Starting issues

Habusailor

Habusailor

Senior Member
I have a 1957 Fairlane 500 with a 312 engine. It ran good a few weeks ago when I went to start it yesterday it seemed as though the battery was dead. I put the charger on and it acted like the battery would not take a charge so I installed a new battery.
Then I tried to start the car but it will only run with the ignition switch in the start position. Could it be the resistor block, or ignition switch? I also put a bushing in the shift linkage to take out some play, could the neutral switch be out of adjustment?


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Are running a pertronix? Or electronic ignition of some type?

Maybe first start with a known good battery.

If your Ignition switch is hanging up. You can put it in the open position and actually fire it with a starting cable within the engine compartment. Kinda like hotwiring it.

If you think it's a neutral safety switch, you can just bypass it. Unplug the two lines and connect them to themselves and make sure you're in Park when testing this out
 
The neutral switch should interrupted the “start” wire to the solenoid. So if it cranks, that’s working. When in the “start” position, with the starter solenoid closed, power to the points is a full 12 volts off the second small terminal. When you release the switch to “run”, the circuit from the switch run position powers the coil by way of the ballast resistor. Put the switch in the run position and see if you’ve got power at the ballast resistor input (12 volts) and ballast output (to the coil) of 6 or so.

My guess (big guess) is maybe the ign sw failed, or the wiring from it to the coil. I don’t have a 57 diagram, so I don’t know how that all runs in your harness.
 
Follow up on what was wrong, ignition switch checked out ok, started looking for spark and there was some at times and then none. Pulled distributer cap and the wire going to the points from the coil fell off at the points, it was hanging on by a few strands. One of those odd situations. I replaced points and condenser with electronic ignition and it runs great. Thanks for your thoughts on this but no one could have solved this over the internet. Lucky trouble shooting


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Glad it’s fixed. Never would have thought of that. But I can see where a poor connection, on a well tuned motor, summer temperature, would make enough to start, but not enough to run through the ballast resistor. File that away for the future.
 
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