The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay crank then no crank

Hello, haven't been on in a while but I have been working on my trucks. I'm having a similar problem to "no ignition" guy. It all started back in July.
1956 Chevy with 265cu.in., The first time I had the problem was after I had already driven to town and back.35miles. Parked the truck and later a UPS guy needed me to move my truck. I turned the key and it lurched because I didn't put it in neutral, I turned the key off then put the truck in neutral then turned the key and no crank. Since then I have cleaned all grounds, used a different battery, pulled the starter and bench tested and saw the gear move out and spin. Reinstall the starter and turned key and it turned over 3-4 revolutions then stopped. When this happens I can see that turning the key part way energizes the gauge cluster and if I pull the lights on they light but when I turn the key to start the motor it kills the gauges and the headlights. I am LOST.

Clean the inside of both battery cable clamps until they're bright and shiny, and do the same thing to the battery posts. You've got an almost, but not quite open circuit from dirty connections that will carry the load of the gauges but not the heavy current that starter needs. I've seen a few hundred vehicles with thre exact same symptoms, and cleaning battery posts and cables fixed virtually all of them.
Jerry

Thanks I'll do that tomorrow.

When you turn the key to the "On" position do the gauges have power? It could be the internals of the switch are giving out. Eons ago I had a Dodge that would do that. A wiggle of the switch would get it going again.

I'm happy to report that the truck is running again! I thought last night that I had cleaned all of the connections already but I'm going to do it again just to make sure. I did that today and when I tried the headlights they came on. So I turned the key and it clicked then killed everything. I then twisted the negative cable a bunch and tried the headlights. They came on...turned key dead again. So I remembered a few years ago I replaced the ground strap that comes off of the starter because even though the ends were clean the webbing itself was full of corrosion. Sure enough I replaced the ground cable and it fired right up! Jerry convinced me it was in the battery ground so when the shiny clean ends didn't fix it the only thing left was the whole cable. Thanks for your guidance . Ben

Good show! I quit using braided ground cables several years ago after some pretty frustrating troubleshooting sessions. Now I use #0 or larger arc welder cable from the battery negative post to the block or bellhousing near the starter as a ground, and run smaller size grounds to the body sheet metal and the frame so the lights, dash gauges, and other accessories have a good path back to the battery. The starter is by far the heaviest current draw, so the closer a heavy ground is to that item, the better.
Jerry