I may have asked this before, but i am still having the problem,so... My bird(91 V6) will only click once when i turn to key to start it. New battery and starter. and i don't believe its due to heat, because it did it this morning after sitting for over 8 hours!

What else could it be? It will always start, you just have to keep trying until she wants to turn over. I even had a young kid laugh at me at the gas station after i stomped his Scoupe( or is it s-coupe) Not that i am bragging about beating that car, he wanted to race not me. Anyways, any ideas. I have also tried to tighten every connection i can find.

 

ignition switch (key cylinder) or switch itself? is there a relay for it?

 

By that, do you mean that you need to go from "off" to "crank" a few times? And each time, it just makes a click, and then finally, the starter works? Did this new starter come with a solenoid, or did you bolt your old solenoid on top of the new starter?

I wonder about the battery cables... are they clean at the battery, the engine, and starter? Are you missing the ground strap between the back of the passenger side head and the firewall?

Also, how's your alternator? You said you just replaced the battery.. maybe the alternator is also shot, and not charging the new battery enough to get the starter going. Just put a meter on the battery with the car off; should be 12 volts. Start the car, check the battery voltage again- should be around 13.8 volts.

I would've said "VATS!" but you are getting a click from the solenoid...

 

It came with a new solenoid attached. Battery connections are good. I will have to check for that ground strap. The damn thing just did it on my lunch break. I turned it 3 times and it just clicked(once) The fourth time it started right up?

 

I have the same problem with my 91 z28, here's my situation:

three new starters with three new celinoids, one new clutch switch, one new iginition switch, so this leads me to believe it's somthing with the vats? anyone know anything about VATS?

 

have batt brought in for checking, even new ones can crap out on ya.

 

Check the vats If the key is dirty in the place were it contacts the Resestence will be higher and that will provent the car from starting. I think the first couple of times the dirt on the key will be scraped off and that is why it starts on the fourth time.

 

And even worse, if the "fingers" inside the ignition switch break, they'll charge you $200 for new fingers. The VATS bypass would be the answer, and there's an article on VATS in thirdgen.org's tech section (off the main thirdgen.org page).

I believe KevinS was able to bypass his VATS by using a non-vats ignition switch, you might want to hunt him down and shoot him a message.

 

I bet it's the vats. I had the same problem.

 

You might also check if you need shims for the starter. The bendix gear might be meshing incorrectly with the ring gear. Most chevy starters come with an alignment tool to check the clearence between the starter gear and ring gear.

 

I had the same problem with my 92 v8 firebird. What happened was my starter was going bad so I had to switch on and off until it would finally turn over. But in doing that for an extended period of time I believe that I wore out the ignition switch. So now the problem is my sons and all he has to do is turn the key slowly and that way he finds that right spot for the ignition but if he rotates the key all the way forward he gets nadda. The switch is dead all the forward.