The Beast won't crank
Thread Starter
Intermediate
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 38
Likes: 0
The Beast won't crank
It's a long story - I was out of town and my '89 Vette was sitting in the garage. My son calls me as says the horn is going off and won't stop. He said it wasn't the alarm because it was just continuos. He tried several things to stop it and finally just disconnected the battery. When I got home I found that the horn had grounded out inside the steering column so I fixed it (it was the plastic retainer ring; it had broken). Now the car won't start, nothing. I get a small click when I turn on the ignition; sounds like it is coming from the driver's side of the engine. Battery checks out; all the lights etc. work. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Pro
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 637
Likes: 0
It's a long story - I was out of town and my '89 Vette was sitting in the garage. My son calls me as says the horn is going off and won't stop. He said it wasn't the alarm because it was just continuos. He tried several things to stop it and finally just disconnected the battery. When I got home I found that the horn had grounded out inside the steering column so I fixed it (it was the plastic retainer ring; it had broken). Now the car won't start, nothing. I get a small click when I turn on the ignition; sounds like it is coming from the driver's side of the engine. Battery checks out; all the lights etc. work. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Le Mans Master
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,386
Likes: 534
Your battery is probably drained to the point that it will run the accessories but isn't strong enough to provide enough power to turn the engine over. Had the same problem with the daily driver a few weeks ago.
Pulled into a parking lot on my lunch break, got food, sat there with the car off but the radio on, went to crank the car and just got a clicking sound. Held the key down out of frustration and I heard the starter sluggishly try to turn the engine over a couple of times before going back to clicking.
New battery and it fired right up.
Pulled into a parking lot on my lunch break, got food, sat there with the car off but the radio on, went to crank the car and just got a clicking sound. Held the key down out of frustration and I heard the starter sluggishly try to turn the engine over a couple of times before going back to clicking.
New battery and it fired right up.
Le Mans Master
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 5,386
Likes: 534
Just taking a swing that it's either a VATS related issue or your starter solenoid itself is toast somehow. Maybe one of our VATS experts can chime in and shed some light on it for you. I've heard it's notorious for leaving owners stranded.
Does the horn still not work? Could need a new relay for the horn, a starter enable relay, various things. Hard to pin point exactly it becomes a process of elimination.
Does the horn still not work? Could need a new relay for the horn, a starter enable relay, various things. Hard to pin point exactly it becomes a process of elimination.
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 54,124
Likes: 30
From: Cincinnati, Oh USA
You might have disconnected a wire or two from the contacts in the ign lock that make connection to key pellet. Pull the kick panel above drivers feet and find the two wires that come down above the steeriing column and go to a 2 pin connector. Unplug, insert ign key and measure the resistance across the two wires from the steering column. It should measure the same as the pellet. If more than 4% error, you need a new ign lock or you need to replace the wire/s onto the pellet contacts on the ign lock.
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