Faulty starter solenoid killing car?
I drove to school to pick up my daughter and turned off the car. Daughter hopped in and I turned the key. Started for literally a second and then nada, like dead. No lights, no nothing. I got my daughter taken care of and started troubleshooting in the school parking lot. Last thing I did was pull the cluster to take a look at the speedometer. I thought maybe I put something back wrong, though there's not much on it.
Disconnected the battery, pulled the cluster, reseated everything and sprayed it with contact cleaner. Put it all back together and connected the battery. Boom. Started right up. Shut it down again to put all my tools away. Stowed everything, hopped back in the car and nothing. WTF? I pulled it all again and started checking with a multimeter. Started at the battery.
12V at the battery.
12V at the starter.
2V at the 12V fuse. ??
2V at the ammeter. ??
2V at the alternator. ??
Checked the wiring diagram. Started running the components. The horn works, but nothing else. Found that if I disconnect and reconnect the yellow wire at the starter solenoid, I get 12V again. Tried staring, same thing. Once the key goes to run, it drops to 2V. Disconnected and reconnected again. 12V, started right up. Thought I should get it home while the gettin' was good. Was sitting a red light, car dies. Same thing. I managed to hop out, pop the hood, reseat the yellow wire and restart the car all before the light turned green. Gave thumbs up to the driver behind me and got home.
So is the solenoid what's killing the entire car or am I barking up the wrong tree? It's a 1964 Barracuda, but it has a 1973 225ci slant 6 installed.
I drove to school to pick up my daughter and turned off the car. Daughter hopped in and I turned the key. Started for literally a second and then nada, like dead. No lights, no nothing. I got my daughter taken care of and started troubleshooting in the school parking lot. Last thing I did was pull the cluster to take a look at the speedometer. I thought maybe I put something back wrong, though there's not much on it.
Disconnected the battery, pulled the cluster, reseated everything and sprayed it with contact cleaner. Put it all back together and connected the battery. Boom. Started right up. Shut it down again to put all my tools away. Stowed everything, hopped back in the car and nothing. WTF? I pulled it all again and started checking with a multimeter. Started at the battery.
12V at the battery.
12V at the starter.
2V at the 12V fuse. ??
2V at the ammeter. ??
2V at the alternator. ??
Checked the wiring diagram. Started running the components. The horn works, but nothing else. Found that if I disconnect and reconnect the yellow wire at the starter solenoid, I get 12V again. Tried staring, same thing. Once the key goes to run, it drops to 2V. Disconnected and reconnected again. 12V, started right up. Thought I should get it home while the gettin' was good. Was sitting a red light, car dies. Same thing. I managed to hop out, pop the hood, reseat the yellow wire and restart the car all before the light turned green. Gave thumbs up to the driver behind me and got home.
So is the solenoid what's killing the entire car or am I barking up the wrong tree? It's a 1964 Barracuda, but it has a 1973 225ci slant 6 installed.