Anyone have trouble with fuse links going to the starter,my Camaro has been sitting for months,now nothing when you turn the key on as far as starting, I've had them cleaned before, any pointers to help get it started,before towing to shop.

 

If it’s been sitting for months, how’s the state of charge of your battery?

 

^^^^THIS. Start here.

 

What??

"Had" them "cleaned"????

Did whoever took your money for this, also offer you some lovely beachfront property in North Dakota to go with it? Special one-day-only deal?

In case you can't tell, I'm thinking you got SCAMMED. Fusible links don't need "cleaning". Might have something to do with this.

Isn't "shop" what women do when they want new shoes or a handbag or something? Why on Earth would you TOW your car somewhere to do THAT? That's just crazy talk.

Charge your battery, as suggested. If it doesn't charge up right, get a new one. Once that's sorted, and you know you have a good hot FULLY charged-up one in it, see if the car starts. If not, REPLACE your fusible links, YOURSELF. No sense getting ripped off anymore. Then you can drive it to go shopping.

 

Kids these days...Ya buy 'em books & send 'em to school...

 

I have had a similar dead start issue. It could be a number of things... I would start with what everyone else said.

1. Check the state of charge on the battery. If you turn the key and you have juice, you should hear the fuel pump prime. If you turn the key and nothing happens. I would charge, jump or replace the battery.
2. Check to make sure that all of the connections are actually tight. Example, make sure the battery terminals are tight, and make sure that the wires connecting to the starter are also tight. If your pink ignition switch wire isn't properly seated, your igntion won't see any power with key on.
3. I have had fusible links fail in the past. Fairly easy to spot and replace.
4. Could be a bad ignition switch on the steering column, but I bet its something simple and basic.

 

Don't think I got scammed, good guy working on it,said they were loose and corrosion,battery is new and fully charged,all lights come on when turning the KY, just nothing from starter

 

Have you checked power at the neutral safety switch and starter enable relay ? You could have a vats issue. I didn’t see any mention of what was tested and where power was lost ?

 

What works and what doesn't work when it won't start? (besides the starter)

 

Everything works,radio turn signals lights etc,starter doesn't even click,I must say it was these links before, just needing other ideas,ty

 

Well THIMK for a minute about what the fusible links do.

They are like fuses in the lines that feed battery into the car. They act like the main breaker in a circuit breaker box in your house. Imagine if your house had 2 circuit breaker boxes, each with its own main breaker, and you have some electric things that didn't work. You go look at the breakers, and in one box you see (among whatever all else) the kitchen lights and the bathroom receptacles; and in the other you see the oven and the living room receptacles. If you can turn on a kitchen light, then the main breaker for that box CANNOT be bad; and if you can turn on the oven, the other main breaker CANNOT be bad. Same with the FLs.

There are 2 main FLs in our cars. Each one feeds about half of the car. For example, the ignition switch has one feed from each, and the switched side goes to various things. I don't know offhand which goes to what, butt use your imagination: one might feed a contact that switches power to the Acc line (heater, radio, etc.), while the other might feed to a contact that goes to Start and Ign. So, if let's say your heater and radio work, then that one can't be bad; and if the gauges and maybe the 12V feed to the distributor work, then the other can't be bad, even if Start doesn't do what it's supposed to. Make sense so far?

Butt they feed MUCH MORE than the ign sw. One feed goes to the headlight switch for example; ALL of the lights except the brake, turn signal, and interior ones - dash lights, tail lights, head lights, parking lights - go through that switch. Like the ign sw example, if those things are working, then there's batt reaching the HL sw, and that fusible link, whichever one it is, CANNOT be bad. And so on: for EVERY circuit in the car that gets power from a fusible link, if THAT circuit has power, then the FL CANNOT be bad.

So basically, if everything in your car works except for the starter, you have a starter (or its circuit) problem, NOT a fusible link problem. Strike them off your list of potential suspects.

Things in the starter circuit are: ign sw, neutral safety sw, VATS relay, and the starter itself; plus of course however many wires and connectors. Rather than thrashing around in "shop" and "clean" and similar CRAP, track the circuit. 12V should come out of the ign sw on the Start terminal when you turn the key to Start. That 12V goes to the NSS, and 12V should come out of that when the car is properly in P or N and you turn the key to Start. Same for the relay: you'll find 2 fat wires one of which brings in the 12V from the ign sw, and the other sends it downstream toward the starter; and 2 thinner wires, that control the relay. When the conditions that enable the relay (correct key in the ignition) are met, 12V should come in on the terminal that gets it from the ign sw, and the other should send it on toward the starter. Each of these things is like a gate or valve that's either open or closed. VERY SIMPLE, about the simplest kind of wiring there is; cars in general are like that. Everything about the electrical system is as simple as a ball of mud; the only thing that's not simple for all of them is finding them and accessing them. So if you have 12V all the way through, and there's 12V at the starter solenoid terminal (purple wire) when you turn the key, butt the starter still doesn't work, then you need a new starter.

Start at the S (solenoid) terminal of the starter. Work backwards from there if you have to. See if there's 12V there when you turn the key. A test light is all you need for this, you don't even need a fancy high-zoot expensive $15 meter like you can get at Home Depot or Horror Fake. It's TOO EASY. Go check your S terminal with your meter or test light while your assistant turns the key, right now.

 

ty so much ,makes a lot of sense,I need to study my repair manual to figure out exactly which wires are located

 

Thank you so much for the information, however being almost 70 creates some issues,unable to get the car up high enough to comfortably get under to starter, and rally not able to get to it from up top,if that makes sense

 

Thanks everyone for your help especially sofakingdom, problem solved,as some side also maybe simple,had a good neighbor with the right know how and right jacks to get it off the ground and on jackstands and blocked,simple backtrack from battery and to starter,without a whole lot of typing, the issue ended up being the power connection from the solenoid to the starter ,connection was corroded and rusty,cleaned it up reattached and boom the ol 305 roared to life after 2 years,gave her a good bath ,seems to be running on 7 cylinders under a load,but smooth at idle,so that's another issue, and these dang new rain x wiper blades don't want to fit the single pin,on it,smh ,but at least she cranks!