So my grandma calls and says her car won't start. The first thing I check is the fuses, found a ton of blown ones that fixes issues she'd be having that she hadn't told anyone about, but still no start. Next I try crossing the terminals on the starter. Starts the first time, so the starter motor is fine. Where should I go from here? Is there a relay I should check out?

When the key is turned, all the lights come on, there's no click, but no juice goes to the starter. Previously the contact on her transmission had been getting shitty where she'd have to push the shifter all the way into park to be able to turn the key. Could this be the contact just finally falling off? I'll have to get the console apart tomorrow, just wondering what to check first to eliminate wasted time.

5/31/2006 6:11:40 PM

Try cranking the motherfucker in neutral. If it cranks, then the neutral safety switch has shit the bed.

But check under the car to see if it's on the transmission first. It would suck dog balls to find out that you didn't need to remove the console AFTER you removed it...

5/31/2006 8:46:20 PM

first, check the battery ground. make sure it's clean and tight on both ends. i've seen it before where the ground would allow just enough current through to allow the accessories to work but wouldn't provide a good enough ground for the amps a starter will pull.

5/31/2006 10:42:11 PM

he already got it to start, stupid

5/31/2006 11:53:12 PM

What does this switch look like and where should I look for it?

6/1/2006 3:10:40 AM

dont look for anything until you find out will it start in neutral

6/1/2006 3:45:02 AM

nothin

6/1/2006 11:08:14 AM

Quote :

"he already got it to start, stupid"

i read that you asshair. i gathered that he jumped the car off directly at the starter which if he did, then the problem could still be a loose or corroded ground wire.

6/1/2006 11:33:11 AM

not much to those, purple wire from the ignition switch to the nuetral safety, blue with green tracer from nuetral safety to solniod, i have seen a lot of igntion switches go bad on those

the nutral safety switch is on the side of the shifter, not hard to get to, try to crank it test for voltage on the purple wire, if you have it there, check on the blue wire, if not you probably have a bad ignition switch, if you have it on the purple but not the blue, then you have a bad or out of adjustment nuetral switch



[Edited on June 1, 2006 at 5:59 PM. Reason : blah]

6/1/2006 5:39:05 PM

not the neutral switch or ground

6/1/2006 8:20:51 PM

explain, did you have voltage coming out of the switch on the blue wire?

6/1/2006 9:03:51 PM

the car would not start in neutral and no grounds were loose.

6/2/2006 10:11:10 AM

did you take the console out, pull the plug off the nuetral switch, and cheack to see if there is voltage from the ignition switch, then connect it and check to see if the switch is working, and then cheack at the starter terminal to see if a full 12+ volts is getting through? if not then you are just pissin in the wind, if that is fine, then you need to check battery voltage at the main starter terminal to the negative battery terminal, see if it has 12v and at least 11v cranking, if not, then check the battery terminals when cranking, if low voltage there, you have a bad connection at the battery. if you check from the engine block to the positive termminal, and have normal voltage you have a bad positive cable, if you have low voltage from the engine block to the positive terminal and the first test was ok, you have a bad ground cable, its not that hard to troubleshoot at all, if everything checks ok, you have bad contacts in the starter

6/3/2006 10:39:08 PM