I don't know what else to try. I tried jumping the battery, wouldn't crank then. I checked the distributor and wires (they got installed when i bought the car and have been fine since) I bought a new starter (reman) and installed it and nothing still.

When the key is turned to the on position the engine doesn't attempt to crank like the battery is dead. Last week I was getting it started by rolling it backwards and jumping it. This would in fact tell me that spark, gas,and all that are okay, isolating it to the starter, ignition, battery, etc.

Please help me out if you think there's something I may be overlooking or not know of about this engine. Thanks

 

#1 is to either remove the battery and put in a known good one or take yours to a local auto parts place and have it tested. You cannot jump start thru a totally discharged battery
or one with a dead cell. Also if battery does not turn out to be the problem double check your wiring to the starter and also make sure you have voltage to the solenoid when you turn the key to the on posistion. rx7doctor

 

the Fb's wack fusable links may have a wire blown inside the covering; hence the reason why some folks switch to the FC's fusable link setup... so of course motor won't crank. either that or your 20a (engine) fuse is blwon and you haven't checked it

 

Thanks for the replies guys.. I don't have a small enough voltmeter to check the battery so I took it out and am going to napa tomorrow to have them check it. Right now I'm suspecting it's the battery.

Ignition checks out up to the battery. Does anyone happen to have a wiring diagram for a 12a starter handy? I don't have one and just went by what i remember from taking the old one off. I'm going to search for one now.

I know this is kinda dumb to post about, but I was at my wits end trying to figure it out. Guess I just never thought twice after I tried jumping the battery, but yeah it could be ultra dead. When the batt is completely dead, would accessories still run? The radio, lights and all that still worked. I guess that made me skip over the battery.

Thanks though, never thought about the fuse which is good btw. And checking the solenoid voltage would tell me if the starter was getting anything, thanks carl

 

Check Your Ground

 

+1. Before you go mcuking about rewiring it, check the $5 fusible link, the $.05 fuse, and the $0 ground (if you know where to uhh borrow wire from:-).

 

Read my thread in the FAQ... If it doesn't crank why on earth would you check ignition wires and distributor?

 

I did a search in the 1st gen forums + archive and couldn't find any instructions as to how to change my fusable link setup to the FC version.

If there are instructions, could we add it to the 1st gen FAQ as well?

 

Play nice Pele, not everyone has experience with diagnosis, it takes patience and time with
lots of trial and errors,LOL. rx7doctor

 

because when I don't know what is wrong I tend to look over everything anyway. Take it easy pele sorry for insulting your intelligence.

 

Not insulting my intelligence. I didn't mean to come across as angry or mean or anything like that man. Sorry if I did.

I just though it'd come across a little better than "SEARCH n00b!"

I really think it's an electrical problem between the ignition switch and the starter. Check my thread for a diagram.

 

ok cool.. That thread is very handy, thanks a lot

 

If you try to crank it with the headlights on, and the headlights do not dim, then your battery is not the problem. Could be an easy way to eliminate that possibility and save you a trip to NAPA. Good luck.

 

Just my 2 cents but, don't throw out the possibility that the starter (although new) could still be bad. I bought a new (well, reman) at a parts store earlier this spring and knew my battery was good and knew I did the wiring right but still nothing but a "click" when I turned the key. Racked my brain forever until I finally decided it was the "new" starter. Sure enough, I took it back and got another and the one I've got now works great. Bad clutch or something in the other one I assume.....

 

When you installed the starter did you make sure you grounded the "ground wire" comming to the starter? It really sounds like a ground problem or the connectors on the battery, You should still be able to start the car weather the battery is good or not, for a year I started teh car with no battery using only jumper cables... Fusable links are also a great possibility.
I know I repeated the info given before but Oh well....

 

I had a problem just like this with my 82 a few years back. After about a month of scratching my head at it I put new battery cables on it and it fixed the problem. Turns out my old crappy aluminum ground cable cracked underneath the insulation (it looked fine from the outside).

If you still have aluminum battery cables I would replace them with copper wire, the aluminum ones get brittle with age.

