My 77 the battery was a little low from not driving it so I used a jump box to start. Took it for a 45 min ride showed it was charging got to the gas station filled her up and when I got in it would do nothing when I turned the key no clicking just nothing.The horn, radio, lights etc would work but nothing when I turned the key. I took the battery out and Advanced Auto told me it was bad just bought it last year. They adjusted the cost and sold me another one. Installed it and it started right up. a few days later went for another ride it started up right away but when I stopped after maybe 20 min went into the store for about 5 min. came out and the same thing again. Checked all my wires to battery and starter after about 15 min is started up. Nothing like have a Great looking Vette that everyone stops and looks at and comments on to not start.

 

Possible heat soak on the starter solenoid-common problem. If you want to find out for sure set up a temporary test light that will show if power is getting to the purple wire at the solenoid.When the car wont start look at test light ,if light is on meaning purple is hot then replace solenoid.

 

is your alternator charging? when i first got my vette i was detailing the engine and i pulled the alt plug. drove the car that night and noticed that things werent as they seemed. stopped at my buddies house to get him and came out to nothing! only the interior lights thats it. come to find out i hadnt plugged the alt back in.

 

Car is charging fine when it starts is starts up fine but then there is nothing and I mean nothing. Sometime when a battery is low you will hear the solenoid clicking mine is nothing. I will check the heat thing and hope it is as simple as the solenoid.
Thanks

 

Here's another idea because the same thing happened to me. Use a flashlight and visually check all battery connections for tightness. In my case the connection at the battery looked and felt tight because of the strong cable - but, the cable was not firmly seated on the battery post. Also,make sure you have enough cranking and storage amps - if not on short trips the alternator doesn't have enough time to charge thus no starting.

 

You said you had the battery checked at Advance, did you take the whole car there after the new battery was installed? I would do that and let them check the charging system, since it doesnt' cost you a dime.

 

I checked the charging system it is up to par and a new battery.

 

I have the same exact problem...... 99% of the people that i asked and even here in covette forum told me that its the starter.... Starter gets hot and it shuts. I guess its its everthing its old and too much heat. Let know know how it goes if u change your starter. Im goin to change my starter this week or next week.

Get a heat shield for your starter that should help a bit.

 

you should check some current cranking issues on this same forum, you may save youself some money by just cleaning up y7our grounds.....:

 

I have checked all the connection and cleaned them all also I wish it was that simple. It might be the solenoid that seems to be a good starting point. I did change the type exhaust manifolds to a 96 LT1 type but it still is clear from the starter. so it should not be a heat problem.

 

I have been dealing with a similiar problem. What I think happened to me is that with all the rootcausing of my alternator (which was bad) I still had a no start issue- no clicking- nothing I had drained the battery down to nothing. I would put jumper cables on it and she would fire right up- the next day nothing. Finally, I put a trickle charger on my battery overnight and now everything is fine. What I was told is that a battery can read the proper volts but not put out enough amps if the battery has been drained down and not properly re-charged.

Not sure if battteries when bought new are completly charged up or not- but I would give it a try.


Darrel1

 

I'm not sure I am buying heat-soak on this one. I am sure that the heat has something to do with the problem you are having, but I think it is an aggravating factor and not the root cause. A '77 small block with 8-1 compression uses the same M-10 starter as a '70 big block with 10.25 compression. You would have a hard time convincing me that the '77 gets the starter motor any hotter than the one in my car gets, and I think it would be impossible for you to convince me that it is harder to turn over your car than mine when the engines are hot. Given that, and assuming that you don't have some major set-up issue actively causing a heat problem, there is either a bad connection somewhere or your starter motor is weak.

I went through this last year when I bought my car, and the first thing I did was to test all the connections and clear the grounds, this made no difference. At the same time, I was fighting a minimal overtemperature problem when I realized that my car was missing the chin spoiler. I put a stock one back on and the problem improved, but didn't go away. The hotter you get the starter, the more some bad connection is going to reduce the cranking amps to your starter, so making sure that your operating temperature is good is important. Since I still had the problem, only to a lesser degree, I changed some nasty looking wires going to the starter, but the problem persisted. While changing the wires, I noticed that two of the posts on the solenoid were loose, so I tried to tighten them, but one never really made me happy. Since the problem was still there, I elected to change the solenoid, not because it wasn't working, but because I was not confident I was getting good connection. As soon as the new solenoid was in, the problem disappeared.

A heat shield is a fine idea, and certainly won't hurt anything, but my money is on an iffy connection somewhere in the system.

 

I believe there are 2 "heat soaks"
The one when the engine turns very slowly when hot and the one that you dont get even a click from the starter.
The first one --slow turning I believe is as Ironcross says its poor connections-wires,bad grounds and etc that is not supplying the starter with the needed amperage.\

The second one when you dont get even a click is when the solenoid fails to make a connection inside of itself. This one is just a bad solenoid that shows up as being bad only when hot.

 

I'll buy this. On a really hot day, when my engine gets about as hot as it gets, the starter turns the motor very slowly at first, but gains speed in a second or two and starts the engine normally. I am told this is normal for big blocks. Ironcross also has some higher compression motors than mine knocking around his garage, so if his starters are a little more balky than mine in August I am really not surprised.

I can't picture in my head why higher temp would cause a bad connection inside the solenoid, since metal things normally expand at higher temperature which would normally make contact more secure rather than less, but higher temp would increase resistance and thereby lower amperage.

Regardless, if I was in the OP's position, and I was sure my wiring was right and my battery was fully charged, I would get to the local auto parts store and get a starter and solenoid. Re-man ones can be had for about $50 near me, and it takes me more time to get the car up on the jack stand the way I want than it does to change out the starter, and I am not a fast mechanic. If the problem is solved, all is well. If not, I would switch them back out, return the starter and begin to focus on the ignition switch/purple wire.

 

What about the neutral safety switch????

 

Posted this before recently.

This is a condition where it will start cold and not click when hot.
A simple test, it will start usually with the terminals shorted out with a screwdriver at the starter and make you think you don't have enough juice on the purple wire. Either get a new solenoid or this repair and test for amperage in addition to voltage at the starter.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/1570119540-post12.html