So as the title suggests, I have a completely stock 79' Rx7 I've been working on and it decided to stop cranking as soon as I got it going again. I just got the fuel tank cleaned out, hooked up, and back in. I also got a brand new optima red top battery. It fired up and after adjusting the carb it was running great. I turn it off to throw the passenger door back together so I can take it out for a spin, and suddenly It won't start, just clicks. So I go pull the starter off of my parts car and throw it on. It does the same thing.. I ordered a new starter, throw it on today, and it doesn't even click. I'm at a loss and I'm pretty frustrated. Any ideas of what's going on?

 

Check the fusible links near the battery. If they are good, check to ensure you have 12V on the starter trigger wire when cranking. That's a start. Next would be to check then ignition switch.

 

Thanks, I checked the fusible links, one of them are stiff and the others are soft. How do you know when they are bad? I know I have power to the starter when cranking, so that would rule out the ignition switch, I think. I'll need to pick up a meter to test the amount of power getting to the starter. Also something I should mention, it was sparking a lot when I was tapping the old starter as a friend cranked on it.

 

Some auto parts stores will test starters for free. Might give that a go. If you can't find a store, bench test the strats off the car to ensure the bendix is working.

Sound like the fusible link are good based on power to start., The way to check them is to remove it and ohm it out (one at a time so you know were they go back). They have an amount of built in resistance and are not the same.