360 not cranking after hibernation

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Chained_360

Chained_360

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Indianapolis, IN
So Today I tried to start my '68 Barracuda for the first time since November, and it refused to crank despite a few things. I failed to really truly prep it for winter storage, but I did take a few precautions. I drained the coolant from the block and radiator, as well as kept the car under a car cover for the whole winter [no garage space was available :(]. I didn't put any fuel stabilizer in it or oil in the cylinders because I had planned on bringing it inside to work on it over the winter, but that unfortunately never happened.

Today, I went out to it after school and put the battery from my truck into it (the old one is dead and on a trickle charger right now), filled the radiator with coolant, checked the fuel filter and carburetor, and went to crank with the distributor unplugged. Nothing. I pounded on the battery terminals, and after that it would proceed to click when I tried to start it. It didn't even try to turn the starter motor at all, no whining or grinding or anything. Just 'click'.
This strikes me as odd because I replaced the starter with a high-torque mini unit last summer, so I don't know why it wouldn't turn. The only things I can think of are loose starter connections, a stuck starter motor (which would be strange considering it's brand new), pistons stuck to cylinder walls, or for some reason the battery that can successfully crank a 460 Ford isn't delivering enough power to crank a Mopar 360 (if so, probably on the battery cable side... the terminals are slightly different sizes).

Any thoughts? I'm posting this because I don't think I'll be able to work on it again until Saturday or Sunday, and I might be missing something here... I am relatively new to classic car ownership after all... any/all help is appreciated! Thanks!
 
Dirty or corroded connection somewhere, check the main wires from battery to starter solenoid.
 
Yeah, that would make sense. Forgot about the starter solenoid :). I didn't check the connections when I was there because I didn't have my jack with me, but I'll definitely look at things next time if bypassing the solenoid doesn't work.
 
Clicking is from a low battery, or bad connection....

Make sure you have a good battery, and make sure that all the connections on the positive wire to the starter are good and clean... Take them apart and use a wire brush to clean the crud off them then reconnect them... Do this at the battery, starter relay, and starter connections...
 
Have you taken a breaker bar with socket on the crank bolt and try to rotate the crank back and forth to make sure it's not seized up?
 
So a quick update after too long. I finally pulled the relay and cleaned it up, but that didn't help with anything. Turned the motor with a breaker bar just fine. I then decided to pull the starter out (huge pain in the ***, hooker headers are a ***** to work around), and sure enough the motor power terminal was corroded beyind belief. It looked kinda burnt too, and the starter casing had a small heat mark on it too by the the terminals. I'm going to clean off the terminals and bench test it to make sure it still works before I throw it back in. I'll post another update once more progress has been made. Cheers!
 
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