86' Town Car Wont crank

Hi Guys, I was helping a friend work on his 86' Town Car w/302.
For some reason it isnt cranking over.

He has a new battery, solenoid, and starter.
When you hit the key you can hear the soleniod click but it isnt turning over :screwy:

Has checked all the fuses in the fuse box and they were OK.
Also checked the fusable links at the solenoid, but not at the starter.

Also checked the relays on the drivers side,
front one was intermitant, think its for the FP.
The other two in the back side of the relay carriage were also OK.

Any idea's what would keep it from kicking the starter over?

Thankx for any & all replies :grinyes:

Hi Guys, I was helping a friend work on his 86' Town Car w/302.
For some reason it isnt cranking over.

He has a new battery, solenoid, and starter.
When you hit the key you can hear the soleniod click but it isnt turning over :screwy:

Has checked all the fuses in the fuse box and they were OK.
Also checked the fusable links at the solenoid, but not at the starter.

Also checked the relays on the drivers side,
front one was intermitant, think its for the FP.
The other two in the back side of the relay carriage were also OK.

Any idea's what would keep it from kicking the starter over?

Thankx for any & all replies :grinyes:


well it sounds like something mechanical or electrical. i mean the new starter might be bad altogether. but one possibility is there might be a ground out somewhere either the battery or the starter/solinoid. i know on the older cars the starter and solinoid are seperate from eachother. so here is my suggestion. with the key OFF, tap the solinoid gently with a small hammer and then try and start the car. if that does not work, make sure again the key is OFF and crawl under the car and tap on the starter a few times, then see if the car starts. if it does, then your new starter is actually bad...same with the solinoid if the car does start. if the car still does not start, then it really does sound like that the starter or solinoid are grounding out due to a loose wire or bad connection, one or the other. it could possibly also be a bad ignition coil/electronic ignition. but i really think that something is grounding out. let me know how you make out.

Thanks for the reply.

I personly havent been under the car, and he hooked up the starter also.
So I'm going to look at it tomarrow.
I'm betting its the starter too because everywhere else has proper voltages. Probly forgot a wire or something silly :lol:

I'm just a GM guy, and I didnt know if Ford hid some wierd relay.

Thanks for the reply.

I personly havent been under the car, and he hooked up the starter also.
So I'm going to look at it tomarrow.
I'm betting its the starter too because everywhere else has proper voltages. Probly forgot a wire or something silly :lol:

I'm just a GM guy, and I didnt know if Ford hid some wierd relay.

Na for car starters and solinoids its all the same on all American cars at least. with the older cars the solinoid is seperate from the starter, unlike newer ones. i actually like that better because if the solinoid was bad and not the starter, it was only like a $10 part. however, now if the solinoid is bad you have to replace the entire starter assembly because it is all connected together on the newer cars. inspect the positive battery cable too and make sure there isn't anything the matter with that, no frayed wires or anything that could be grounding out because that can cause the starter to ground out. i had a problem like that on my 96 dakota and the starter wouldnt crank and it was a brand new starter...turned out i needed a battery cable because it was grounding out on the header pipes.

i used to be a GM guy myself...had 2 cadillacs, a 92 deville and a 76 elderado. great cars very reliable, but when you had to work on them, they were a pain in the ass.

just to update it was the starter that was bad, and new :disappoin
Replaced it and cleaned the block grounds, fired right up.