OK, now I am stumped, no crank

[vintageman]

So my 73 Mach 1 351 Cleveland has been starting and running pretty good, the last couple days I even added the ram air ( another thread to be started because I have a petronix billet distributor) and it was running good tonight. I adjusted the initial timing to 13 and it was starting good and idling in Park around 1000 ( I have a Elgin P-954 cam and Summit 750 CFM Carb), drive about 700. I shut if off to tighten up the distributor and the went to start it and absolutely no crank. I have power and headlight work. The ignition switch is new but always seemed to be kind of flakey even though I used the proper method per manual to adjust it (never had the 1 click back from lock for accessory power even though it does go 1 click back). I swapped the new starter solenoid with a known good but used starter solenoid. I previously changed the cable to the starter and added a heat shield cover over the cable to protect it from the headers. Everything has been good up till now and any advice is appreciated. I will try again tomorrow morning when everything has cooled down to see if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

[midlife]

Did you wiggle the automatic shifter to see if the NSS may need adjustment?

 

[Sheriff41]

Can you get it to crank with a remote starter switch (jumps the solenoid)?

 

[vintageman]

And Midlife nailed it, wiggled the shifter and she cranks again. I guess in-between events today, I will adjust the neutral safety switch. Thanks everyone for your advice. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Tom

 

[SteveO_71]

Thats happened a couple of times in mine also. I realize that now after stopping, to make sure the shift level actually clicks into P. The car should also start when shifter is in N also, correct?

 

[vintageman]

Yes it should start in neutral as well. I will be trying to adjust my neutral safety switch again later today. Thanks for the advice to make sure it clicks in Park, hopefully I can get it squared away today.

Tom

 

[Paul M]

So my 73 Mach 1 351 Cleveland has been starting and running pretty good, the last couple days I even added the ram air ( another thread to be started because I have a petronix billet distributor) and it was running good tonight. I adjusted the initial timing to 13 and it was starting good and idling in Park around 1000 ( I have a Elgin P-954 cam and Summit 750 CFM Carb), drive about 700. I shut if off to tighten up the distributor and the went to start it and absolutely no crank. I have power and headlight work. The ignition switch is new but always seemed to be kind of flakey even though I used the proper method per manual to adjust it (never had the 1 click back from lock for accessory power even though it does go 1 click back). I swapped the new starter solenoid with a known good but used starter solenoid. I previously changed the cable to the starter and added a heat shield cover over the cable to protect it from the headers. Everything has been good up till now and any advice is appreciated. I will try again tomorrow morning when everything has cooled down to see if that makes a difference. Thanks in advance.

Tom

I just stumbled on this. I had the same reoccurring problem. My neutral safety switch was the culprit every time. I thought is was fixed wiggled it & adjusted it and it worked for up to a month before the same problem came back. I ended up taking the neutral safety switch apart and found the problem. There are 2 round pins that freely rotate in the neutral s switch that has 2 springs behind them to push those pins against the contacts. One of the springs was gone. I found another spring that was similar in size and cut a pc off of it to put in the pocket, reassembled the switch and never had another problem. The last pic is reassembled lined up w/a drill bit ready for install.

 

[vintageman]

Paul, thank you for the post. After playing with the shifter, I got it started. I got started on another part of the car and actually forgot to get back to this thread and the neutral safety switch adjustment. I appreciate your comments and advice for bring this back up, I will try to get to it later this weekend.

Tom

 

[Paul M]

Paul, thank you for the post. After playing with the shifter, I got it started. I got started on another part of the car and actually forgot to get back to this thread and the neutral safety switch adjustment. I appreciate your comments and advice for bring this back up, I will try to get to it later this weekend.

Tom

Ye that was only one of my problems, the ignition switch mounted 1/2 up the column was so loose it was worthless. Then the brand new after mkt relay I bought had contacts that were stuck "on" and I had to disconnect the battery b4 the starter was toasted. Lots of fun with this one lmao.