No power to the starter

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Caddguy

Caddguy

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Due to getting married and having to buy a new car my '74 Swinger w/360 has sit for about 5 months. I went out to start it a month ago and all the warning lights came on and the buzzer buzzed but when I went to crank the starter nothing. No click, no tap just nothing. Thinking that there was not enough juice in the battery I tried to jump it with my other car and still nothing. Every thing else works (Headlamps, tail lights, etc) but not a drop of power to the starter. The first thought I had was a critter had decided to make a meal out of some tasty wire so I did a once over looking for any wires that might have been munched on but everything looked normal. I dont know where to go from here and I am looking for help. Has anyone else had this issue and if so what was the fix?

Thanks!!

Edward
 
Sounds like bad neutral safety switch try moving shifter neutral see if it starts. If not jump across relay see if it starts.
 
Neutral start switch? Can you jump the starter at the relay box on the firewall?

Rats...67cudafb just beat me!
 
Have you tried to jump across the solenoid at the fenderwell? Sometimes if they sit-they stick.
 
74 model has a seatbelt interlock also. Buckle the seatbelts and see if it starts
 
Put it in park, try neutral also.
Hell turn the key and hold it there while you move the shifter back and forth through the gears.
 
Thanks for all the tips! I did try to put it in neutral and start it that way but did not work also. The seat belt safety switch has been disabled before I got it. The starter did bump when I crossed the solenoid terminals last night so I went out and bought a new battery, neutral cable for the battery (the clamp broke on the old one) and a new starter solenoid this morning. Threw everything in thinking that had to fix it but nope. Now I still get headlights, tail/brake lights and dome light but nothing else. The turn signals, key warning buzzer, oil/temp/bat lights, every thing that should come on when you turn the key doesn't. So I am back to square one trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Thanks again for all the advise.

Edward
 
the starter relay has to see a ground whether it be through the seat belt interlock or through the neutral safety switch and/or both . because your interlock has been disabled, the power/ground is going around it to the NSS. if the trans connection is loose or grimed up, or the switch is bad , you will lose you ground / power through it. find the connector in the engine harness at the firewall that leads to the switch at the trans. unplug it at the firewall and temporarily jump it with a piece of wire and see if it turns over at the key. show us a pic of your relay and the interlock bypass.

can you turn the key in the run position and start the car by jumping it at the relay?


you will get more thoughts and suggestions but i would start here. i had the same problem and in 10 minutes i had it fixed by grounding the starter relay
 
Caddguy said:
Thanks for all the tips! I did try to put it in neutral and start it that way but did not work also. The seat belt safety switch has been disabled before I got it. The starter did bump when I crossed the solenoid terminals last night so I went out and bought a new battery, neutral cable for the battery (the clamp broke on the old one) and a new starter solenoid this morning. Threw everything in thinking that had to fix it but nope. Now I still get headlights, tail/brake lights and dome light but nothing else. The turn signals, key warning buzzer, oil/temp/bat lights, every thing that should come on when you turn the key doesn't. So I am back to square one trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Thanks again for all the advise.

Edward
Click to expand...



You have several main branches supplied by the battery to the interior of the car

1. Fuse panel "hot" buss. This is the stuff such as tail lights that work with the key off

2 Fuse panel Accessory buss. This is the stuff, like heater, radio, that is switched and must have the key in "run" or "acc" to operate

3 Other. This is stuff that is not fed from the fuse panel, such as headlights, which come off of what is known as the "in harness splice." This is a factory, welded splice, a few inches down from the black ammeter wire, which feeds

headlights ONLY (not tail or park)

the fuse panel "hot" buss

the IGN switch main feed

couple of other things depending on model.

This is starting to sound like somethng major, such as bulkhead connector, ammeter, or the factory splice

First thing I would do is get up under the column--remove the small trim under it if necessary--so that you can access the igntion switch connector. You should then be able to probe the connector and determine

IF you have power INTO the switch

IF you have power coming out of the switch

Bear in mind that you actually have several switches inside the housing that we call the "switch"

Power INTO switch is #12 RED

1 ACCESSORY. hot in either accessory or "run" # 12 BLACK

2 "ignition run" or IGN1 Hot ONLY in "run" NOT start DARK BLUE

3 "start" feeds power to starter relay via the seat belt relay, hot ONLY in start YELLOW

4 "bypass" or IGN2 feeds power to ignition during start, hot only in start BROWN

ALSO when you say the seat belt interlock was disabled, this SHOULD have been done out at the reset relay in the engine bay. There is two yellow/ yellow tracer wires which should be jumpered together.

The MAD article here has a simplified drawing of the main path:

http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

The splice does not fail often, but it CAN and HAS:

amp-ga18.jpg
 
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