If I run the car for 10 to 15 minutes then shut it off and try to restart, I get nothing. Lights and bells still work but ignition gets nothing. If I put a battery charger on the battery it rejects the charge. The charger makes crazy noises so I disconnect it, and the battery smells like chlorine. 20 minutes later the car will start just fine so I think something is getting hot and shorting out. Tomorrow I am going to throw a new ground cable on the battery. I'm going to check out the posative cable which I believe runs from the battery to the starter. And finally make a ground from the starter to the frame because I'm definately not going to be able to replace the entire ground off the starter. Any Ideas??

 

Also, the battery has a weak charge when I am able to crank the motor again, almost like the alternator wasn't charging it. However, I had a timing light on while the car was running and it said the alt was pumping out 14 volts to the battery. Could the ground on the alt be bad and giving me these headaches?

 

Try using a another battery first. Battery can do some strange things.

 

when things get hot they get high resistance and stop the electricity from flowing....actually the reverse of shorting out....start by cleaning all the grounds and all the wires.....

 

The unofficial solution is the starter harness. I took that guy off and unwrapped the yards of electrical tape to discover a melted sodder job. Since the harness is $90 I will be fixing it in my garage. Three wires all converge to the same connector, tach, neutral safety switch, and ignition switch. The sodder job that was on there melted/cracked so the wires had some play. I think when they heated up they expanded and I lost conductivity hence I could start the car but 10 minutes later if I turned it off and tried to restart I got nothing. Also the harness was danger close to the header so I will also fabricate some sort of shield to keep heet off the wires once I repair them but nothing fancy. Not sure if this will fix it but I feel pretty good about this being my problem.

 

Tracking down a intermittent open circuit is tough, but you have a lot of talent to find it so fast.

 

Hah I started all this grief on monday. The first culprite was a faulty neutral safety switch. The starter harness was the next obstacle. Still 4 days might be fast for electrical, the power locks havent worked in atleast 6 years hah. Either way thanks Pete

 

Evil empire- where is the neutral safety switch located? Any advice on replacement? My car does the same thing, if it heats up and I shut her off, then nothing, at very intermittent times, cools off, she'll start right up.

 

If the neutral safety switch is bad this could be your problem. Try wiggeling the shifter then starting if it works replace the switch, also put it in reverse and see if the reverse lights come on if they don't switch is bad, finally put the car in neutral and try to start it if it starts switch is worn out in the park position. The switch is located on the bottom of the shifter, it looks like a metal half circle with two sets of two wires coming out of it. You can bypass the switch by disconecting both connectors and putting a jumper wire in one of the connectors on the wiring harness. That will make your car think it is in park and hopefully it starts.
If all your other electrical devices work except the starter, I would take the starter harness off, it disconnects on the passenger side of the firewall next to the shiny blower relay, and replace the wires. If everything else works, you know the battery cable is supplying power to the starter and the ignition switch is getting said power. There are 4 sources of power feeding off that one post on the starter so anyone of those 4 wires can be bad and not allowing the car to start. The wires will be taped up real good which means there will be tons of crud/oil taped up real good on those wires. Also the soder holding them all together can crack then heat up and expand cutting off the flow of electricity to certain wires.