No Click, No Start 78 Cj5

I have replaced the starter and starter solenoid on a barn find 78 cj5 with a 4.2 I6. brand new battery, I get 12 v on the I terminal on the solenoid when key is turned, I only get 6 v on the s terminal when key is turned..... help please!

 

Welcome.

Tried a jumper direct to the starter (bypassing the solenoid)? See if the starter is good.
Make sure it's in neutral.

Maybe poor connections to the battery. Or a bad solenoid. Or a bad battery. Being new stuff is no guarantee.

 

Check the grounds. Solenoid to mount, starter to bellhousing, bellhousing to block, battery to cable, cable to wherever it is bolted to. A simple check is a jumper cable from battery negative directly to the starter.

 

solenoid needs to be grounded?
.... thats probably my problem as the fenders are off and it is not mounted to anything...

 

jumper directly to starter produced fireworks, but did verify starter is good. connections to the battery are good, solenoid was literally just installed, but I guess it could be bad, although I have gotten exactly the same reults with 2 solenoids now.

 

Yes, floating in the air, it does nothing. The solenoid coil circuit goes through the solenoid bracket to ground.

 

Reading your post again, it seems you get reduced voltage from the ignition switch in the "crank" position. Too little power to activate the solenoid.

Try bypassing the switch by touching a hot wire to the solenoid S terminal. Might be a bad switch, or switch connnections/wiring.

 

mounted the fender and the solenoid to the fender.... at first, turned very slowly jumped. key did nothing. then, I jumped it from my running truck.... fried the solenoid and it wouldn't stop turning! lol smoke came from both solenoid and starter, cables hot. (at least I know it turns over at regular speed now) put the old solenood back on and found that the terminal on the cable to the starter was t[ big and may have been hitting the casing. after fixing that, the jump past the ignition switch turned it at speed, but wouldn't stop, had to pull the battery cable off to stop it ( with s and t terminal wires attached), after disconnecting s and t terminal wires, jumping works well, but once connecting s and t terminal wires, I get a "crackle noise" in the starter on key turn and nothing else. why is it necessary to remove the wires off the terminal to jump past the solenoid? and why do I still get nothing from the key turn? when I turn the key volts on the s terminal with wire attached read 5.8 after jumping around wildly. ( I have thourouly cleand all grounds)

 

Bad key switch or the wiring to and from it?

 

Do you have a multimeter? You either have a bad component or you have connected the wiring wrong. Which wiring diagram are you using?

You can jump the solenoid with the wires connected, if you have everything connected correctly. Jumping between the big terminals on the solenoid using your jumper cables should make the engine crank. the engine should also crank when you jump from the batter terminal to the "S" (for start) terminal on your solenoid. There is also an "I" terminal on the solenoid that sends power to the ignition when cranking. It may or may not be used, depending on the wiring diagram. On a '78, I expect it goes to the blue/white wire on the ignition module, bypassing the ballast resistor wire.

Slow down, stop trying stuff randomly, and be systematic. Trace the circuits one at a time with your meter.

 

Yeah - one thing at a time, or you are chasing your tail.

Try drawing out the wiring plan on a piece of paper, to get an understanding how it works. Then test it section by section.

 

I have a lt blue to the i terminal and a red_white to the s terminal. jumping works with the terminal wires off, so I am assuming there is a problem with one of those wires or a switch they are connected to, going to trace them toady

 

i am using the chilton's diagram from the book for the 78

 

The Chiltons or Haynes manuals aren't great. They cover a lot of years in the same manual, and have a lot of errors. There's a 1978 Wagoneer wiring diagram here, from the Jeep manual. Tom 'Oljeep' Collins FSJ Wiring Page The under-hood wiring is pretty close to the same as the CJ. There's a '77 manual here too, but the wiring changes a lot for 1978. You can get a copy of the 1978 factory manual (the TSM) on CD from RockAuto for about $20.

 

thanks Tim

 

Here is the wiring dia. from my 78 Service manual, I didn't resize it like I do most stuff, as long as Photobucket didn't resize. you should be able to zoom in and read it.



It looks like it has been resized, I have managed to crop the image and it is a 2Meg file, I can email, or Maybe a PM might accept the file. If your intersted.

 

I would love a copy via email? I'll PM you. Thank YOu!

 

I think you are right here, I am printing out some new wiring diagrams and going to try jumping through the igition switch input wires to bypass the ignition switch, see if I get 12 v on the red/white wire to the s terminal then. Thant should confirm the ignition switch or key switch

 

i have replaced the ignition switch with a brand new shiny one, first 2 key turns, it all worked and turned back off when the key was turned back. then it got stuck on. i tapped the solenoid and it stopped. then I turned the key again, and it was stuck again. now I am reading 11 volts on the wire to the s terminal....(with it disconnected from the solenoid) always. even with the key out of the ignition. did I weld the ignition switch as well as the solenoid? is that even possible? all wires traced, checked and verified.

 

I respectfully recommend you make an careful effort to understand, isolate, and then test the function(s) of one item at a time.

Otherwise the confusion can cascade as one problem causes another, and the complexity of a solution increases exponentially.