Darth Z

I' ve had this problem for a while now, but it went away at one point. It' s suddenly returned and rears it' s ugly head a lot more often. When I go to start the car, clutch depressed ofcourse, I don' t always get power to my ignition switch. Sometimes if I continue holding the ignition switch, it will try to start after a few seconds. Other times I have to let completely off the clutch, and try again. Is this just a simple sensor replacement? Anyone have a part number if so. I doubt it matters, but the car now has 100,500 miles on it.

1gen

iTrader: (1)

mine does that too, and I only have 32K on mine, anyone have a part number?

Darth Z

I still haven' t fixed this issue, and here lately it hasn' t been too often.

1gen

iTrader: (1)

mine is never for a week or so then it seems like every day itll happen for a while then nothing

Darth Z

Yea, it' s very strange how it only acts up from time to time.

1gen

iTrader: (1)

seems like mine happens just after its been sitting a while but the other day it happened in a drive through when I shut it down, I hear that it should be covered under the 5yr/ 100000 mi warranty

Castrellon

Yeah, sounds like the clutch start switch. My dads T-100 does that, but it has a clutch switch cancel button to by-pass it, for backing up to a trailer I guess. Any way, it works soon as you hit that button. You could replace it or just by-pass it permanently. Got a '69 Nova that came with a 'glide and swapped it for a Muncie and I didn't put a clutch start switch on it.

DAVESS02

iTrader: (30)

Your starter needs a new solenoid on it. Mine did the EXACT same thing after I had my car for two months. I wondered if it was the clutch switch as well. Turnes out that the braided wire that attaches from the starter brushes to the lower solenoid corrodes on the nut and breaks down the voltage. Anyway, pull the starter off, disassemble it and clean all the contacts, check the brushes and replace if necessary, grease the roller bearing in the nose, and replace the solenoid as they are fairly inexpensive. You will need an inverted torx socket for the solenoid bolts. They are the "E" series sockets. Good luck!

Darth Z

I' m SOL on both counts. 6 years, and 113k miles.

That sounds like a royal PITA!

JLMoses

iTrader: (3)

mine hasnt started in about a week now....cant figure out what is wrong with it..there isnt any power at all goin through the starter and ignition.....maybe its the Clutch start switch. Where are they located and how much money are we talkin?

DAVESS02

iTrader: (30)

Maybe, I guess I like to tinker more than the average guy plus I'm a mechanic so I have the tools. The easier alternative is to buy a rebuilt starter, its just more expensive.

Darth Z

I' m all up for tinkering, just don' t know if I have the patience for something that intricate. Is it a pretty straight forward process?

DAVESS02

iTrader: (30)

I've rebuilt dozens of chevy starters and the newest ones arent much more difficult. I will say this, if you dont have the right inverted torx socket, dont bother. One more thing, the brush plate has a tendency to corrode as well. Make shure the back plate it attaches to is free of corrosion also. The only reason I did mine was that the brushes were still in very good condition and the solenoid only cost me $15 or so. If the starter drive and brush plate were bad as well, I might have considered a rebuilt one. You might even think about seeing if you have a local starter/alternator shop by you. The one here rebuilds stuff for 1/2 of autozones rebuild costs and they are very reputable. At any rate, reading your story was like 100% dejavu for me. I had to resort to clubbing the starter with a hammer!!

JLMoses

iTrader: (3)

so any of u know how hard it would be to figure out if it is the clutch switch thats causing my problems? i just dont think that any fire at all is goin on with mine. Ran fine one day..parked it.....few days later...NOTHING....no starter click or nothing...just a blank when turnin the key...as if the clutch wasnt pressed....

DAVESS02

iTrader: (30)

You need to get the car up on jack stands so you ca get to the starter. Unplug the purple colored 10 gage wire from the spade terminal on the starter. Have someone turn the key while you check for voltage at the wire you unplugged, with a test light. If you've got power there, then the starter is bad. BTW, this also could be caused by a bad key or lock cylinder. If the resistor chip in the key gets rounded and worn badly at the ends, it wont touch the pickup contacts inside the key switch. I'm not familiar with the exact location of the clutch switch. Maybe a GM tech or someone with a service manual could chime in. I suppose this also could be caused from the ignition switch being bad at the bottom of the column. Anyway, start with the starter wire.

JLMoses

iTrader: (3)

aight....well when my ignition went out the "security" light came on and wouldnt start....from where the chip wasnt making a connection so i dont think it is that.

Castrellon

Hang on. I think we need to go back to square one. Are battery terminals clean? If corroded, that could be it. 113K? That's pretty old. Could be corroded starter wire. Also being it's 113K, if it's the original starter that's bad, just swap in a new one.
As DaveSS02 was saying it could be the switch on the colomn too. Only way to check that with out droping out the colomn would be to hot wire it. You could also put remote starter switch on it at the starter and see if that works.

Darth Z

It' s the original starter, but it' s actually been doing it for several thousand miles, maybe even during the 80-90k mile range.