Oreilly and Autozone can test a customer starter core on their spin up tester. Quick 60 second checks bendix operation and load pull.
I was fighting the same exact issue on my brother in laws truck. After poking my head around for a bit under the hood, I noticed it had not one ground anywhere other than the battery cable. I installed 3 new ground straps. Back of head to firewall, front of heads to chassis on each side. Cured all of his issues. Like everyone else said, check your grounds.
Thanks for all the quick responses. I'll read through all of them today and come up with a plan of attack and then get my son to come over and do the crawling around for me. A quick note; It's pretty much stock 55 Chevy setup, no Ford type relay, main battery negative is hooked to a sanded off bolt hole on front of head that also has a braided body ground wire attached to same spot, also a ground wire from battery post to firewall. I have no faith in the "shop" i took it to to replace the starter, small town, not many options. I'll post back as soon as I run thru the suggestions and may need to post back for some clarification THX again.
Low voltage to the Solenoid can and will cause it to not pull in hard and fast and that causes the contact tips that feed voltage to the actual starter to arc and burn and once that happens the starter gets low voltage or no voltage . I see this frequently on equipmnet were they change the starter but not a weak battery and in short order the new solenoid is now a old or bad one . Toyota fork lifts were weel known for this in the 90's with a very small wire to the S terminal and Key switches that would get resistance across them . His actual starter is likely fine as was Likely the old one its very likely the solenoid circut . If its got a neutral safety switch or a clutch switch or need foot on the brake to start all of that can be a issue . If it clicks but doesnt not spin and there is good voltage to the actual starter lug and a good ground its on the solenoid side most likely . Sure a bad cheap starter could be the issue as well in either the starter or solenoid portion.
HMMMM To make it simple 1st load test the battery and make sure it holds the voltage it should under load . 2nd load test the same battery with the tester on the + cable at the starter the results should be about the same . If not you have a battery cable issue on one of the cables . If its good then the starter its self has good voltage . 3rd check voltage at the S wire at the starter when its not cranking if the voltage drops then you have a issue with the Starting circuit . It can be a bad key swith, neutral switch , clucth pedal switch or brake switch if the car need you to step on the brake that is causing resistance and only giving a click and not pulling the solenoid in properly . the wire need to be correct size and it needs to be checked for resistance to and from all the switches in the circuit . The + going to the what ever feeds the switch needs to be good also . 4th a remote starter switch or just from the starter X to the S terminal ( on a chevy you can do it with a big screw driver in many cases ) will also rule out the S circuit to the starter . if it starts every time with remote switch you have low voltage going to the S terminal likely a wire wiht resistance , bad connection , key switch or power to the key switch . IF its a low voltage click the solenoid new or not can very likely be damaged . if the battery was slow at one point it can also hurt it . Many of the new starters just have a copper contact and can often be smoothed out with a file . If its all good then replace the starter again and be damn sure the battery is passing a load test after sitting a few days . Thats the steps I take at work .
You must use "star washers" under electrical terminals. sanding isn't good enough by itself. If you have 2 ground cables to the same bolt, make sure the Battery ground terminal goes next to the block . Why don't you get a set of jumper cables and connect another parallel ground and another + to the starter. This process is to eliminate or confirm faulty cables. Also you are measuring voltage at the battery, have you measured it at the starter post? Do this before throwing even more parts at it [or returning parts]
Please don’t overlook that the starter itself must have a good ground, just because it’s bolted on doesn’t mean it’s got good contact, painted, corroded surfaces, dissimilar metals, rusty/ dirty bolts,also the correct shouldered bolt makes a difference.
100 Amp, 6/12V Battery Load Tester (harborfreight.com) For $21 you can check a lot of things ( of course there are better brands .) check it a the battery with cables removed and then recheck it at the starter cable post on the starter with cables hoked up . The voltage drop under load should be nearly identical if your loosing much then the cables are not big enough, bad connection at the block or the starter lug , It will also let you check chraging voltage at the battery these days there cheap and every car guy should have one . bottom line eihter the battery is good and passes a load test or it does not and is bad after its been charged . if it fails in a day or so with cables off the battery is bad . if you watch the meter while cranking it will tell you how low your battery drops under starter load and if it drops a lot the battery is bad or to small . I use one every day ( mine draws a bit more load but ) but these work well we have a few in the shop because there cheap . I load test every time I do a PM / service on a machine. If the battery is getting weak It ges changed . often a starter on some equipment is $1200 or more so the battery is the cheap part . If I get a bad starter repair and the $100 batteyr is remotely suspect it gets changed with the starter or there is no warranty on the starter install. a weak battery causes low voltage and high amperage under cranking and this will ruin the starter solenoid and cause the starter to over heat as your basically trying to stall the motor.
This was told to me by an old "trade school" teacher in the 70's We got into a discussion about trunk mounted batteries ,and the need to run a ground cable from the battery up to the starter motor [which was the general consensus] He said the Chassis or Body conducts electricity better than any cable that has voltage drop. So the cables are better to be as short as possible and use star washers at connections. Most manufacturers use a star washer [or captive star washer] for terminals. Go down to your local U-pull and unbolt a few and have a look for yourself. Even now when you buy electrical components with posts ,they normally have star washers The best washer to use is a "Serrated Belleville" washer.
