I need some help trying to figure out an issue with my starter.. let me start from the beginning. Back in November at a car show my car stalled and when I went to start it.. cranked it a couple times…after a few cranks.. then I had nothing.. no starter noise …nothing.. I figured I overheated the stock starter on my 350 V-8 Vega…..its happened before.. I wrapped the starter back then and never had a problem until then… so waited awhile to cool off and still nothing 6 hours later … so push started the car and drove home and put in garage..
I then ordered a new Summit 4 HP mini racing high heat starter…a new battery, and a 100 Amp chrome alternator put those on , also wrapped the starter anyway with heat wrap.. tested the starter to make sure it was engaging by jumping it.. ok.. fine.. put everything back together and went to start the car.. nothing.. what disappointment.. I then called and spoke to someone and they said did I check the fuse on the starter relay??? Hmmm so I took the little 3 amp fuse out and put a new one in and viola! It cranked right over.. what did I learn.. after spending $600 I should of checked the fuse first.. but not complaining.. I got a better setup now.. so drove it several times , no issues…..
Two weeks ago went to a car show, came home and shut the car off to pull it in the garage… when I went to restart , same damn thing..,,nothing well 1st thing I went and did was go and replace that fuse… nothing.. still not working .. now I’m stumped.. there’s a problem here and I cant seem to figure it out.
I checked the starter…its engaging… or will engage.. I also checked the continuity at the starter relay.. I have good continuity at each of the three connections that attach to the relay…. (I assume these come from the starter)..
Heres a pic of the so called fuse
http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/9310 ... 001np7.jpg
initially there was a 3 amp fuse in there… does that sound right.? I question now whether this fuse has anything to do with the starter relay.. read on
http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/8376 ... 002ia7.jpg
I checked the continuity at all three wires that connect to the starter relay, its good….I also checked the continuity across the poles of the fuse link.. ok good.. I then checked the continuety to see if I got power out of the relay by removing the plugs on the bottom, there are two.. and checked with key off ..nothing….key on …nothing and key in starting position…nothing….
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/8930 ... 003pr3.jpg
Does this mean the relay is bad.. I was told the relay has nothing to do with starting the car… but if the circuit is closed,, then oviously it wont work.. it says that in the shop manual anyway… cause I am assuming the signal coming out of the relay goes to the ignition switch on the steering column.. I went ahead and bought one of those.., do I really have to drop the column to put that one..?? no way to put it on on the column as is? How can I test that.?
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/198/ ... 004pg9.jpg
Ok heres where I am confused., I unravelled some of the wire from the fuse.. Im not sure this fuse has anything to do with the starter relay and little confused.. maybe someone can shed some light on this.. the black wire from the fuse goes into some kinda bigger wire looks like a spark plug wire.. that goes under the car.. theres a red wire from the line locks that also goes into that wire but splits off and half goes in the dash and the other half in the wire..
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/8991 ... 005gv3.jpg
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/4500 ... 006hu2.jpg
this then goes under the car and goes into the shifter.. when it comes out its in form of speaker looking wire.. the kind of wire that you hook speakers up with..????? but goes up to the shifter.. for the line locks button on the shifter I assume.
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/9243 ... 007zb4.jpg
If that’s the case, then the fuse isnt anything to do with the relay… why then is it attached to the starter relay and why did it start the car when I replaced the fuse the first time? Any comments greatly appreciated.. just trying to figure out what it is I ma having a problem with..
Also one more question.. in the pic below.. I noticed one of the linkages the arm is threaded way out.. this doesn’t look right.. is there a reason for this?
http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1442 ... 008jj7.jpg