As title suggests, I drove my 1984 305 Camaro cross town and stopped at a gas station, car wouldn't Start afterwards. Just clicking from starter. I replaced starter, still wouldn't starter. so I replaced ignition switch. and still nothing. I checked my battery which tested good, and double checked all my fuses. My last idea is maybe a faulty Neutral Saftey switch? Any other ideas? is this a chronic issue with 3rd gens?

My Camaro has 32,000 original miles, so it's in beautiful shape. which is why I'm stumbled to why it's having this issue?

 

Sometimes new parts can be bad. Get another starter. Sound like either starter solenoid is bad or not enough power from battery to engage the starter.

 

I had the battery tested at autozone, and it tested fine. I even had my old starter tested and that tested fine too. I didn't test the new one though. I also heard maybe the cranking amps from the battery wasn't enough, and I haven't tested that yet.

 

Hi Hand5oap, welcome to TGO

Have you tried starting it using a good set of good quality jumper cables connected to a running car? If not, try that. It would be best to have a voltmeter handy for if it starts, because your next move would be with it running, disconnect the jumpers from the donor car and then measure your battery's voltage. It should be around 14 and a half volts give or take a little bit while it's running. A cheap "Harbor Freight" (under $20) meter will be ok here. Anyway, what your describing is a starter that isn't getting proper power, which since you've now got two starters behaving the same leaves either the battery or the battery's wires as the prime suspects. If the autoparts store you went to did properly check your battery then the wires are pretty much all there is left. I mentioned the voltmeter check because a weak alternator could have left your battery without enough power, but then that state of being discharged should have been noted in the battery test. Remember that our "side post" battery terminals can have the wires corroded inside and look perfectly fine from the outside, although sometimes you can see lumpy looking areas in badly corroded ones. Checking both ends of both battery wires will hopefully turn up the bad connection.

The one thing I'm sure of is that it's not your ignition or neutral switches, they will not cause the machine gunning solenoid.....

 

I did try to jump with good cables, still no start. I can go through and check the battery cables though. I'll give that a quick look. I appreciate the insight!

 

Does the Linkage/ Mechanical portion of the Ignition Switch operate?

Are you certain that the Linkage is actually moving when the Ignition Lock Cylinder is being turned?

 

I checked battery voltage at 12.56 from battery posts and to the starter it was inconsistent. so I replaced the battery cables and now they're reading 12.54 at the starter. yet still no crank movement...

 

Honestly not sure, how do i check that? where's it located?

 

So turns out, after all this the last thing I checked was the engine. Turns out I cant crank the engine with a wrench. won't budge. I have no idea how, but I think my engine is seized? which is so bizarre because I've been driving it perfectly fine. Havent heard knocking nor did i feel anything rough. granted, I just tried with a ratchet wrench, I don't have a breaker bar. Last ditch effort is going to replace the Neutral Satefy Switch and see if it cranks over.
If not, My dad has a buddy who custom built a 350 with TPI with a broken valve and is willing to give it to me since he's been sitting on It for 10 years. If my 305 is seized, I'm going to fix up the 350, and learn how to do an engine swap/carb to TPI convert. so if there's any help/ideas for that I would super appreciate it. I've never done something that big before.

 

Get a breaker bar and try it, it can be next to impossible to turn an engine with a little 8" ratchet. Lacking a breaker bar, a two or three foot piece of iron pipe slipped over the handle of the ratchet should get it to turn.

BUT, a stuck engine doesn't make the starter's solenoid "machine gun" (rapidly clicking). A good starter, with a strong battery, and good battery cables, attempting to turn a stuck engine will give one loud forceful "CLUNK !", and then the wires get REAL hot real fast.....

 

Haha got a breaker bar and got my crank moving with it! Thank God! Except now I have no idea what's wrong with it.

Still hear the starter clicking.
Voltage from battery to new starter is fine.
Replaced Ignition Switch.
Checked all my fuses under the dash and they all tested fine with multimeter.

last thing I haven't done that I can think of is the Neutral Safety Switch. I'm planning on swapping that out on Tuesday and see if that does the trick.
Also there's a wire connecting the starter to the Neutral Safety switch correct? I haven't tested the voltages on that wire yet, could that be the issue?

 

If ya lived close to me I'd bet ya a Beer that the neutral switch ain't gonna fix it either......

At the risk of sounding like a broken record* , I'll say it again;

If your starter's solenoid is rapidly clicking when you turn the key to the start position, you've got a problem with delivering the current the starter needs to function.

*If you've never heard this expression before, ask your grandparents what it means......

 

Fuses have nothing to do with the starter. Replace the battery cables...

 

This.

 

Check that all your grounds are clean and there is no corrosin

My 73 AMC Javelin did the same thing, I had corrosion under the ground terminal.

Have had the same symptom with a bad body ground.

 

I just had this same problem occur with my M6. Went to garage to move it to the other bay so I could work on wifes car. Nothing, just a click of the solenoid. Long story short, a battery cable junction bolt came a wee bit loose. It had been starting and running just fine, lucky it didn't occur at a gas station.

What you can do to help isolate or rule out the problem is put a volt meter on the starter B+ line, and watch it when you try to start it. You should see it drop from about 12V to maybe 11V. If it goes to zero, you may have a loose battery cable, loose ground. This is a good check to make sure it is getting the voltage it needs. You can also do the same for amps draw. See what it is trying to draw when you try to turn the key. If zero, that aint right.