Been working on this since yesterday. I was just getting ready to break my cam in on my fresh engine rebuild, figured I’d bump the starter over just to check it before setting up for the break in. When I turn the key-nothing. Car is a ‘62 Mercury Meteor with a 260. Engine turns over by hand just fine. So here’s what I’ve done. Battery is new, and at 13.3 volts Replaced solenoid yesterday Replaced ignition switch today. Ran a jumper cable from battery directly to starter, starter works fine When I turn the key to start, not even a click from the solenoid. If I jump the terminals on the solenoid with a screwdriver, nothing. I held the key in the start position and moved the gear selector from park all the way to low to rule out neutral safety switch. All electrical accessories and lights work fine. Headlights do NOT dim when I crank with lights on. I’ve double checked all grounds to block from firewall and neg battery cable. Gone through and cleaned every single connection I can think of. I know it’s hard to diagnose electrical things on the internet, but maybe I’m missing something simple? Any ideas?
So when you jump the solenoid, are you connecting the red wire with the blue tracer to battery positive? That should at least make the solenoid click. Do you have voltage available at the battery side of the solenoid? What kind of test equipment do you have?
They were on the solenoid when the car was parked and running. I never took the solenoid off till after I had the no start issue, and replaced them in the same position on the new solenoid.
which terminals are you jumping? pictures are a big help.... and you made sure the battery cable and ground cable and all that are connected properly, right?
OK! I had started to type out a reply and couldn’t remember which terminals I had jumped on the original solenoid, so just went out to the garage to check. On the old solenoid I could jump from the big lug on the left to the “s” terminal , and the big one on the right to the “i” , and it did nothing. I didn’t try on the new one because it still wasn’t cranking , so figured nothing changed. Just for the heck of it I just now turned the key to run, and jumped the left terminal to the “s”and it cranked! Still no crank with the key though. I have a simple multimeter and test light here. Not much of an electrical guy on this end.
Yes. I was anal about taking pictures on the teardown. Since the wires are all so old, it’s hard to see their colors in some cases, so figured pictures would help for getting alternator wires correct for example.i also had every terminal labeled if the had to take it apart. I can take more pictures tomorrow if needed, already late for me.
Never assume that because something is new it is good. As Jim said, TEST LiGHT. I've got a crap ton of test lights as I have one in every vehicle and a test light and multimeter are must haves on a boat. I bought one of these off Amazon a year and a half ago and it is both a test light and volt meter. The good there is that you can see if you have a voltage drop between point A and point B without going to get the multimeter out. Still, full power to the solenoid, No power out of the solenoid, no Triggering the solenoid means defective solenoid.
Using your volt meter or test light place one end on the big terminal at the solenoid that comes from the battery and the other end to earth. If you have power move to the next step. place one end of the meter/light on S terminal and the other end to earth and turn the key. If you have power but no turning over then the solenoid is probably at fault. If you don’t have power you need to move further up the start circuit toward the key. You’ll need to do similar checks on key and neutral switch.
I wish I had a couple bucks for every Ford starter solenoid that was replaced for a no crank issue or (this was my favorite) a charging system problem in my 40+ years at a Ford dealer. I'd be able to take a nice cruise in my retirement. Some good advice is given here for your problem. Just follow it as best you can. You got this.
The red wire (with a blue tracer) comes from the ignition switch and should have voltage on it when the key is in the start position. That's the next thing to check. It does go through the neutral safety sw
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