Hello all. New guy question here.

My 1960 starter was not working properly when I bought the car this year. At times, the starter drive would not fully engage. It made a grinding sound and needed to be replaced.

I bought a new starter and installed. The horrible sound was gone but there was a new, intermittent issue. The starter would periodically ‘click’ when the ignition was turned to the far right to start the car. This happened every third or fourth time then more often until it was all the time. This took about two weeks until it stopped working.

I returned the starter and it was replaced (with a third). The newest starter is doing the same thing. It will not start at all and only ‘clicks’ when the ignition switch is turned fully to the right. It never started the car. It only clicked. I’m wondering if the starter is the issue.

I tested the battery and it has 12.8v and under load reads ‘good’ although, the needle drops in to the yellow zone slightly after 5-10 seconds.

I checked the voltage at the R terminal when the ignition is turned fully to the right and it reads 5.6v. I thought I read somewhere it had to be 10v minimum.

I'm reading the wiring diagram in the Corvette Servicing Guide and see there is a resistor in line with the green wire coming from the ‘C’ (same as R?) post on the solenoid. Although, the resistor down stream from the battery and starter.

Several questions arise:

1- is this the white “ballast resistor”?
2- would the resistor, if faulty, cause the clicking problem?
3- does the R post need 10v to turn the engine over?
4- any other thoughts to solve the clicking starter?

I suppose the third starter could have a similar problem as the second, but that seems remote. It is also possible the battery doesn’t have the life and I will replace if nothing else arises.



Thanks to all who reply.

Daryl

 

A simple "click" when you turn the key to START is consistent with the symptom of a poor electrical connection.

It might be time and effort well spent to clean every electric connection between battery and starter (including the ground path) and verify that all are tight.

 

You are checking the wrong starter terminal. The R is a ballast by-pass circuit, the one you should test is the inside 'S' terminal. Since you are getting low voltage at the R terminal, do what Jim suggests first.
One quick test I do is turn the headlights on and have someone turn the key to start. If the headlights stay bright then it could be the ignition switch or wiring, purple wire, or bad starter. If the lights go out completely, then more than likely a bad battery connection or bad battery. If they dim it is probably a low battery charge.

 

Thanks fellows. I disconnected the S terminal and jumped it to the battery. It turns over with vigour. Looks like I’m following the wire looking for trouble. Oh well, nice this happened at the end of the season!

 

2
MelWff's Avatar
MelWff , Today 04:25 PM
Race Director
[img]/forums/images/ranks/7k-10k.gif[/img]
Have you bench tested the starter?
Have you determined if the starter has to be shimmed?
#3
vettebuyer6369's Avatar
vettebuyer6369 , Today 07:41 PM
Administrator
Looks like a duplicate


Melwff - I did and it spins fine.

vettebuyer6369 - sorry. Couldn’t figure out how to delete the first post.

 

MelWff - starter had a shim when I bought the car. I just put it in with the new starter.

 

Easy way to check for a defective relay.

Just swap it with and exact relay that resides in the fuse box and then retry. If it works, all is OK, if not then put the relays back where they came from and keep troubleshooting.

 

Old thread. Closed.