Have you tried jumping the posts on the solenoid to rule that out?

 

Hi Tony, yes I tried jumping from + on battery to starter cable and get clicking. That starter has gotten a lot of use with my carburetor cranking. The starter gets the juice, but I'm guessing it is shorting out.
Thank you

 

Other than pulling the starter for parts store testing; the primary cables and connections (+ and –), and the starter relay (solenoid) are power components. Common component failure is clicking with a good battery, sometimes other stuff goes dark (dash, interior lights, etc).

Cables fresh and test good, and connections clean and tight. There are a minimum of 8 connections in the power circuit:

BAT(+) to cable​

cable to relay​

relay to cable​

cable to starter​

block to BAT(–)​

block to chassis ground (cable or strap)​

If it's 'clicking', that moves the ignition switch and NSS switch to the bottom of the list.

 

I had a mystery issue similar to that; turned out to be an internally broken positive battery cable. Easy fix.

 

Old starter? Burned up after all these years.

 

Yes, and the last few months I've been cranking and cranking.
Thanks Ricky

 

You probably did just burn her out. How old of a starter is it?

 

Or it got hung up in there like my son's did on his granada. If it's been a good one for some time i'd get it rebuilt as the new starters today is a crap shoot on getting a good one. After like 5 starters and flex plate change i finally got a good one off an engine I bought. Took it and a brand new starter in to get a good one the rebuilder had to rebuild the new one! Rivet broke for a brush and a wire loose grounding out to the case. 🙄

 

That happened to me on my 66 galaxie 352 engine, the starter was literally new, less that 1000 miles on it, I tried everything thinking it was something else. The hole time it was a bad starter, luckily I had warranty on it, my opinion just get a new starter and be done with it.

 

Found the problem! I purchased a new starter and jacked up the car ready to install the new one. I removed the cable at the starter (but I noticed that the nut was only hand tight, oh well, that's strange). But I couldn't loosen the mounting nuts. My wrench was too short and it looks as if the nuts had been damaged before and I didn't help. OK, I need to get this thing towed to an auto repair shop. Now 4 weeks later, I remembered about that cable nut that was only hand tight. Let me try again. I jacked up the car again and tightened the cable nut at the starter. Lowered the jack and attached the remote starter cable and that starter works now. I really messed up this one. Once I noticed the cable nut was only hand tight, I should tightened the nut and tried the starter again. Thanks for all your ideas and hints.

 

Glad you figured it out. We have all done things like (or way worse 😬) in our time with old cars.

 

Found the real problem.... The starter did really fail and I couldn't remove the old one. I had the car towed to a auto repair shop. The main issue was that I couldn't get gas to the carburetor. The repair shop found a leak in the rubber hose from the gas tank to the tubing going up front. I kept losing prime at the fuel pump and so no gas. once that was fixed it started right up. They also added electronic ignition. thanks for all your help.
Gary