Thanks Kevin and everyone who responded to this. Here's an update:
This morning I replaced the solenoid with the new solenoid that was in
the parts car. Now it clicks when I turn the key. Tried the screwdriver
across the solenoid terminals and other than a spark there was no
action. Cleaned and tightened the grounds in the engine bay, didn't get
to the underside. Still no action from the starter.
Here's where it gets a little interesting. It seemed like the battery
was getting low. Its one of them fancy-schmancy Optima batteries and I
was a little surprised it was low. I tried jumping it with my wife's
car. I've jumped cars many times before, no problems. When I went to
turn the key while the jumpers were on I saw a small amount of smoke
from under the hood. I couldn't tell where it was from but I hope it was
from the starter since that is coming out anyway.
I put the battery on the charger and it charged up pretty quickly. Until
I got it charged I had no electric (fan, signals, gauges, lights, etc.)
even though the charger wasn't showing the battery fully drained.
Seeing as how I had really bad insomnia last night and maybe slept for
30 - 45 minutes all night and that things were going from bad to worse I
decided to leave it alone and go to work. I'll have to get back to it
this weekend. I did manage to get a good 8 or so days in a row of
trouble free driving in, so that's progress I imagine ;-)
Thanks again,
Robert
K. Valentine wrote:
> Robert,
>
> Before you start checking for bad components;
>
> First, check and clean all the ground wires. A bad ground is usually
> to blame for intermittent starter problems. If the ground at the
> firewall is rusty or loose, the solenoid will sometimes click and the
> starter either will not turn or it will turn slowly. The ground strap
> at the front of the engine (to the steering rack) and the strap from
> the transmission to the car body must be in good shape and making good
> contact for the starter to pull enough amps to work properly. I
> install a 32 inch cable on all the Spridgets my family (wife, son and
> daughter-in-law) drive when scooting the grand kids to baseball
> practice and running errands. Rob's 74 and my wife's Spridget were
> always a problem to start and would not charge properly until I
> installed the extra cable (despite seemingly good factory grounds).
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