old68

uuggh, I was going to put a new starter in, but my buddys lift is tied up for a few weeks, so my wife books my car for a wedding, ( its a long story) this Sat, so I bite the bullet and take it to a local mechanic, we live rural, so the choice is between dumb and dumber, but I figure its just a starter , what could go wrong , it takes the guy 2 hrs and now the starter fires intermittently , sometimes it cranks, sometimes nothing, guys says he bench tested it and it works,

any ideas on what could be wrong?? he says wires are tight, I am so friggin pissed

65 327 roadster

Bluestripe67

Start by making sure the tight cables are CLEAN and check the actual connectors. Next, if it's not a Delco rebuilt unit, the quality of the rebuild (solenoid in particular) may be in question. Dennis

Nowhere Man

When it sometime doesn't fire did you check with a test light to see if there is power getting there?

Tampa Jerry

Just for fun, check the red wire that goes to through your firewall. It feeds the starter circuit through the switch. Much has been posted about this. Good luck. Jerry

Bowtyeguy

Did you put the whole starter in with a solenoid or just the starter motor?

Plasticman

Why were you going to change the starter in the first place (what issues were you having that led you to do that)?

If the same issue before and after, it probably is not the starter........

Plasticman

GTOguy

What Plasticman said. I know I've never changed a starter just for the hell of it.

Frankie the Fink

Guess I'm old school; just have the bride and groom push the car at the wedding and pop the clutch and it'll start; you can drive them around afterwards and it'll make a great story and pics for the wedding album.

I'm just sayin'

rtruman

old68

thanks for the help I swapped the whole starter, figured the part was cheap, the old one was occasionally making a grinding sound, so I was worried about the flywheel and potential reliability issues in the future, now the starter only occasionally cranks and is mostly dead, the new starter seems very strong when it does crank, so it would seem hard to believe its an intermittent solenoid problem, I hope the idiot didnt disconnect some wiring

old68

could it be my ignition switch?? if I keep turning the key eventually it fires, if the starter solenoid was bad I doubt it would fire at all, any ideas?

GTOguy

It could easily be the switch, or the wire that goes from the switch to the starter solenoid. A very common problem on early GTO's. Most 'no click, no start' issues lead back to high resistance in this wire. You will need a DVOM and some diagnostic skills to perform some voltage drop tests on the circuit. If out of your comfort zone, a competent mechanic. Could be the new starter, but you have to determine if you are getting enough current TO the starter before you condemn it. The circuit provides the current. A lot of old wiring will have enough resistance to pass voltage, but won't carry the current needed to activate the solenoid or other load.

leif.anderson93

OP hasn't addressed question posed in post #5 yet. Sounds like a bad solenoid to me

old68

see if that works,

does anyone know where to get the the electrical starter switch behind the key? no one seems to carry one for a 65?

GTOguy

If you jump the starter at the solenoid next time it doesn't crank, and it cranks, you can eliminate the starter and solenoid and go after the switch/wiring. Easy, bulletproof test to do.

rnixon

Check the spade connector on the ignition switch, if it's loose [common problem ] disassemble the switch, re-stake the connector and clean the internal contacts, its an easy fix

DONR

I just got through changing out my starter on my 66. The wires down at the starter was pretty brittle. I soldered new terminals on the wires.
If the starter worked ok, but was making a little noise I would check the wires at the starter.

buns

They are hard to find. There is one on E-Bay for $140.00. Save your money and check for power at the purple wire (S terminal) on the solenoid.

davekp78

What makes the '65 switch unique?