This is an '89 RS w/ a 350 and an '88 TPI setup. I'll start the car....drive somewhere, and when I go to start the car back up, nothing happens. Sometimes the starter clicks, but most the time it does nothing...when i turn the key, I get power, and the gauges go up, but engine does not turn over. If I let it sit a few hours, it'll start. But if i dont drive anywhere, I car start it and restart it all day...no problems...it's just after I drive and it warms up. The starter and battery are new, alternator is less than a year old, all have been tested and are fine. All wires and fusible links "look" fine. This may help...the day it happened, I put on the new starter, drove an hour and a half somewhere, cut it off, and it wouldn't restart. I took a look under the hood and noticed that the pos. battery cable had burned through to the wires on the headers...i assumed it did that on my drive because I'd never noticed it before. This why I think the fusible links may be at fault....at least i hope that's it and not the ignition switch. Fusible links and ignition switch are the only 2 things I can think of. Please help guys. Gimme any ideas, and tell me how to check for possibilities. thanks a lot

If it is the igniton switch....my car is an '89 so it has vats...my key has a chip in it. Well the TPI setup and computer is an '88 so it's it doesn't have VATS. So if I have to replace the ignition switch, do I have to get one set up w/ vats (yellow wire, chip in key), or can I get a regular igniton switch? thanks.

 

Sounds like a heat soaked starter to me. Insulate the starter(heat shield) or hook up a Ford style solenoid, and that should solve the prob

 

You say the battery is new, how new? Replaced before or after this problem started? Same with teh starter, a little confused on how you put it, you say the day it happened, youput on the starter and then it wouldn;t restart after a drive.

Basically, if the problem started after you put either of those in, i would suspect it. What you're describing could be either the starter/solenoid or the battery deciding to flake under heat. I don't care if it's new, and there is no real good way to 'test' either. If one part is older than the problem, i would suspect it, even if it was a day old when it started, because bad parts come out of boxes all the time, and assuming they are good cuz they are new just leads you in circles.

Also, did you replace the burnt positive cable? It could be damaged, and could have been touching that header slightly hurting it over time. The resistance of metal increases with temperature and thus it could be acting up when hot.

 

Well when this problem started, the battery in there was about a year old....i just swapped it out for a new battery the other day in hopes that was it....but it's not the battery. The problem started when I put the new starter on, but when this this problem started, I thought it was a result of a bad starter, so I swapped it out too. So I know it's not the starter. I also replaced the burnt cable...that was the first thing I did.

 

makes since...but I dont know if that is my problem because I've had the headers on there a year (put them on when I put the 350 in). I did go to a 350 starter when I put the starter on a few weeks ago (old starter was the 305 starter from when I had from before my swap to 350)....so maybe the fact that it's bigger is the problem (at least I hear they're bigger...i dunno) You think that if I went back to a 305 starter this might help? But the fact that I've had headers for a year and made as long as 5 hour drives w/out having this problem...but now if I make a 10-15 minute drive around the block, it acts up as described.....makes me think that I might have another problem. I hope not thought....if a heat shield is all I need, I'm getting off easy :lala: thanks.

 

My 91 350 did the same exact thing. The starter was getting heat soaked like the other guy said. I put the ford solenoid on it and it never did it again!! Do that or insulate your new starter!

 

Well I put on the heat shield from jegs (flexible alumized one)....didnt work. I put it on, started the car, let it idle until it got to about 170*...shut it off....wouldn't start back up. I'm so disgusted w/ my car right now. I go back to college in 12 days and need to get this fixed. If anyone's got any ideas lay em on me....if i cant get this fixed, my car is going to the dealership (i've never had any car of mine in a shop). thanks guys.

 

i took a ford solenoid and remote mounted it near my right side strut tower, just wrapped the power cable to the starter, everything is just fine now

with the heat from my headers i'd heat soak the stock solenoid in no time, it sucked