I know, how,does one car gang up on you? It's more that the various little problems have all happened in the last couple weeks.

First, it died on the highway again, the old issue of stalling when coming off a long cruise control run. Cleaning the throttle body fixes that, but the breather hose broke while doing that job.

Then, my darling wife moved the car in the driveway, and cylinder wash ensued. That is very hard on the starter, and it has been cranking,more slowly since. I planned on looking at it this weekend, but it couldn't wait, and now she sits at the airport, refusing to crank or even click.

So this Saturday means a trip to the airport, 50 km away, armed with tools, a jack, jumper cables etc.

I am assuming the starter itself has failed, but I'll check out the electrics first, then beat on the starter and see what happens.

Sounds like a fun weekend ahead.
PS i don't have JTIS with me, how does the starter come out?

 

The postive power distribution has joints at every fuse box on the way to the front.

But remember the big stud at the top of the right hand side false bulkhead. It is nut, ring terminal, nut, stud, nut, ring terminal, nut. So, the only real conduction path is through the threads. Horrible design. You will need to disassemble and clean the male and female threads thoroughly in addition to the faces.

Due to heavy current draw it might have finally given up the ghost. If it was dirty/loose to begin with then it got worse with the heavy current draw during the cylinder wash fix, that would explain the slower cranking afterwards.

Also the battery itself. It just might have been pushed over the edge on the cylinder wash then never recovered, and after sitting at the airport it is truly unhappy.

Starter is connector off, two bolts top and bottom. The top one is not fun. You need some universals and extensions. There is a ground strap in the neighbourhood that you should look at first before suspecting the starter itself.

There should be a link to the PDF version of JTIS up in the stickies.

So ...

1) bulkhead connector (bring some emery cloth)
2) battery
3) ground strap at right side under body running to transmission bell housing

Try jumping it first of course

edit: there is also a black box in front of the spare tire in the trunk that contains the fusible links. the battery feeds through these fusible links. they are flat copper bars that are mounted between screw terminals. unlikely, but you may have drawn sufficient power to burn through these.

 

Does the lights come on when you put the key in position 1? Blow the horn, does it sounds good? If not, then I look at the battery as state by Plums.

Also, check the ignition switch, at times my do not do anything when I try to start my car. Have to get it a couple of tries, before she starts, specially when it is warm outside. Yes, I know, I'm getting to it. lol.

 

The battery is good, and jumping it did not help. Jiggling the sHifter didn't help. The rest will have to wait until Saturday. Thanks

 

To make a long story short, it was the engine ground strap, again. I had cleaned and tightened it before to solve a poor charging issue, but this time it had very high resistance despite still being tight.

I replaced it with another cable, problem solved. I took lots of pictures and may make a how to thread on the topic.

 

Better the strap than the starter ... especially in a airport parking lot.

 

Definitely. I used a set of booster cables hooked from the transmission bellhousing to the shock mount bolts. It got me home where the garage and a hoist did the rest.

 

Creative Canuck lateral logic at its best.