you'll have to get under the car, find the neutral safety switch near the shift linkage on the driver side near rear of trans. I believe you have the single terminal switch. Clip lead the terminal to ground, hook up the connector up at the relay, and recheck if the engine will crank
Be careful making these checks, and unplug the coil high tension wire, and clip it to ground. The car will CRANK IN GEAR during these tests
If the engine cranks, above in the test, either the trans linkage is out of adjustment, or the switch is bad. I've read, on the www, that finding the older single terminal switch is tough. You can substitute the newer three terminal switch, just use the center terminial. You'll have to buy a pigtail for the correct connector as well.
Thank you very much for this helpful info! It solved my problem tonight.
greetings from the Netherlands
steven
Hi all, 61 Valiant was not cranking and I replaced the batter. I have push button tranny on dash, turned the key and wiggled the drive and park buttons and low and behold, it turned over!!! So thank you very much for this thread, no way a mechanic would have tried that
09-29-2011, 06:15 PM
starter won't turn over
