No power to starter

[76k5blazerr]

Alright guys. Went over to my buddy's place for dinner tonight, truck ran just fine on the way their, and has been running great for about the past 5 months with no problems. After dinner I go out to go home and the truck won't start. It has power to everything else (lights, radio, wipers, etc.) but when I hit the starter button (my truck has a starter button in the dash, you turn the key to run and then hit the button to start) nothing happens. This has never happened before. I wiggled a bunch of wires that have to do with the ignition and still got nothing. Thinking I will replace the starter button tomorrow and go from there. Need to get my truck home. Any ideas? It couldn't be the ignition switch could it? The one way down in the column, not the lock cylinder. Amy ideas will be appreciated before I head back over there in the AM to try and get her running.

 

[diesel4me]

I'd start at the battery terminals...might be gangrene there--take the cables off and scrape off the terminals and battery posts--try again--still nothing..then check the cables...you could try jumping the solenoid with a screwdriver to see if it'll crank to see if the switch is bad...(hard to get at it though)..could be the starter itself just croaked too..

 

[76k5blazerr]

I'd start at the battery terminals...might be gangrene there--take the cables off and scrape off the terminals and battery posts--try again--still nothing..then check the cables...you could try jumping the solenoid with a screwdriver to see if it'll crank to see if the switch is bad...(hard to get at it though)..could be the starter itself just croaked too..

Both battery cables are brand new.

 

[diesel4me]

Then I'd try jumping the solenoid to see if the starter works..it should crank if the battery cables are OK...assuming they are making good contact to the battery itself..

Use caution--it could be the neutral safety switch is not "in park or neutral" that is preventing it from cranking,if you even have it hooked up--have you tried moving the shifter up and down with the starter button activated ?...sometimes the NS switch will go out of whack and wont let it crank,or let it crank & start "in gear".


If you try jumping the solenoid,leave the ignition OFF when you jump the starter,in case its in gear,just to see if it'll spin over at all..

--I've nearly run myself over trying to jump a solenoid once,with the key on--trying to get my truck to start when I was alone,and something kept the starter from working with the key,in a store parking lot..
..I had pushed the truck out of the way of other cars so I could fool with it--and left it in what I thought was "neutral",but when it fired up it was actually in gear--luckily a curb was against the front tire and kept it from going right over me....if you have a helper its best to have them apply the brakes,if you try starting it by jumping the solenoid..

 

[76k5blazerr]

Fixed it, it was just my starter button.

 

[Babaganoosh]

Had the same thing happen to me before. Ended up grabbing some hot wire and touching it to leave school.

Later on I fixed my column.

 

[campfire]

Had the same thing happen to me before. Ended up grabbing some hot wire and touching it to leave school.

Later on I fixed my column.

This. Much better to hotwire the truck than hafta walk home.

For future reference, the clutch safety switch is the last item in the circuit upstream of the solenoid. If you need to crank it without the ignition, apply +12V to the output wire of the switch (this will bypass the neutral and ignition switches). On my '83 this output is the purple wire, but YMMV. Also, being an automatic, my connector is jumpered over and hanging somewhat loose. Very handy for this purpose.