My Dad's Buick won't Start

[BuickNut]

My dad has a '67 skylark with a V-8. It ran fine, then out of the blue the starter won't do anything. No clicking, no slow turning - nothing but the idioit light coming on the dash. We checked the battery with a hydrometer - was fully charged and all the cells were good. We also changed the solenoid (we had a new extra on for emergencies...), and no change. Might it be either the starter, ignition switch, or the neutral safety switch ?

Thanks.

Ray

[Guest my3buicks]

Did you take the battery cables off and reinstall them? Mine will once in a while do that and if I do that and clean the posts things are good for a year or so again. A silly thing to check, make sure your gearshift is firmly in park or nuetral - again, I push the car out of the garage in neutral once in a while and then go to start it to put it back in and the selector isn't right in nuetral (I always think OH GREAT, then I realize what's going on and say DAH.) You may also want to check the wires at the starter and even tap the starter lightly with a hammer - if you have a bad spot in the starter this will sometimes move it just enough. Check ALL the wires!!

[sledheader 48381]

Ray; GM used fusable link wire for applications that called for high amp circuits, this are sections of wire usually down by the starter that will burn out if amp draw gets to high for some reason, sort of a last line of defence, unfortunetly this does not always show up on the outside, visably the wire might look fine but the only thing holding it together is the outside covering.Its easy to check just by pulling slightly on the wires seperatly about 8 to 10 inches up from the terminal at the starter solenoid.

Just a thought Don BCA#40498

[Guest brh]

The battery could still be the culprit I forget what the hydrometer measures but ya need voltage and amps to actuate the starter. Turn your head lights on, then have someone hit the key. If the lights go to nearly out, its a battery, if the lights severly dim for some reason your starter is drawing too much juice. If you hit the key and the lights stay bright then its time to start back tracking the wiring, because this means there is no draw on the battery. Just some backyard mechanics. Hope this helps.

[BuickNut]

Thanks for the tips...I'm going to give them a try....though the bad thing is that out of the blue, after just reinstalling the battery (same one...), it started like nothing was wrong..... I have previously cleaned all the connections (including battery, to and from ground, and the starter...)....so I think maybe it was a dead spot on the starter.....

[Guest brh]

I hear ya but I have also had batteries pull some goofy things on me too. Car ran fine, everyday driver the next morning hopped in hit the key and nothing.

[daveg]

I had a 73 Skylark loved the car. Anyway, I had a similar problem for the longest time could not figure out what it was. Turned out dirt had worked its way into the starter and when the key was turned on the dirt became magnetized and it would not start. After the starter was cleaned up never had the problem again.