Looking for some ideas on why my car is difficult to start. When I turn the key, the gen and oil lights light up and the fule pump energizes but the starter doesn't make a sound. I can do this five to six times before it will fire up. All leads and grounding points have been cleaned and the starter is a "new" rebuilt just installed. Battery is also new. Anyone?

Does it make a clicking sound at all?

If not, I would suspect your ignition switch is bad.

sorry I'm not much help lol.

we're missing something here in the discription... "after five or six times it willl fire up", do you mean the starter operates (turns the motor over). does it only turn over on the fifth or sixth try? by fires up do you mean cranks over and runs or do you mean just cranks over?

do a voltage drop test on you system. this is checking the voltage loss of the cables & connections. you shouldn't loose more than .2 or .3 volt per connection. if you have say 13.5 volts at the battery, you shouldn't loss more than a volt or two (max.) at the end of the path. leave the voltmeter hooked to the battery negative and touch the hot on the main hot cable at the starter, it should have no more than .5 volt loss (could be cable or connection corrosion). you should also check for a grounding volt drop too. leave voltmeter attached to the pos. on the battery and test the ground strength at the starter body, could be looseing ground (bigger chance of that.) you can then trace the path to the battery backwards to see where the voltage is lost (reduced). the stock grounding goes from battery to body thru (an undersized) cable then from the body to a grounding strap to the tail of the trans., then has to fight it's way up the trans to the starter. the main hot starter goes staight from battery to starter. there is also a small hot lead from the ignition to the (s) terminal that should get full battery voltage when the key is in "cranking posision". way to many places to loss continuity. if you have full continuity and good battery & starter it WILL crank good (assuming there is no internal engine issues).

theres a reason all the newer performance cars add grounding cables everywhere. although the 914 isn't AS voltage sensitive as a modern car it still is computor controlled, relying on actual voltage signals to control engine operation. i have seen big inprovements with added grounds and 30+ years takes it's toll on connections. i'm a firm believer you can't have too many redundant ground paths.

mike

could be a couple of things. First, the ignition switch has a separate set of contacts that supply power to the starter when the switch is turned completely to the right. This portion of the switch may be bad. Or, there could be a problem with the wiring going either to, or from this portion of the switch to the starter, not as likely, but possible. Finally, the rebuilt starter may not be much good.

You can check to see if you get power to the starter by jacking the car up and putting "good" jackstands under it. Have someone put the car in neutral and then measure to see if you have any voltage to the small wire going to the starter solenoid when the switch is turned to the start position. If you have good power to both the large wire where it hooks to the starter, and also good power to the small wire that hooks to the solenoid on the starter, then the ignition swithc and all wires from it to the starter are good; and the starter or the solenoid switch on the starter is bad. The wires from the switch to the starter also go through the relay board in the engine compartment behind the driver. When the switch is turned to start, there should be voltage at the terminal 1 on the front connector. This terminal is the one on the front right side of the 14 pin connector. the power comes out of the relay board through pin 6 on the rear 12 pin connector. I almost forgot, make sure that the ground strap from the transmission to the body has clean and tight connections.

The mechanical portion of my ignition switch failed a while back. Before it failed, everything worked on the 3rd or 4th twist of the key. Starter never kicked in until then.

Hot wire the car, bypassing both mechanical and electrical portions of the switch.

BUT you should really test if your getting proper (or any) voltage the s terminal on cranking cycle first. otherwise you could be just throwing parts and labor at it.

Gary...everyone's already called it...Ignition Switch. Replace the plastic insert which has the contacts (cheap) or take your ignition to a bug house and they'll have a direct replacement with key and all for $15.

It only takes a moment. Check it at the solenoid and the relay board. Probablility screams ignition switch but it is too easy to confirm with a volt meter before wrenching.

I just went through this on my car. I had the hot start relay, cleaned grounds etc. I replaced the starter 3 times and the problem remained. Ignition switch did it.

OK, after reading the replies to this post and several other conversations, I've come to the conclusion that it may be my ignition switch. Orderd one from Pelican and it should be here by mid week. What I've read on line and in a book at home, I need a 29 MM or 30MM socket. Can someone tell me with certainty what size socket I actually need?

Oh yeah, thanks to all those who responded. Ya gotta love this place.

For the steering wheel?
Mine is 27mm or a 1 1/16 works