Thread: 302 wont fire PLZ HELP

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Be real careful of what starter and off starter solenoid set up that you have. The new starters have the solenoid built into the can on top of the starter with the one on the firewall being merely a relay for the start signal - and I don't have a clue when these were installed - mid '90s maybe. With the new setup you have 2 heavy wires on one terminal with a lighter one running to the starter - there being 2 wires rather then a single heavy one like the older Fords.

This is what I mean. The sketch on this page is NOT the solenoid I'm using - I'm using the older style, with some mods to my wiring

Now you got me confused. What does this problem have to do with the starter solenoid?

Maybe I misread this thread, but here are the symptoms as I understand them:

• The engine cranks; but no smoke,cough or backfire.
• There is no power to the coil.

Unless you're looking to replace a blown fuse-link, there is no reason to even look at the starter solenoid.

Originally Posted by Joe G

Now you got me confused. What does this problem have to do with the starter solenoid?

Maybe I misread this thread, but here are the symptoms as I understand them:

• The engine cranks; but no smoke,cough or backfire.
• There is no power to the coil.

Unless you're looking to replace a blown fuse-link, there is no reason to even look at the starter solenoid.

Yeah, it's a little confusing. Someone else put this thing together evidently, and wires are hanging loose all over. He has no juice to the coil, and Fords pickup the ignition voltage from the second small terminal on the solenoid generally. That is how the solenoid came into this. We are trying to get him to start at ground zero and see where he is not connected.

Don

Oh. Thanks for clearing that up.

I always thought that the connection from the solenoid to the coil was only hot while cranking - to bypass the resistor and give the coil a full 12v and thus a hotter spark during startup. I have certainly been wrong before. Guess I'll just watch this thread and see if I can't learn something rather than speaking out of school.

Thanks.

Yep, you are right about that wire only supplying juice when the engine is cranking. I actually forgot about that. He will need to get 12 volts from the battery + terminal and hook the wire to the coil +.

Good call Joe.

Don

Originally Posted by Itoldyouso

Yep, you are right about that wire only supplying juice when the engine is cranking. I actually forgot about that. He will need to get 12 volts from the battery + terminal and hook the wire to the coil +.

Good call Joe.

Don

Don - that depends on the vintage of the car/starter. Take a gander at the page I posted above. I sat looking at the instructions for the starter for my project car after owning Fords dating back to '32 and decided I really didn't understand why the battery cable and the cable to the starter landed on the same terminal with the small wire landed on what was originally the starter cable terminal. What Ford has done is make that good ol' solenoid that we all know and love into a relay. The "can" on the starter is now the solenoid with the 'big' wire always hot, the 'small' wire being the wire that comes from the 'relay' as the operator for that 'new' solenoid, being activated by the 'S' terminal being hooked to the starter switch. It took a while for me to get my mind wrapped around that new hookup.

If need be, I can post the rest of the Ford SVT instruction or it can be looked at in the SVT catalog, but it really doesn't tell you a lot more why it has been changed by Ford.

Confusing to any old Fordnatic like me????

With MSD ignition nine times out of ten a failure to start is indication of a bad or non-existent ground. Engine will crank over but no 12v power is supplied to coil or brain box. If the solenoid is bad or faulty, generally the engine will not crank over or will crank over intermittenly. I've experienced both problems.

One thing treese13 never made clear is if he has an MSD Brain box...if he does he needs to check and make sure the box is properly grounded. I had a MSD box that ,keyword here, "had" been properly grounded. When I pulled the old engine that ground wire was broken some how and when the new engine build went back in I could not get it to start....nothing had changed... I finally located the broken ground wire, temped it together and the new engine fired right off. Replaced the wire and never had another ignition problem.

is the distributor in the back like it suppose to be?