I took one of my cars out for a spin. 1970 250 six cylinder. As I am driving down the road it just dies. No idiot lights or anything. I pulled over off the road and tried to restart it. It fires but as soon as I disengage starter or release the key from a full forward position it dies. When I turn key to off position and then back to on my idiot lights are on and the stay on while starting. Then as soon as I release key all goes dead again. Any ideas?
Does changing out the solenoid take care of this? I know where the solenoid is but when you say "solenoid switch" is that something different? Excuse my ignorance.
Solenoid...solenoid switch...starter solenoid...starter relay...thing the battery cable connects to that has more wires going to it (or from it). Its been called a lot of things, but yeah, replace the solenoid. If you still have a problem then it could be the ignition switch on top of the steering column or it's pigtail connector not making good connection or maybe the connection between the fuse box to firewall connector. If your wiring harness is all butchered up then it will be hard telling you where to look to trouble shoot over the internet. If you had a '74 then it could be the seatbelt interlock system.
All the solenoid is supposed to do is provide voltage to starter, jump the coil resistor and act as a terminal to connect battery to main harness which supplies power to ign switch... The fact that engine starts confirms the power is getting to ign sw and jumper is working, problem is something supplying power at ign on has failed... Since warning lights are not lit at ign on I'll bet on switch... If warning lights were on, I'd say bulkhead connector...
