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Starter Crap.....67 289...

AzPete

AzPete

Well-Known Member
..in a 64.5 Vert. Went to start the car after getting everything back together and the starter stayed engaged. Key turns but does not shut off car. Pulling battery cable to shut off. Once the starter is engaged, it does not disengage until the battery cable is pulled. Replaced starter solenoid, no change. Ign. switch seemed to test good.

At what point does the starter solenoid disengage the starter from the motor? I am drawing a blank on this for some reason.....

This came about out of the blue. Been working great up until now....
 
"Substantial Penalty For Early Withdrawl". *LOL*

The signal for withdrawing the bendix comes from the red/blue wire at the starter solenoid. Since you replaced the starter solenoid and the ignition switch, it seems the only thing left is the starter itself: a bad bendix motor. Try whacking it with a broom handle.
 
I tried the hammer to the side of the starter too. If I disconnect the starter, the solenoid still engages but does not disengage until I remove the battery cable. Did not replace ign. switch. Removed and it seemed to test good.

I can jump the solenoid under the hood and the car starts, no matter what position the key is in but the starter stays engaged, keeping the engine running based on the coil voltage for start.
 
Almost sounds like the starter signal is joined to the run/coil line. Did you jiggle any of the wires underneath the dash? I told you not to do that!

You can crank the car with the key out, but can you keep it running with the key off and the starter no longer hot-wired?
 
Key makes no difference. Start car with key. Starter stays engaged. Turn key to off and remove. Cars stays running with starter remaining engaged. Pull battery cable to stop everything.

I disconnected the starter cable from the solenoid. If I jumper the solenoid as if to crank the car with out the key, the starter solenoid does not disengage. That only happens when the battery cable is disconnected. I replaced the solenoid with the same results.

The only thing done between when the car last started correct and this problem was an r&r of the intake & dist. I checked for any pinched wires and find none. Ign. is elec. type dist. with one way plug for disconnect.

Coil has hot wire from choke to positive side plus wire from under dash to positive side. It also has the normal red and green for the dist electronics. None of this was really changed. Just one wire removed for easy working room.

We do have a new switch available but the old one ohm checked good, especially the start position.

My question is why won't the solenoid disengage when the key is released or the jumper is removed. Only way is to remove the battery cable from the battery...........
 
That's a head-scratcher, all right. I'm thinking that the bendix is bound up somehow when engaged and can only release when the engine stops turning.
 
That is where I am at too. Going to pull the starter next time and bench check it.

Does the signal for the solenoid to release come from the key being placed from start to run? That is one part I don't see related to the starter unless I am missing something.
 
Yes. When you turn the key from Start to Run, it grounds the signal to the S terminal, which should cause the solenoid to stop the relay to the starter.
 
No mini starter that I know of...

Next time I work on this, I am going to start the car normally. Once running, I will pull the wire from the S terminal on the solenoid and see if a, the starter disengages ann b), the car stays running. If that works,,,,I am thinking the switch might be bad or the wire to S is damaged.....
 
Smack the solenoid with a screw driver or something when it's sticking.

I've had the problem twice and it was the solenoid both times. Spend the extra dough and get the good motorcraft one.
 
I damn near put it thru the inner fender last time........could still have gotten another bad one......
 
Just as a finalization for this, I found some bad wiring from a guy that wired in the neutral safety switch. It was some how crossed to the low voltage wiring for the coil and this kept the solenoid engaged. Fixed the twist and tape job and all is good.
 
So this episode was just a coincidence? The wires just happend to mess up after you did all this work? How did you find this out? did you trace it to the neutral safety switch?
This is good learning stuff/troubleshooting! :pop
dne'
 
The possibility of us moving the wires while working on the car was slim. The problem area was under the passenger side shock tower brace and we had no need to be in that area. After two solenoids acted the same by having to disconnect the battery to get it to dis-engage, I started checking more things with a meter. I found there was a solid 12 volts on the red/blue (front most small wire on the sol.) with the key in the start position, but it had 5 volts still present in the run position. The only place this voltage could come from is the resistor wire to the coil. I just started back tracking the wires and when I got to the area where a transmission guy had wired in a neutral safety switch, I discovered a twist and tape type spice. As I moved it, the 5 volts came and went from the previous discussed wire. I did a better splice there and from that change, I could not get the 5 volts to re-appear so I put things back together and it is still going strong. The key to me was the odd 5 volt reading in the wrong place.
 
Way to go!

Cool! :cool feels good finding things yourself! Good job :pep!!
dne'
 
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