Pulled the Maverick into the shop tonight to work on building a fan shroud and to switch out the thermostat tonight so it will stop overheating. When I went to turn the key off it stayed running. So I disconnected the distributor. The car shut off. To try to figure out what caused the problem I plugged the distributor back in and it began to crank.So I tried to unplug the distributor again but it wouldnt stop this time so I had to quickly remove the positive cable to the battery. Now the starter wont quit trying to start in no matter what happens if I hook the battery up. It has a new starter, voltage regulator, battery, alternator, new cables from the regulator and the ignition module (little white box below the regulator), new ground cables, etc, are all new. It was driven 10-15 times and it all worked fine. My son said the guy at O'reilly thought it might be something in the steering column. The guy said something about a "pin" inside the column? Any ideas? I would think the only thing in the column that could cause such a thing is the ignition switch right?
It does sound like the ignition switch is bad, the part that the key goes in is not the switch itself the switch is on the column below it a few inches. It is operated by a little rod that goes from the key mechanism and is adjustable so perhaps it has moved and out of adjustment. You should be able to take the little wire (cant remember off hand which color) off of starter solenoid and keep it from trying to start. It also possible that the starter solenoid has gone bad as they are known for this problem but it would not come into play for the not wanting to turn off. I would look into the switch mechanism first, hopefully you do not have a short someplace
A stuck solenoid will cause continual crank condition. That or power on the trigger post(small one closest to batt cable) are the only thing that will cause such condition. There have been occasional problems with ign s/w continually feeding power to solenoid trigger post but actually it's fairly rare. If contact inside solenoid on small post nearest starter cable sticks, engine will not shut off. I just had that exact problem on my Cobra Jet a few months ago. It's solenoid is a NOS Echlin I'd just installed a week or so prior(orig had never given any issue). So far it hasn't done it again.
Krazy is correct about the solenoid sticking and I forgot about what the other wire on the solenoid does. As I stated there have been several people that have bought new solenoids and they were bad from the beginning or went bad in a short time
I had a 75 that did that. It ended up being the ignition module on the fender apron. Once you started to crank it, it would continually send voltage to the solenoid, even after the engine started.
"So I disconnected the distributor. The car shut off." it may stop the engine from running but it wouldn't stop cranking if the solenoid was sticking.
Thanks. That is helpful. The fender mounted ignition module Jason is referring to Im assuming is the drivers side lower mounted distributor box right? I have several of those that came with the car. Maybe I should start with trying one of those and see what it does. Then if that doesnt work I will move to the starter solenoid and maybe then the passenger side voltage regulator before I tear into the column.
I'm thinking ign. switch on the no shut-off issue. I had a problem w/ going from engine running going quickly to acc position the car kept running. I replaced ign sw. problem solved. May not be your issue, but, 40+ year old switch is suspect.
It was the newly replaced starter solenoid. I took it back to the parts store and they replaced it for free since it was a lifetime part. The salesman there told me he went through 3 in a row on his 70's Ford truck. Said he added an additional ground wire from one of the mounting screws in the firewall to the negative battery terminal and it seemed to fix his problem so I did the same. I know the bolts and the fender behind it were sanded down to bare metal when i put the new one on a few weeks ago. I figured it cant hurt to have the extra protection. I actually ran mine to the cable end of the negative terminal where it screws to the wall. It should be just as good and also be an added ground for the voltage regulator and body connection this way. Thanks for the advice.
Compared to parts of 40-50 years ago most of what's made these days is junk, add 19 grounds, won't make any difference. You either get a good one or a bad one. They usually stick because of internal arc that welds the contacts closed.