 

Yeah, it's either the ground wires on battery or fusable links.. Starter is wired correctly. Only problem is if it is bad I didn't buy it from autozone or anything like that, it was online so returning (if he would) would be a pita. I hope the starter is good. I'll be checking more into it shortly. It sucks, it's eating away at me and I can't get into it unil later in the week. I miss driving my 7. oh well. Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

 

Okay, I take back that last post. Not the battey. I just ran a test wire from the ignition switch on the solenoid to the positive on the battery and she attempted to crank. (fan spun, and you could hear the starter. What I'm not too clear on from Pele's help page is what that leaves me with. Bad ignition wiring? Or a problem with the starter itself. I assume the starter is okay since the fan was turning. Or remove the ignition wire and test just the solenoid itself?





Guess I never realized how easy it was to steal a car, heh.. That's not what I'm getting out of this though...

 

It sound like it is the ignition switch that is the problem. The same thing happened in my SE a few years ago. I was at a gas station, went to start the engine and nothing. I had to run a wire between two of the terminals on the ignition switch to get it to work. So, basically when you try to start it it doesn't do anything (no clicking, warning lights dimming, etc.0, right? The fact that you can use a jumper to get the starter to spin indicates that the starter, solenoid, and starter are probably good. There is a guy on ebay (from one of the advertisement banners on this site) that has an ignition switch for $40 if that is your problem.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=50459

You can check the switch if you have a voltmeter or test light.

Kent

 

It always clicked when I attempted to start it, just no go. accessories all worked, lights, etc. So that means the ignition was "working" then. Am I pretty much narrowed down to the wiring from the ignition to the starter?

 

Well if the starter clicked when you turned the key, then the ignition switch may be okay. The ignition switch can still be bad even if the warning lights come on though. There are several positions on the switch, so accesories and the on position may be okay, but the start position could be bad for instance.

Many times if the starter just clicks when you turn the key, it can be battery terminals, ground cable, or positive cable assuming that the starter and solenoid are okay.

When you used the test wire, did you connect directly to the battery to the solenoid or did you connect from the positive on the starter to the solenoid? By connecting the positive on the solenoid to the ignition switch terminal on the solenoid, you can rule out if the positive battery cable is bad or not.

 

quite possibly.. if you really wanna test it just turn your key on, then take a jumper wire from the battery and go to the starter solenoid.. My ignition is starting to mess up on me as well.. if i jiggle the key a certain way while in the on position my dummy lights will go out and the car, if crunk, will cut off..

i had to do that one day in the snow when some slush knocked my starter wire loose and i couldn't get under the car to put it back on.. that was a rough day..

 

I ran the ignition switch on the solenoid directly to the positive terminal. Also I did the headlight check (crank with headlights on and they did not dim. I will however check that tomorrow on the solenoid power to see anyway. I'm not Edison when it comes to electricity so this is all alien to me. I'm going to *try* to redo the ground from ignition and see if that's the culprit.

 

That test is not so certain. The cable might be good enough to carry the current necessary to engage the solenoid, however that starter consumes hundreds of amps... Much more than a small solenoid... The cable might not carry that.

Ditto on the ground.

There's a lotta muck that gets on starters... They're under the car and oil drips on them... I'd unbolt the starter and clean up where it attaches to the bellhousing. I'd also clean all terminals on it. Grime is not a good electrical conductor.

 

lol I want to rip out my hair strand by strand.. I didn't think I'd get back to this until later in the week, but anyways I rewired the ignition ground, and positive terminals. No go yet again. I ran the test lead again and it starts to crank. I can't get it to turnover though. So where I'm at, it's got to be the ignition switch.(Though I don't know how that'd solve the fact that it still won't turnover even when started.)

I guess I'm going to pick up an ignition at the parts store here and wire her up. That way I'd know for sure there's a demon in the wiring, and that I'd have to buy a new switch relay and all that.

Anyone want to see something cool? come by my place in about 2 days, I'm going to roll the car down the driveway. lol