Well, i don't like my mom driving my maverick, but it is the most efficient vehicle we have and gas is $4. She drives cars pretty hard though and I'm not happy about it. So she starts the car, backs out of the carport, and she drops it into drive, and the engine stops. Well that was yesterday, and I was at my grandpa's farm working on my new project (1980 Dodge Colt), so I couldn't check it out until today. I checked all the cables, couldn't find anything lose, spark plugs were freshly changed and plugged in right, one fuse had some rust but it was working just fine. While my mom can't drive a car without a fuel gauge, i'm sure it's got enough gas in it. But when you turn the key, it just makes a godawful clicking sound, and the electrics go funky; the stereo might turn on, or off, and the dome light might turn on or off. I'm out of ideas.
Sounds like a bad solenoid switch or a bad battery. If those check out, get the starter tested. Shouldn't be too hard to find. Good luck!
How should I check if the solenoid and battery are bad? EDIT: Yeah, it's the solenoid making all the racket. So now what do I do about it?
Sound like a machine gun? Take off and clean to bright metal both the terminals on your battery and the cable ends!
