Starter "Click" '73
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Joined: Oct 2013
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Starter "Click" '73
My corvette won't start and just makes a loud single click... pointing to either a bad cable connection, bad solenoid, bad starter motor, or cable corrosion.
I just put in a new engine wiring harness, new battery and brand new starter motor/solenoid.
I jumped a positive wire from the battery to the starter solenoid and it still clicked once (My thoughts were that eliminated the wiring corrosion or bad cable connection problems)
I dropped the starter and jumped it with a different battery and it spun just fine (although with no load, it seemed to eliminate the bad starter motor and solenoid).
I also took Ohm readings to check the grounds from the engine to frame and battery to frame, and the positive at the battery and at the starter... all wiring seems good.
Any thoughts on what might be bad? I am not sure what else to test...
I just put in a new engine wiring harness, new battery and brand new starter motor/solenoid.
I jumped a positive wire from the battery to the starter solenoid and it still clicked once (My thoughts were that eliminated the wiring corrosion or bad cable connection problems)
I dropped the starter and jumped it with a different battery and it spun just fine (although with no load, it seemed to eliminate the bad starter motor and solenoid).
I also took Ohm readings to check the grounds from the engine to frame and battery to frame, and the positive at the battery and at the starter... all wiring seems good.
Any thoughts on what might be bad? I am not sure what else to test...
Team Owner
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 37,637
Likes: 3,118
From: Crossville TN
Try this:
Turn on your headlights (such that you can see that they are on, ie, inside the garage or facing something reflective). Now try to start the car and look to see if the headlights go dim or stay bright. If the headlights go dim, then there is a problem with your wiring passing adequate current to the starter, etc.
You mentioned changing the engine harness, but the main power wiring for the starter is the positive cable from the battery (via the tranmission tunnel) to the starter solenoid AND ground connection via the negative cable from battery to frame (directly under the battery compartment) and from the frame to the starter at the right-side motor mount area.
If any of that wiring has degraded internally so that it has little current carrying capability left, it doesn't matter how good the battery is, the starter won't get enough juice to crank the engine over.
If, when you do this test, the headlights stay bright but the solenoid still only 'clicks', there is some other fault with the starter hardware or its installation.
P.S. An ohmmeter can only indicate whether there is an electrical connection between two 'things'. It cannot tell you whether that connection can carry any significant amount of current.
Turn on your headlights (such that you can see that they are on, ie, inside the garage or facing something reflective). Now try to start the car and look to see if the headlights go dim or stay bright. If the headlights go dim, then there is a problem with your wiring passing adequate current to the starter, etc.
You mentioned changing the engine harness, but the main power wiring for the starter is the positive cable from the battery (via the tranmission tunnel) to the starter solenoid AND ground connection via the negative cable from battery to frame (directly under the battery compartment) and from the frame to the starter at the right-side motor mount area.
If any of that wiring has degraded internally so that it has little current carrying capability left, it doesn't matter how good the battery is, the starter won't get enough juice to crank the engine over.
If, when you do this test, the headlights stay bright but the solenoid still only 'clicks', there is some other fault with the starter hardware or its installation.
P.S. An ohmmeter can only indicate whether there is an electrical connection between two 'things'. It cannot tell you whether that connection can carry any significant amount of current.
Last edited by 7T1vette; Oct 9, 2013 at 09:39 PM.