Have you paid. any attention to OEM connections on vehicles built in the last 20 years, I've yet to find tooth washers used on anything since 2000 . bat. cables etc . , personal experience , when I wired my own & others projects since about 1980, I haven't used tooth washers ,& have had no problems with grounds. The OEM's probably used them as a cost cutting device so that during assembly they wouldn't have to clean painted surfaces .
I've always used star washers , and you haven't which means one of us has been lucky . I just went out and checked some of my vehicles. My 2005 Falcon wagon has a star washer on the braided ground wire at the engine [but not at the body end] My 2005 Mustang [FR500C] has serrated Belleville washers on the ground post and a star washer on the starter motor. I cant check my Toyota Hybrid because I need to pull all the rear seat. And I cant check my Italian car without pulling all the plastics and air intake [normal quality control rules don't apply to Italian cars] My 57 Chevy has star washers everywhere [because I installed them myself]
I would not take my rod to a "rod shop" to diagnose a mechanical problem. When I'm not able to diagnose myself I take it to the local mechanic who services all the out of warranty cars in our area. Sometimes you have to remember "it's a car" rather than thinking that it's a rod.
I stopped buying parts store electrics a long time ago. I have been through 4 or 5 auto electric shops in the past 40+ years. I bring in "my" cores and they rebuild those. If the "new" starter even has a 90-day warranty, take it back. But I can see your reluctance. If you have no idea of how old the ignition switch is, replace it or look for a bad connection there. At worst you will wind up with a spare switch.
Going to assume you still have the original 55 key switch. If so, my advice would be to pull it, take off every one of the connections, clean and/or replace them and then put it back. Check the wiring that the conns go to also. I spent about $200. on a new switch, starter, etc. with the start problems and it turned out to be a dirty connection on the original switch. Grrrr.
Kerry, this is not entirely true. I can't speak for 57 model's, but I know for a fact that 55&6 model's have a heavy braided ground from the battery to the firewall attached with a star washer and a heavy braided ground strap from the firewall to the starter and a ground strap from the starter to the frame, attached with star washer's. The reason for the star washer's was for ease of assembly at the factory, so the worker's wouldn't have to scrape the paint at the connection's on the line. After some time, when the connection's went to hell with corrosion, the owner's or mechanic's would then sand to bare metal and reconnect the ground's and then cover them with chassis grease to try to prevent further corrosion. I do agree that star washer's are a good idea for all grounds, regardless of metal condition.
Finally got a helper to give me a hand. To revisit what's happening; starter gives one click when trying to start. Battery voltage is 12.6, voltage at post on starter 12.55. New negative battery cable attached to paint removed front head bolt location and a additional ground strap from that location to radiator support(star washers), wire from negative post cable to firewall. Helper couldn't get the multimeter or remote starter button to the starter post of the solenoid I was able to short across the + post on solenoid to start post, turned over like a champ. So, now I'm guessing ignition switch troubleshooting. Will check + feed to switch and output at starter position and possibly + wire from battery to switch I'll keep ya'll updated. Thx again for the help.
Are the voltage readings taken with the ignition switch in the start position (all your voltage tests should be)? Are these the voltages you see when it only clicks? Did you try to put the positive voltmeter lead on the starter case? You really need to check the voltage at the start post on the starter solenoid. Since a voltmeter draws almost no current you could put a jumper on the terminal and attach it to the positive voltmeter lead. You need to do this before you start looking at the ignition switch.
Since you changed out the starter and battery..id rule those out for now. You cleaned tbe ground and added a ground engine to body..thats good. You haven't mentioned..or ive missed it about the positive battery cable.. I'd look at that cable.. ..it might show a small drop in voltage...but what about resistance? If it's a new offshore cable..id be very leery. Offshore battery cables are suspect till proven otherwise in my opinion. Look at new offshore jumper cables...they hardly work. All they do is get hot. In my opinion..the positive cable having a lot of internal resistance would do what you're experiencing. You need a "jump" from a charger to add extra amps to overcome that resistance. Could be the switch too...but I'd start with that cable.
My 62 Bel Air does something similar sometimes. I turn the key to start and nothing happens. No click, nothing. with the key on I use a screwdriver and jump the solenoid and it starts. Usually it doesn't reoccur for a while. I'm pretty sure it's an intermittent connection issue with my stock harness, likely related to the plugs on the rear of the fuse panel. I've done a bunch of things but have never been able to cure it. My dad's 64 Impala SS (same harness design) does the same occasionally as well.
On any of the bulkhead connectors or ignition switch terminals, try cleaning with some DeOxit D5 contact cleaner. Used as directed, this stuff can be nearly miraculous.
You need 3 ground straps , eng to frame, body to frame, and body to engine, ground everything to everything and be sure your straps are metal to metal.
Yep….I recently found out if they are all there but not good enough connection (resistance), the emergency cable will become the dash/body ground…..and that’s not good.
I had simalar troubles with my truck a couple of times last year. I checked the starter 1st and the wires seemed clean and tight. I reached under the dash and tried to wiggle wires there and everything seemed tight. Tried it again and it started. It had a universal, blister-pac switch with several years on it so I got a new one (Cole-Hersee) and put it in. It seemed to fix it. We'll see. Gary
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