No click

- Resistance between negative battery to starter case: 0.3
- Voltage at the the battery: 12.73
- Voltage at the starter: 12.73
- Voltage at the ignition spade while cranking: 12.53

If I connect a remote between the battery lead on the starter and the ignition spade on the starter and a multimeter to the battery lead, voltage drops from 12.7 to 2, when I press the remote. The starter doesn't click or engage. (I don't know what to think of that)

I just got the starter back from a local rebuilder with a good reputation. Before I take it back and have him check it, does anyone have any ideas?

Resistance between chassis and starter case is way too high at .3 ohms. Needs to be zero.

Starter solenoid wants to draw 25A. The voltage drop across .3 ohms at 25A draw is 7.5v (lost). Given you are measuring 2v with solenoid trying to pull current, I’d say it’s all pretty close and that you are losing more than 7.5v in the ground strap vs theoretical.

Start by cleaning the ground stud (under trunk) and replacing your ground strap between chassis and transmission (most common problem). It is also possible the resistance is in the negative cable between the battery and the chassis. Or a little of each. I’ve seen plenty of cars with both problems.

You can test more directly by putting negative from battery right to starter case and positive from battery right to the solenoid + with jumper cables if you want to test it more directly.

Good info thank you

Check to make sure your battery is healthy. I've seen them read a usable voltage when sitting and not be able to deliver enough amps to crank anything over. Check that the battery terminals are clean too.

I did at one point buy a 3 foot black ground lead that bolted to the upper start bolt, and the negative battery terminal…solved it.

Then I finally found new ground strap for trans to body…fixed the issue.

Do you have an extra? Such an easy swap, it's almost worth it to have two for troubleshooting. Sadly the quality of reman units is so low there's a good chance both can be bad...

Got it to crank, short of it is the battery screw down on the hot side was corroded.

//

I checked the ground, cleaned it, nothing changed. I checked the leads they had a .3 resistance IN THE LEADS, my stupid fault for not verifying. Grabbed a different set of leads and rechecked 0 resistance showing in the leads 0 between the ground and the starter body.

Redid all my checks no difference. Except 0 ohms on the ground.

You mentioned using a set of jumper cables tried that starter turned over. Then tried each side in turn. Jump ground, no go, jump hot, turns over. Check resistance between battery and cable, 0.6. Pull the screw down apart, all corroded.

Click to view attachment

Grab a new screw down, transfer all the wires, starter turns over!!

I was checking the voltage on hot, and the resistance on ground, but never checked the resistance on hot.

Thanks for your help, she hasn’t started in 20 years, and she’s not quite there, but I’m a little closer.

Glad you found it.

Here’s my notes from this, hope it helps someone and please comment with any changes you would make.


Notes on: Troubleshooting a Starter
============

_**Note**: Measure resistance across all test leads and jumper wires before using and after every reconfiguration. Leads and jumpers should always show 0 resistance._

Just a Click/No Click
----------------

### Quick test ###
A quick test is to connect a set of jumper cables between the battery and the starter, and then use a remote start switch between the positive starter pole to the ignition terminal. If you can't clip the ground directly to the starter find a part of the engine case as close to the starter as possible. If the starter turns over repeat with just the hot side, then just the ground. This can help isolate the problem, but won't necessarily pinpoint the cause. Ensure the battery is above 12.7, this won't show you anything if the battery is too low to turn the motor.


### Troubleshooting Steps ###
- Check the voltage at the battery: should be above 12.7
- if not charge battery
- Check the impedance between the battery posts and the screw downs: should be 0
- If not, Make sure the screw downs are tight
- Clean the screw downs and posts
- Check the inside of the screw down for corrosion.
- Check the voltage drop between the positive post on the battery and the positive post on the starter, should be less than 1
- If not replace the cable from the battery
- Check the resistance between the positive post on the battery and the positive post on the starter, should be 0
- If not replace the cable from the battery
- Check the resistance between the negative post of the battery, connected to ground and the starter case, should be 0
- If not check the ground from the battery to the car, and car to the engine.
- Clean all connection points, of each ground.
- Check each cable for resistance after being cleaned. Replace any above 0
- Securly reconnect all grounds and verify 0 resistance.
- Verify the voltage of the ignition terminal while cranking should be above 12.3
- Troubleshooting ignition switch voltage drop is a separate lengthy process, a relay maybe added near the starter if ignition switch voltage is to low.
- If everything checks out above consider a bad starter.