Starting Issues

[WCM]

Good morning,

I'm new to this forum and looking forward to some interesting conversations. I recently became the owner of a 1981 Fiat Spider. The good thing is I got it from my brother that owned it for 12 years. He did warn me of an issue that he always had with the car and I'm hoping to get it resolved here.

Here's the problem. The car runs fine, but it has a bad habit of not wanting to start sometimes. The car starts but every once in awhile you turn the key and nothing happens. There is a clicking noise at the starter but the car will not turn over. But, if you wait like 20-30 minutes she will start right up. I brought it to my mechanic and he thought it was the starter. I had the starter installed last Friday and everything seemed fine. I took the car out Saturday morning for a couple of hours running around, stopping and starting the car like there was nothing wrong. Then at my last stop the car would not turn over. I waited 30 minutes and sure enough it started just fine. Thinking and hoping it was a fluke, I took the car out yesterday for a long drive in the morning and everything was fine. I took the car out again in the afternoon for a couple of hours and when I stopped for a water the same thing happened, All I heard was a clicking sound at the starter. I waited 30 minutes and sure enough it started right up.

Any help, ideas or a solution would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You,

WCM

[RRoller123]

The dreaded "click of death". Could be a bad ignition switch (very likely), or the connections at the first white block connector, C31, that is just downstream of the ignition switch, about 6" or so. (also very likely)

Could be the two bullet connectors for the wires under the intake manifold that go to the starter, (one is heavy Red, one is heavy Brown), or could be the connection these make to starter itself, especially at C50. There are a lot of connections between a notoriously unreliable ignition switch and the starter. Check, clean and tighten all those connections carefully!

Many replace that red "50" wire from the ignition switch and use it as a trigger for a relay to pull in the solenoid. That seems to get around many of the flaky ignition switch problems. Even the replacement LADA (Russian) switches have issues, right out of the box, (or soon afterwards). But the idea is that they still will put through enough voltage to trip the added relay and pull in the needed line to the starter solenoid.

Pete

[WCM]

Thanks Pete. I appreciate it.

Wayne

[spider2081]

Wayne where are you located? There maybe someone in your area who can assist you.

[WCM]

I'm from the Northwest side. My brother always took the car to Autosprint on Addison and I plan on doing the same. I met Giovani last week. Just waiting patiently to get in.

Wayne

[Ragno124]

Giovanni at Autosprint is the master in Chicago. Unfortunately, they are always busy this time of year.

[joelittel]

Brian downtown at Willow Automotive knows FIATs and runs a very respectable shop. If you cannot get in to see Giovanni I recommend Willow Automotive.

http://www.willowauto.com

[gionetos]

Hello, I am having the same issue, I am about the ck the terminals at the ignition switch, hopefully they are just dirty so a good cleaning should take care of the problem, if not I will purchase an ignition switch. was your issue resolved?, if so what did the trick? thanks in advance