I own a 1986 Camaro IROC Z TPI. I was out all morning and made several stops. My car was started and turned off several times. Randomly when I pulled into a gas station and filled up. My car would not turnover or even crank. The accessories came on with no problem, the fuel pump primed, gauges worked but when I would turn the key not even a click. I grabbed my multimeter and battery tested fine 12+ volts. I grabbed my jumpbox just in case, it had 84% battery but same thing the car would not crank. Not click no machine gun sound nothing.
So I called AAA and while on the phone with them I kept trying to start the car. After about 15 minutes it randomly started as if there was nothing wrong. I drove it home and shut it off. It seems to start again with no problems. Any idea why this could be? I recently replaced my ignition lock cylinder. I'm not sure if that could be related.

 

Next time it happens , try putting it in neutral and see if it starts . If not , with it in neutral and the key held in the start position , try wiggling the shifter a bit and see if that causes it to start . If this works it means your neutral safety switch is going bad . Your best test of course would be a 12V automotive test light connected to the purple wire going to the starter , that would tell you for sure whether the 12V to the starter's solenoid was there or not (with the key held in the start position , of course) .....

 

I actually did try putting it into Neutral and back to Park a couple of times. Could this be a bad Neutral Safety Switch?

When I connect the 12V Auto Test Light to the purple wire that connects to the starter, is that testing if the starter is bad? I'll buy one tomorrow.

 

The test light will tell you this ;

When you try to start it and it doesn't even try , If the light lights , you've got a bad starter(solenoid) . If the light doesn't light , your problem will be either the ignition switch , the neutral safety switch , or the wiring/connectors connecting the parts together .

Tell me , when it won't start , is the "Bulb check" function happening ? As in , does the temperature gauge peg all the way to hot and the dash warning lights come on like they're supposed to when the key is turned to the start position ?

 

Yeah. The Temp gauge, voltage gauge and fuel gauge peg like they are suppose to and the indicator lights come on.

 

Same thing happened to me a few times last year, crawl underneath and check your connections at the starter and corrosion...mine wound up being the single wire in the back of the starter was just loose enough to miss connection intermittently, of course I discovered that after taking all other connections off and cleaning them up. Good luck with it.

 

Great ! That means the mechanical parts of your lock cylinder should be pushing the switch far enough . You have mentioned previous issues with the lock cylinder , yes ?

Anyway , start with checking the purple wire to the starter for looseness like Reddragon88gta mentioned and if it's tight do the electrical check I mentioned in post #2 .

 

My '92 Lumina has been doing this (and still is) for the past +20 years, same symptoms and gauge behavior. The few times I that replaced the starter helped...for a while and then the problem returns. If I rapidly turn the key from run to start, the starter will eventually engage.

There was a TSB addressing this issue for W-Body cars. IIRC, there were revised solenoid, spring and drive (?) parts released. The last starter I installed was a Delco, thinking it should have the revised parts in it already, I never bothered to do anything else beyond this.

I suspect the ignition switch down at the bottom of the column is sketch.