My 74 has been running fine until last night.
Came back from a ride and turned it off in my driveway.
When I tried to start it a few minutes later, Nothing, No clicks, buzzes or hisses.
I still had full power to the headlights etc just nothing to the starter.
I checked all bat connections and tried again, same result, nothing.
Now I am thinking starter switch or neutral safety switch.
Anyway I went under the hood and pushed on the coil wire and the the leads to the Msd box, Bingo car started when the turned the key.
Now I am not sure if I really did fix something or it was a fluke in the first place, or will I be calling AAA next time I turn it off away from home.

Is there anything I can check to know for sure.


Schoon

 

Seems like a heck of a coincidence that you push on those wires and the car cranks right up. It could have been a connection there that wasn't tight, making proper contact. I bought a '71 Olds 98, f/ a great price, in great shape f/ the 455 engine and TH400 tranny to put in my '62 Ford p/u. The car cut off on me as it was idling, I checked the spark, grounding the coil wire and got nothing. I wiggled the dist. hot wire and ground and it cranked right up. Although the connections appeared to be tight and clean, they were evidently not making a proper connection and the problem never occured again. Go figure. You may need to recheck, tightening and using a multi-meter, and secure your connections, and just wait to see if it happens again. Over the years, I've found things like that can be a "wait and see" situation and sometimes turn into a "process of elimination" thing.
I do realize this post is no tech help to you, but only my experience. Please let us know what turns up w/ this situation. Good Luck w/ it.

 

This really sucks because I will never know when this will happen again.
One thing I am going to try is to replace a battery quick disconect.
Only cost about $6 bucks and it's worth the effort to replace.
Could be it was making enough contact to light the head lights etc but not enough juice to turn the crank.


Schoon

 

Since you mentioned a quick disconnect, I'll relate what I saw on another forum. They had a similar problem and took their disconnect off, cleaned it, and put some NOOX on it. I assumed that was some kind of salve to prevent corrosion and oxidation.

 

ya surely check the safety **** ...and especially the battery.. if lot of rust is there then use bolied water to remove it... and start again... it will help...

 

Schoon, I had the same thing happen with my 82, and found it to be a bad connection in the harness connector located under the hood, near the A/C housing. It is a 6 or 8-wire connector with spade type terminals. (don't remember exactly, but I thought that it was 6) The connector housing is that whiteish plastic that looks like recycled milk jugs. The starter solenoid wire goes through that connector, along with a battery hot wire and a ground wire. The connector housing had deteriorated, and the connections were corroded. Be sure to disconnect the battery before messing with it, because the battery wire and ground wire are real close to each other, and when the connector crumbles, the sparks fly! I found my problem when I tried to reach down to jump the starter directly from the battery cable post to the solenoid "S" terminal. When I moved the harness to try and make some arm room, the two wires mentioned earlier sent up a signal flare! I know that the harness on a 74 is different than on an 82, but that portion may be the same. Could'nt hurt to check... I doubt that the disconnect was the culprit, since you said that the headlights still worked. Battery disconnects usually cut the power to everything, unless it was put in the cable to the starter main hot post.

 

Thanks for the info!

After I replaced the bat cut off switch the problem went away I hope.


Schoon