strange no crank situation

[Thumbtack]

I have twin chryslers, carbed, older but not sure the year. It has those double ballast resistors in it. the starboard one was just working fine then one day it wouldn't even crank over. here were my steps to diagnose.

Checked voltage at the solenoid, was recieving it from the key switch but didn't here any clickiig from solenoid. Replaced solenoid and had same result.

Found if I put an extra ground to the negative side of the solenoid it would crank so i followed the wires from the negative side of the solenoid and it went to the double ballast resistor where i found that was in pieces.

Replaced the double ballast resistor and had the same result, no crank.

Went to the keyswitch and used a wire to jump from battery to start and it cranked, so i figured bad switch. Replced switch but still didn't crank.

Still at the key switch i jumped from battery to start and it cranked again, then i jumped battery, start, and ignition all together and it wouldn't crank.
So it seems if i add the ignition wire into the situation the engine doesn't crank, but if i take the ignition wire out of the picture the engine will crank.

So, i'm confused as hell. There is no neutral safety switch, and i know i can put an extra ground on the solenoid to make it crank over but the engine won't start even though it will crank.

There is a "computer" looking thing on the top of the engine that i don't know what it does but i switched it with the engine that works and still had the same results.

please help!!!

 

[Don S]

Re: strange no crank situation

Cranking (to most of us here) means the starter turning the engine, and has nothing to do with the engine starting or not.
So which do you have, Won't crank, will crank but won't start, or even will crank, starts, then dies when you let off the ignition switch.

 

[Uraijit]

Re: strange no crank situation

Cranking (to most of us here) means the starter turning the engine, and has nothing to do with the engine starting or not.
So which do you have, Won't crank, will crank but won't start, or even will crank, starts, then dies when you let off the ignition switch.

[snip]So, i'm confused as hell. There is no neutral safety switch, and i know i can put an extra ground on the solenoid to make it crank over but the engine won't start even though it will crank.[/snip]

 

[Coors]

Re: strange no crank situation

[snip]So, i'm confused as hell. There is no neutral safety switch, and i know i can put an extra ground on the solenoid to make it crank over but the engine won't start even though it will crank.[/snip]

First problem seems to be, ground the solenoid correctly, then start tracing the problem?

 

[Thumbtack]

Re: strange no crank situation

Hey Don,
I know people use all different words to say the same thing when it comes to engines, to me crank=just turning the engine over but not starting.

The engine does not crank (turn) unless i put an extra ground on the negative side of the solenoid, when i put another ground on the negative side of the solenoid the engine will crank but then won't start. The problem with putting that wire there is i don't know what i am bypassing by using the extra ground wire so i'm afraid of keeping it there.

I don't know if this means anything but maybe it will help. I mentioned this up above. At the keyswitch the engine won't crank (turn) unless the ignition wire isn't hooked up. With the ignition wire hooked up the engine won't even crank. As I said, i am confused as i have never seen anything like this before. I checked the battery its good and all its connections. I replaced that double ballast resistor, switched "computer" things but no luck.

I just wanted to add in that while at the keyswitch i don't need the extra ground wire at the solenoid to crank the engine over. So there are two ways that the engine will crank 1) extra ground at the solenoid that must be bypassing some wires but the engine won't start 2) remove the ignition wire from the keyswitch and obviuosly the engine won't start.

Thanks very much for the help

 

[Don S]

Re: strange no crank situation

If all you are doing is grounding the solenoids to make them work, then you aren't bypassing anything. The only thing you could bypass is the neutral safety switch, but that would be in the power wire.
What it sounds like may have happened is you have the WRONG kind of solenoid.
You probably need one that grounds thru the base of the solenoid and the second terminal is for the hot terminal to the distributor, which bypasses the ballast resistors when starting.
If that is the case, you need to get the proper solenoids.
Can you post a picture of your solenoids? Not much info on those old Chryslers, available. But with some knowledge of the systems that need to be in place, it's not hard to get it working properly.

 

[Thumbtack]

Re: strange no crank situation

hey don,
you were right. i had the wrong solenoid. they looked identical but i tested with a meter and i had the wrong one. the right one grounded through the base instead of the terminal so i was doing it all wrong.

thanks

 

[rodbolt]

Re: strange no crank situation

the double ballast resistor has nothing to do with engine cranking, it has a start resitor and a run resistor, you have a version of the chysler electronic ign system.
the nuetral start switch is normally located on the clutch, look at the stbd side upper aft side, you should see a small threaded in switch with two, normally yellow/red, wires. that will be the Nuetral switch, some were equipped with transmision over temp switches as well. normally a single wire switch located on the aft top side of the clutch, if its a reduction gear clutch make sure your looking at the clutch portion not the reduction gear portion whichs is bolted to the clutch.
have had to play with Chyslers in a year or two anyway
most have long passed away here in the salt pond.

 

[Don S]

Re: strange no crank situation

Uhhhhh, rodbolt. He got it fixed, read the post just above yours.

 

[f_inscreenname]

Re: strange no crank situation

I wish I would have saw this earlier. I knew what it was as soon as I read the first post. I guess you can say I have been down that road before.
Glad you got it fixed.

 

[echamber623k]

Re: strange no crank situation

i have a similar problem on a 2004 5.7 GI (injected). This is a new boat for me this summer and i have noticed that when i try to start in temps below 70 (like early in morning) it will not even try to start (dead silence). If I go back and try to start about 12 when the temps are about 70 + starts no problem. When it does not start i have plenty of power and all electronics work fine. It is so strange that it seems to be a pattern to the engine being cool. I have had this happen about 10 times in past 3 weeks where it never starts in morning and always starts when warmer. We did have a cool day with rain and it never started that day either when temps never got above 65 or 70.

I did replace the starter relay (entire box with fuses, etc. on top of engine). But that did not fix the problem.

 

[Don S]

Re: strange no crank situation

Start a new thread with your questions, don't hijack someone elses thread with a completely different setup.