so my car ( a 72 Buick skylark) doesn't seem to want to turn over, we put a new starter and ignition switch and it still doesn't seem to want to turn over, could this possibly be the neutral safety switch? looking for any pointers here as we've tried a lot of things and were not sure why it won't start back up. (we had it running before and then later that day it just wouldn't want to start over and have been stuck on this problem for some time.)
any clicking? any lights/radio? I had to replace the plastic tooth brush looking deal in my steering column. But before you tear that apart we need more info...
Hey white72gs455, no clicking at all from the starter as well and nothing else besides turning the key over, the backlights and interior lights work, doesn't have a radio in it yet haha and we actually changed the neutral safety switch ( went to my friends place who had a spare one that they took off a Chevelle I believe and it was a match but did not work to start it back up) so were thinking it might be the wiring somewhere is screwed up.
Get out your voltage tester and see what is going on at the wires down on the starter when you turn the key. If the main line from the battery is giving you full voltage and the small wire on the solenoid is giving voltage (when you turn the key), then something is wrong with the starter. If voltage is not getting there, the problem is somewhere else.
My '64 Skylark did the same thing, I reached under the dash and gently moved the wires around and presto the key worked again! I never did chase that loose wire down, it has been working ever since. The '64 has the ignition key on the dash, your '72 has it on the column so you might not get that lucky? It may be the ignition switch that needs replaced, those are known for going bad once and a while. To check if it will start you can turn the key on and jump the 2 posts on the solenoid to see if you even have power down to the starter. GL Derek
Hey guys! Sorry about the late update busy with school and then Easter break, so we took the starter off and connected it to the battery and it ran, so we're thinking it's the wiring or something along those lines. We did change the ignition switch with one from Napa but still seems to not want to start over.
we were also thinking it was the two wires that go down there instead of the wire coming from the batter as we found out that one still was giving power (with sparks) but it's either the Sparks or the voltage regulator were thinking
How about trying to diagnose it instead of throwing all kinds of parts at it and hoping for the best? Do you own a digital volt/ ohm meter?
Then lets stat at step one- the car does nothing correct? No click, no crank no nothing correct? So check voltage at the battery cable on the starter. Verify you have battery voltage there. Also check, and this is very important, make sure the purple wire is connected to the S terminal on the starter and the yellow wire is connected to the R terminal. The S terminal should be the inside terminal closest to the block. If those wires are reversed, you'll get zip, zero, nada when you try and start the car. If you have the wires on right, you need to check to make sure you have 12v at the purple wire when the key is in the crank position
Thank you good sir i"ll be able to look at it later and I'll tell you what happens tomorrow afternoon after I finish school
Buick64203, thanks btw haha I've been getting a bit more stressed out as its getting closer to grad and I've been wanting to get this baby on the road/road to restoring it and I appreciate that you took the time to help me out here bud.
Looks like the purple wire, which is from the ignition switch is on the wrong terminal. From the pic, it looks like its on the outboard terminal which is the R terminal. Its supposed to be on the "S" terminal. "S" for switch. That why your car wont start. The yellow wire goes on the "R" terminal. That's the bypass for the resistor wire going to the points. The large center terminal should have the battery cable and two fusible links. A fusible link is a piece of wire that burns up if there is a short. There are two- one for the headlights and one for everything else in the car.
Hey! So we redid the wiring to the purple on the S terminal and the yellow and green one (they were tapped up so I assumed they go together) to the R terminal and the battery cable in the middle. There were no fusible links so we're gonna have to get those, and it doesn't seem to have any volts going into it.
Im confused....how did this all start? (no pun intended) Your going to have to investigate this wiring to the starter. Its a possibility that the two taped up wires- the yellow and green could be the fusible links? Which leads to the question- what happened to the wire that went to the R terminal? You might want to unwrap the wiring and take a look see at whats going on. Each fusible link is connected to a thick red wire. One red wire is thicker than the other. The 10 gauge red wire (the thicker of the two) is protected by a 14 gauge brown wire. The 12 gauge red wire (thinner of the two) is protected by a 16 gauge black wire. You can go to any auto parts store and buy fusible links. If you want to replace both you will need 2. Cut the old link off and crimp on the new one. So..... S terminal- purple wire R terminal- yellow wire Large terminal- battery cable and 2 fusible links (14 ga and 16 ga) This is what a 16 gauge fusible link looks like- https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p...-gm-fusible-link-wire-carded-85621/22141316-p
I'm honestly not sure how it was starting before but we had it going with it being in the being on the R terminal, and the green and yellow with the battery wire on the big one, so it seems those were the fusible wires but this whole wiring situation is bad.
Ok, so those two red wires feed power to the car. One of them feeds the headlights, the other feeds everything else. A fusible link is a short piece of wire that is 4 sizes smaller than the wire its attached to. Its meant to burn up if there is a short to protect the circuit. Follow so far? So those two red wires go to the large stud on the starter with a fusible link in between. The yellow wire goes to the R stud and the purple wire goes to the S. The thicker red wire should have a 14 gauge fusible link, the slightly thinner red wire should have a 16 gauge fusible link.
