92 Ignition Quit Working

Hello- Our 1992 4.3L W Astro ignition quit working. The wife just walked home from the store and told me the van won't start. Here is what it is doing... when the key is turned to the "on" position everything is as it should be. All the light come on and go out as they always do. When the key is turned to the "start" position, the dash lights and guages go out, and the radio stops working. The key turns and returns to on position with no grinding or hesitation and the the dash lights,guages and radio come back on. The battery is fine, all the lights work and do not dim when they key is turned to start. Can anyone who knows ignitions give me some advise on where to start looking? and any tests involved a rookie can do in the driveway. This is our only transportation and will appreciate any help. Thanks for looking at our thread.

does the starter crank? I'd look at battery terimals first-- loose corroded, wiggle them while someone is cranking starter....................

Thanks for the reply. No, the starter does not crank. The entire dash councel and radio lose power. Heres the deal... the headlights and interior lights do not dim or lose power when the key is turned. The battery has a full charge with clean terminals. The instument pannel and councel lights and radio are the only things that lose power ONLY when the key is turned to the "START" position. Otherwise the councel and guages and radio have power when first turned to the "ON" position and regain power when the key is returned to the "on" position from the "start" position. With the fully charged battery, I have to think the problem is in the ignition switch or some related area. Any more ideas are welcome because I'm still stuck at ground zero. Also..... If anyone knows how to jump the starter on this van I'd be interested to see if it will start with the key in the on position. I'd need details on how to do it though. Thanks

Heres something good and bad. Good thing is, the van started right up when I went out and turned the key like I did 50 times over last night. Bad thing is I still don't know what the problem was and if it will come back. I'm happy I didn't have to dig into anything but unhappy at the thought of the wife being stranded again if this was a warning of something going out. Any ideas are still welcome.

if it happens again- try wiggling the shifter arm- it could be your park/neutral switch- is slightly out of adjustment- or try this-- put it in neutral and try- have seen it before on other vehicles.........

Thanks for replying. Those are a couple of the first things I tried. The wife just got home from work and now says it won't start again after driving it on the 40 mile round trip. I have a ignition switch in a parts van that should be the same (94 Safari) Figure if I test the starter first and its not a dead spot in it causing this,then my next step is the switch. I gotta do something or were stranded again. Wish me luck. Thanks

O.k. I let the van sit for a couple of hours and it started right up. This leads me to belive that..... this problem is happening after the van has been driven and is still hot. This is when the problem is happening. After it cools down it functions fine. When its hot , I turn the key and nothing happens, after it cools,it starts. What could be changing between the two that could be causing the ignition to stop working? another mystery or clue? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

O.K..... So my hot-cold theory is shot. Had wife drive it to work, 20 mi, then shut off and see if it would restart. It did. So now this is an intermidden starting problem. :( When it start, the starter cranks just fine, no noises or grinding. When it stopped working last night, I did nothing to it and it started up after sitting 2 hrs. All I did was turn the key, didn't move shifter or anything. I'm going to swap out the ignition switch tonight,just so I'm doing something and not just waiting for it to not work again. Any mechanics out there have any suggestions???? Still a mystery to me. Thanks

Well, I replaced the ignition switch and the van worked fine for a week. Wife woke me up at 6 a.m. this morning saying van won't start again!! It's still doing the same thing. Key on,everythings fine, turn to start and nothing. I'm going to test starter for power and see if I can cross it over to get it to work. Someone mentioned a starter relay. Is there a starter reay for this van , and where would I find it?? Any replys are appreciated. Thanks

O.K so I know there is no starter relay now. I went to check power at starter. Black wire from battery has power. Now I needed my daughter to turn the key so I could test for power at the purple wire. Had test light connected and she turned the key and it started! Scared the snot out of me when I was under it and expecting nothing to happen!! So now it's starting again. Problem is I didn't do anything to it except... I unhooked the battery to try to get the starter out. PB blasted the bolts and tapped on them lightly. This is the original started and doubt it has ever been removed and being a Wisc. van, I can hardly budge the bolts to loosen. I get a slight,slight turn and they stick and I don't have air tools and don't want to strip the heads off. So then I decided to check for power at starter... reconnected the battery and check to see if it would start, and it didn't. Thats when I called the daughter over to turn the key. So now I'm back to square one... it starts but I still don't know why it wasn't in the first place. Possible Solenoid going bad?? Dead spot in the starter my light tapping on the bolts bypassed?? Still confused on any solution. Any help is appreciated. Thanks

I went and rented a air ratchet and got the starter out. When I looked it over, I noticed the small post on the solenoid was loose. It had a small nut on the bottom of it and another on top of that holding the purple wire in place. When i checked for power and touched the purple wire post, the van started. I beleive it moved enough to make good contact and start. I beleive it may have been shaking around while driving and would lose good contact inside the solenoid causing the no start. The purple wire was tight and had good contact with the post. Instead of tightening the lower bolt and reinstalling the starter, I replaced it with one from my parts van. It starts fine now(so far) but the bendix cuts out sometimes. I'll have the original started tested and see if that loose post was the gremlin this time around. Hope this helps any others out there with no start problems only happening once in a while. Thanks