I've been having a hell of a time with my starter system. It starts when it feels like it. Otherwise, I turn the key, a friend can hear the relay under the hood, but nothing else happens. Took the starter all apart (it's only 4-5 months old (rebuilt) and it was clean inside. Put new copper ends on the cables, have the battery located in the compartment and I use welding cable for a bit of overkill.
Well, it seems to be the switch because when I get pissed enough and am exploding like an epileptic in my car, it will catch. (afraid I'll bust the key off!)

Just wondered how common this was.

 

Read on, my dear swarthy friend, read on...'84s seem to be the worst...

Yet another Starter failure reason you wouldn't have thought of...

 

I've never had a problem with the 83 or 85.

B

 

My '81 used to have the same problem. I replaced the ignition barrel with a brand new one and all is fine. I'm not sure about over there but here in Oz, they're pretty expensive. Sure is nice though (except the keys with Kia written on them).

 

Someone removed my ignition switch before I bought the car and this could be why...

 

Hmmm. I probably won't have time to fix it properly in the near future. Do you know offhand which wires need to make contact to engage the starter? I'll simply tap in a pushbutton for now and just let it hang there.

 

The key switch in my '80 is kinda wierd, when you turn it to the start position the starter cranks just fine, but the coils don't get 12V unless you back off on the key just a little bit. I know exactly what causes this, but fixing it requires complete disassembly of the key switch, and even then sometimes they are FUBAR. Besides, it's a good security feature. A few years back, someone broke into my '71 510 and tried to steal it. They boogered up my key switch in the process, but because you had to back off on the key so much to get it to start, all they did was run down the battery cranking the motor, ha ha.