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I just had this feeling Inga was not done with her issue with the starter not engaging when you turned the key.
What I thought was a battery problem came back, had this feeling this was not over. This is a problem with Inga most mostly faithful 86 245DL with about 245K on it. You could turn the key and nothing would happen. Hook the car up to another car and she would fire right off. Had the battery tested and it passed. But when it was put back in the car nothing. The lights were bright, they went out when you turned the key. But nothing out of the starter until you jumped it. Put a new battery in and she fired up and everything was good for about a week. Before Christmas my Mom had to have emergency surgery and I made a hurried drive 125 miles to Beaumont. Came out later that night and nothing when you turned the key, got a jump and wham it started.
So went back down the list of what the heck could be causing this. Battery was not the problem at least seemed to be off the list. Had installed all new battery cables positive and negative. Watch the Volt meter like a hawk and never went below 13 volts on a long drive, so charging seemed be OK. Checked all the contacts on the battery connectors, the grounds, the junction box, the starter Yellow/Blue wire. Rechecked the Neutral Safety switch and so on and found not a dang thing.
Had the problem a few days later at work and went in and grabbed a 5 digit DVM hand held from one of the techs, may be rusty but still know how to use test equipment. The tech came out with me and I hooked the meter to first to chassis and the starter Battery/Alt connection. 12 volts, and no drop when you turned the key but also not start. Just for grins connected the DVM to the solenoid wire and had him turn the key and there was below 9 volts. Connected up to a running car and the voltage went up to a bit over 10 volts and Inga roared to life. That headed me to something in the ignition, or something in the wires. At one time Inga had a bypassed large gray connector due to rotten wires with that famous 86 crap insulation. When I installed my PUP find of a replacement Engine harness in a couple of years ago, added the connector from the donor car back in on the firewall. Did not want to splice my newly installed find.
Suspected one of my splices was the issue but before I redid the connector did a couple of more tests. Cut back the heat shrink and exposed the butt splice. Measured from there to Chassis with the wife cranking and what the hey there was a solid 12 volts. So ruled out the ignition and installed a new spade lug on the starter connection, still had a small voltage loss. Got to suspecting the contacts in the connector itself so gave them a good cleaning. At this point Inga would start every time without fail. Still had this hesitation and then the starter would rip the engine to life after the 34 mile drive home. Must be in the connector contacts was my line of thought.
Like the idea of a connector, so I went looking for a replacement four pin male and female connector to replace the gray one with. Tried Radio Shack and found nothing, but did get a smart assed kid in a tie with Expert on the name tag trying to help me. This guy is more obnoxious that condescending Genius guy at the Apple store when I went in to pick up my wife IMac this summer. This Radio Shack "Expert" guy did not know AC from DC, Ohms from farads, or impedance from resistance. He was trying to tell me that I should use cheap plastic terminal strip connector or slice and splice contacts. He will have a long life installing intermittent speaker connections at some stereo shop I am sure. Figured out they had nothing I would want to use and headed to Auto Zone.
Found a cheap solution, purchased both ends of a trailer light connector, four wires already attached, even got the water tight one. Spliced in in where the old connector was. Color do not match but Brown went to Black, yellow to yellow, Yellow/Blue make green so it went to green, and White to Red. Snapped the connector together and every thing worked.
Been five days now, have a solid 12 Volts, not a hint of hesitation when you turn the key. Has worked every single time. So think I have this one one beat. Hey it was not one of my crimps this time. Just reusing an old plug with rotten contacts on the big gray connector seems to be the cause of Inga's woes.
At least it seems like it is......
Regards,
Paul
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