Ignition switch/starter problem

[barnesjtsl]

79 Spider 2000,

I know this issue has been covered here, but I wanted to ask for more thoughts.

What happens is that in the morning my car starts just fine. When it gets warmed, say 5 or 6 miles and I stop for gas I try and start it after shutting it off and I get nothing. No click of the solenoid (that I can here) and the starter motor doesn't click in or make a sound. All other electrical works just as it should. All the dashboard ligths come on, the radio works and the headlights come on fine. Just nothing when I turn the key. The guy's at the gas station pushed me and it fired right up.

I have done the "Brown wire surgery".

This has been happening at the most inconvienient of times, so I haven't been ablt to test the voltage at the solenoid, but I'm hoping to let it warm up in the driveway this weekend and reproduce the problem and check the voltage.

This last weekend I did the following:

1. Cleaned both battery posts and cables (they were fairly clean anyway).
2. Took of the little round grounding "post" collection above the charcoal canister and made sure all the connections were clean and that it made good contact with the firewall.
3. I have an extra grounding cable connected to the block and the frame. I took that off and cleaned both the cable and where it connects to the block and the frame.
4. I jacked up the front end and removed the push-on connector from the solenoid and cleaned the connection as best I could. I didn't bother checking the voltage at that time, because it was starting fine at that point and it would have been redundant.

Any other thoughts on where to go from here? Can anyone tell me how to test the ignition switch? Any diagrams out there that show which wires do what on the back of the ignition switch?

Thanks,

John

[racydave]

I had the same problem and found the pink wire had melted the contacts and the connector at the base of the steering column. I used a butt connector and some good crimpers and repaired the wire. No problem since that. The PO was really P'd-off when I told him. Happy trails! (the addition of a extra ground cable from the engine to the chassis is also a good modification)