My 69 imperial will not crank over. It has been sitting for about a year without me starting it up. Normally it cranks right over and no problems. Today was different. I have a fresh charged battery as I confirmed this by firing up my 73 Imperial right up using same battery. The 73 sat for about a year also. All the 69 does when you turn the key is it makes a sound like "boing, boing, boing" every time you turn key to start it. Starter does not turn over. I tried moving the column shifter many, many times to see if safety switch was disengaged so it will start in either P or N. No luck. I did the old screwdriver trick sticking it down on starter terminals to bump the starter. It bumped once and all the other times it just showered sparks and did not here it engage/ move. Tried starting few times with key after doing this. No luck.
Anyone have any ideas? It always fired up every year. Not this time.
Joined: Wed Aug 11 2010, 10:15AM
Location: E WA
Posts: 1230
wizard wrote ...
My 69 imperial will not crank over. It has been sitting for about a year without me starting it up. Normally it cranks right over and no problems. Today was different. I have a fresh charged battery as I confirmed this by firing up my 73 Imperial right up using same battery. The 73 sat for about a year also. All the 69 does when you turn the key is it makes a sound like "boing, boing, boing" every time you turn key to start it. Starter does not turn over. I tried moving the column shifter many, many times to see if safety switch was disengaged so it will start in either P or N. No luck. I did the old screwdriver trick sticking it down on starter terminals to bump the starter. It bumped once and all the other times it just showered sparks and did not here it engage/ move. Tried starting few times with key after doing this. No luck.
Anyone have any ideas? It always fired up every year. Not this time.
Hi:
I ran into a similar situation on a 68 LeBaron I own.
For your situation I would pull the starter motor and see how well it works off the car. It sounds like the problem may be the starter motor.
For a no start situation possibilities are:
1. no power 2 bad neutral safety switch 3 bad ignition switch 4 bad starter motor 5 seized engine (least klikely)
I got my 68 LeBaron running fine by jumping the starter solenoid directly to the battery which indicated that the ignition or neutral safety switch was the problem in my situation.
Note that for my car the fuel pump went out at the same time as the ignition components so even after being able to get the motor to crank it would not run. Very strange.
The most frequent problem I'v had for 35 yirz iz the main wire terminal on the starter being loos. The 2nd most iz the starter mounting bolts being loos , cauzing a weak ground connection. 3rd iz the starter going bad.
I chanjed to the more expensiv compact hi power starter around 2007 and havent had any troubl at all. It wuz 180$ back then, but I think they are cheaper now. Another advantaj, they way about 1/3 uv the orijinal equipment starter.
Joined: Sat Mar 29 2008, 03:36PM
Location: North eastern Wis.
Posts: 1638
I agree, it's a good idea to test the starter out of the car.
wizard wrote ... It bumped once and all the other times it just showered sparks
Might be a short causing the shower of sparks. Unless you touched more than the lugs with the screw driver. As mentioned look for corroded connections both positive and negative.
Joined: Thu May 01 2008, 11:15AM
Location: Chicago,IL
Posts: 2868
Always check connections. Do you get a sound like the starter is throwing out the gear but not spinning? That's what usually happens to them when they go bad Just a loud shank