1959 Dodge Coronet - starting issues

[WikedPlymouth]

Good evening everyone,

I've got my new/used 326 Red Ram in my car. Engine spins over nicely, I have spark and good oil pressure while cranking. The problem is when I turn the key the engine will crank and attempt to fire but then stop. Then I turn the key and nothing...no clicking nothing happens. I can wait a few minutes and it will sometimes crank again or I can play with the transmission buttons and try going through the gears by pushing them. Sometimes the car will crank again. (Note: I do have a new starter and all new battery cables and a fully charged battery).

I'm wonder if it's possible I have a neutral safety switch going bad on the transmission (it has the 2 speed Powerflight transmission). I did clean the contact wire ends on both the relay solenoid and the switch itself on the side of the transmission. I'm also wondering if it could be the relay solenoid itself going bad? Both of these are original to the car. Is there a way to tell for sure if either are bad? When this issue happens I can't even jump the starter at the relay with a remote switch.

Thanks for any help and guidance.

 

[CBODY67]

I know this might sound flaky, but I had a situation where I started my car 4 times in a row, quickly, but the 5th try got nothing. What fixed it was to wirebrush clean the bat posts and cable ends. There was a grunge between them that apparently was causing the issue. One of the inside/outside cable/bat post cleaners worked great.

Just a thought,
CBODY67

 

[Big_John]

Could be a few things, including the neutral switch.

As @CBODY67 suggested, a clean up of the battery terminals is a great place to start. Clean the wires at the starter and ground to the block too. From there, to test the NSS, the simplest way would be to disconnect the NSS from the starter relay, then put a jumper wire from a good ground to the starter relay and see if your trouble goes away.

One thing to remember is with the jumper, the car will now start in gear, which can be a little dangerous for obvious reasons.

 

[WikedPlymouth]

Did some investigating this morning and determined that the neutral safety switch is bad. I could not get the car to turnover (it did it once briefly) so I disconnected the wire from the safety switch and ran a jumper to a ground. The engine cranked over every time I tried after that. I did not replace the wire, but it looks good. On a positive note, I finally got the replacement 326 Red Ram engine to start. Sounded great and had 50 psi of oil pressure at idle. The car had not run since 1976 and the original motor was locked up. I got this motor from a forum member Finsinthemirror (thanks again).

Now I just need to rebuild the carb. What is the best place for a carb rebuild kit?