It was nice an sunny out today, and the temperature was in the +'s, so I decided to slap the carb back on my car.

The car has been sitting all winter, probably about 3 months so far, without the carb on it, waiting for me to plug the coolant ports, which I finally got around too about 2 weeks ago.

So today I slap the weber on it, hook up all the lines etc, got the battery out of the basement and dropped it in. I turned the key, and the dash lights came on, and the volt meter read about 10 volts, which surprised me. Radio works, horn etc.

But when I turn the key to start, nothing happens, and it feels like there's alot of resistance to turning the key. There's no click of any solenoid, no whine of the starter, nothing.

I got down on my back in the snow, and felt around for the starter, and tapped it for a decent amount of time with a wrench, which did nothing.

Anyone have any clues?

The cars too low for me to poke my head under and wiggle the connections on the starter. Bad ground?

 

The battery should read over 12 volts. Charge it and try again.

 

10 volts at the voltmeter, with the key not in start position, is too low. Weak battery or bad terminals/cables

10 volts at the voltmeter, with the key in the start position; yet everything is quiet (starter making no sound,) is borderline too low.

I just had to replace my '84 starter. It turned out it had a dead spot. most of the time it would work. But sometimes, it would not make a sound. I pulled it off, bench tested it, and the solenoid was fine. When I bench tested the whole starter assembly, sometimes it worked, and sometimes it would sit there quiet. If I turned the bendix gear just slightly, then the starter would work fine next time I tried to crank it. Again, it turned out that my starter had a dead spot.