Ok, working the bugs out of the newly aquired Auto Vert for the Fam. Down to one thing, and I'm stumped.

The starter sticks, in that I turn the key and about 50% of the time I hear the Sylinoid click, but no turning. A couple extra twist of the key and eventually, it turns over like a champ.

I'm tried a new sylinoid in my old starter, no improvement.

I tried a whole new starter, no improvement.

Tried a wrecking yard starter from another Auto Vert. No improvement.

Three different starters, three different sylinoids, same symptoms.

In desperation, I tried running a heavy guage jumper wire from the positive post of my battery to the starter in case the main positive wire was damaged in some way. No improvement.

Any suggestions?

 

damn imma bump this cuz i got the same problem! and i dont have that much cash left to fix it...

 

I'm inclined to think its in the ignition switch. I have a somewhat similar problem with my 87turbo. I changed the starter(one of the four brushes had a broke wire) and still have on occasion the click, click, click, varoom, start. The old starter had the same symptoms.

One thing I noticed. Under your trail coil assy is a blue plug with a jumper in it(on a theft protected car there will be a relay instead of the jumper plug). If I pull the jumper plug off, and jumper 12v to the black/white wire, which lead directly to the starter, I will never experience the click, click, click, varooom. The car will flat start. On this particular car, there is no interlock device, so the only real suspect on this car, is the ignition switch. On most other cars the interlock sw might be a suspect also. You've already checked the power wire and ground, so I'd suspect the ignition switch. Just a thought.

 

I was looking at my wiring diagrams last night and wondered if that could be the culprit. Where is that thing located?

Also, any other thoughts out there?

 

Adise on where the inhibitor switch is in my '91 Auto Vert?

 

Bump...

 

when you turn the key to start the car, just hold it until the starter kicks in. it might take 5-10 seconds but see if it will finally kick in.

if it'll start after a long delay of holding they key in the start position, sounds like an inhinitor problem to me.

 

sometimes the starter gear wont contact the flywheel properly. just put it in gear and let it roll like an inch and then try again.

 

When you find the clutch pedal on that automatic, you'll find the inhibitor switch on the top portion of the clutch pedal. humor.

 

I could be wrong, but i thought Autos had an inhibitor on the brake pedal?

 

And, the answer is.....???

 

bump

 

My 87 TII won't turn over. You can hear the solenoid click but that is it. And the other day when i was driving it, it did that but i pushed it forward a little it worked because i was going to pop start it. Does anyone have any suggestions? ( I am new to rx7s so i dont much about them)

 

Thought this was worth bumping this up from the dead as both my S4 TurboVert and S5 AutoVert still have this problem.

Sometimes it turns over with the first twist of the key, some times it turns over even faster with the first twist of the key, and sometimes it takes a number of twists of the key to get it to turn over.

I tried by passing the starter interup relay with a piece of 12 guage wire at the relays plug. No improvement.

I swapped out the interup switch at the clutch pedal. No difference.

Replaced the starters several times. No difference.

Latest fix attempt, thinking the starter wasn't able to draw enough amps, I installed a heavy cable jumper wire to suppliment the feed to the starter. No difference.

I have noticed it seems to improve when I use my battery charger to make sure the battery has full potential. Thus why I tried the supplimental jumper cable. But both cars have relatively new batteries and I've since swapped in FD alternators to for sure have the full potential at each start.

But the starter Gremlin remains......................

 

Do you have THEFT protection on that car?

Are you willing to experiment?

Have you noticed if it starts almost every time if the engine is cold (without that clicking happening)?

 

Well, anyway here's the deal.

See the attached jpg of the ignition switches leads? Yes

When I talk colors of wires, I'm talking the colors on the Front harness side of the plug, NOT the color of the wires on the ignition switch pigtail.

One plug has a BLACK wire and a BLACK/WHITE wire in it. Pull that plug off the ignition switch pigtail.

Find the single wire connector that is BLACK/GREEN. Pull it off the ignition switch pigtail harness. On some cars it will be Black/Red instead of black/green. No matter, it will be in a single wire connector.

Get a piece of spare wire and bare each end. Put a MALE spade connector on each end or if in a hurry just twist the bare wire at each end to make it more solid.

Put one end of you wire into the pure BLACK wires terminal. That wire is batt voltage directly from the MAIN fuse in the engine bay.

TOUCH the other end of that wire to the GREEN/BLACK's terminal.

IF the battery is in the car, and the clutch pedal is depressed (skip that if the clutch interlock has already been bypassed) the starter should spin.

Do that a number of times. Say twenty times. IF the starter turns over each and every time and does not do the CLICK job, then you can come to your own conclusion where the problem lies. The only thing that has been bypassed is the ignition switch itself.

I did not mention saftey doing this. Like transmisson out of gear type things. I assume everybody is stituatonally aware.

The engine will not start doing this. It will only turn over because you have the wires that feed the interior fuse box disconnected.

I would not do the above if the engine is cold in the morning and not experiencing the click/click malady. Get the engine hot and where it does do the click/click thing and THEN do the above.

To access the ignition switch leads you might have to remove that small a/c duct/vent that has two phillips screws in it.

There's ways to overcome this problem other than a new ignition switch. A relay installed in the engine bay using existing starter wiring can be used to move power from the battery to the small blade on the starter solenoid via the blue jumper plug under the trail coil assy.

 

Did you ever Try another Ignition switch?..it could be Fubarred.

 

Yes

Yes

Yes (happens either hot or cold.)

Additional reference points.

1. Problem seems to go away immediately after I've used my battery charger to insure the battery has a full charge. The problem also didn't show for several days when I first put in the battery. This battery is still fairly new. So it seems that when the battery is at maximum potential, the amperage the starter is looking for is able to plow through what ever is the problem. Further, the current battery is a 875 cranking amp (700 cold) Duralast Gold Top.

2. It for sure isn't the ignition switch on my S4 TurboVert. What I normally do now when the sticking occurs is hold the key to start and then pump the clutch pedal causing the safety switch to "pulse" the power to the starter solenoid until it kicks over. Pulsing with either the ignition switch OR the safety switch is the only thing that will work through the sticking.

It isn't the safety switch either as I've swapped it out with different safety switch's with no improvement resulting.

Again, I have the same sticking problem with my S5 Automatic. But obviously with it my only way to "pulse" is with the ignition switch.

All that said, more ideas????

 

I have this same problem and a friend of mine said we can bypass the safety, only problem is you have to be smart enough to know it isnt in gear before you try to start it.

 

I stick with pulling the ignition switch plugs apart and jumpering the pure black to the black/green for a number of times. If the starter works everytime you can make your own conclusion as to what that means.

 

I'll give it a try and report back.

 

I had this issue... Try adjusting the ground wire for the started located on the bell housing tranny engine bolt...
I would for the hell if it make a New Starter switch even if its a temp thing to see if maybe its the key switch. Before you replace the Key switch wire up a starter Button Jumpered to the starter. or You could always try the screw driver trick...