[Corey D]

I have an 87 LX that was a 4 cyl swapped to a 93 5.0.. I replaced my clutch a few months ago and only drove the car maybe 1,000 miles since then. While I had it all out I rebuilt the starter, bench tested it and it worked great. For a couple months after that the car started up no problem, cranked strong and quickly. About a week or so ago I got in to start it and it and all I heard was the solenoid on the fender click and nothing else. It eventually turned over once then stopped then again and stopped then a third time and started running. Sometimes when it's warmer it starts sooner and others it doesn't. Now you have to turn the key on and back off a few times to get it going. Also when it does the slow cranking i believe I can hear something arcing somewhere but I'm not positive where. I tested both the power and ground wire that go from the fender solenoid down to the starter and both have about .04 ohms of resistance. This leads me to the starter but the times that it does crank right, the starter sounds nice and strong and it starts quickly. Anyone have any ideas what could be causing something like this?

 

[Hockeyman48]

When you test your wires you are not passing much current through the wires with your volt/ohm meter.You have probably got a corroded positive or negative cable or a bad/intermittent solenoid contact.Try connecting a battery cable from ground on engine to battery negative next time it wont crank.If it cranks it will confirm a bad ground wire.Try same with positive cable if you can safely connect to terminals at solenoid or starter.Wire terminals can corrode internally and can ohm out ok with a meter but not allow enough current to flow to crank engine at i2 volts.Hope this helps.

 

[Corey D]

Okay thanks for the tip I learned in school that even if a wire tests okay for ohms it can still be corroded and not flow enough amps through it, the guy i work with insisted it was the starter but when it does crank it sounds way too strong.. i'll try to bypass the wires this weekend at work and see if it solves the problem