Engine won't turn over

[Jake65]

My father and i just tried to start my 1965 with a 292, and it refuses to crank. It won't turn over by the key, or wiring a switch straight to the starter solenoid. We get juice to the cab when the key is on because lights on the instrument panel will come on. But it will not crank for anything. Any help will be appreciated.

[Heater63]

Make sure you have 13+volts. lights on the panel doesnt mean you have enough to run the starter. Are the headlights bright?
Jump the battery if your not sure.
If the solenoid/starter doesn't do anything you may need to try another starter.

[RANDY COX]

Might be a grounding issue..

[TBONE1964]

Turn the head lights on a then try to crank it over. Do the lights dim while you are in the start position? If so, you may have a bad starter/solenoid. If the lights do not dim, then you have a connection problem to the starter. If it does not crank by using a starter switch, I would pull the starter and have it tested.

Do you have a volt meter to check the battery voltage?

[61_FL_Apache]

Try tapping on the starter with something.

[Jake65]

I appreciate the responses, we don't have the headlights wired up yet so we can't look that way, i will pass the jumping idea on to my dad. We thought about that grounding issue by making or buying a grounding strap to go from the point on the engine block to the frame. We are getting juice to the solenoid via the battery cable and one of the two smaller posts so the starter may be bad. We tried tapping it with a hammer and that still didn't do anything. We have a volt meter and it says the battery is good, so i'm hoping that i don't have to purchase a new starter or have it fixed. More feedback would be appreciated.

[TBONE1964]

So can you jump the starter with a screw driver to see if it will crank that way. You need to jump from the main positive battery cable on the starter to the small terminal that has the purple wire on it. If it cranks then, then you are not getting power to the purple wire from the ignition switch. make sure it is in Park or Neutral when you try this.

[FetchMeAPepsi]

Originally Posted by TBONE1964

make sure it is in Park or Neutral when you try this.

Been there before. You talk about causing a pucker in your shorts!

This same thing happened to me and it turned out the battery cables weren't tight enough on the battery posts. You might take a little sandpaper and scrub 'em down then re-tighten 'em. They can run the lights fine, but if you put the starter's load on it you won't get enough all at once to turn it over.

[wayno]

I've seen a misalign starter engage but not disengage too and reaching down and turning the engine over by hand would cause the flywheel to turn and allow the starter to disengage and I was good to go - just spit balling here.