New time suck money pit Falcon

[Pathrat]

Hey everyone,
My Falcon was delivered Tuesday. It ran great, and I learned to drive it in the Arvada West HS parking lot. Only killed it twice getting back into my garage. It is not pretty, as you can see from the pics, and there are some rust issues. I need to do some interior repair as well. The wipers worked when I picked it up, but as my friend was driving it home to my house, the wipers stopped working. I have to go get rims Saturday at the Ford yard in Golden, paint them and put tires on that are NOT ready to explode.
I went to pull it out of the garage yesterday and she would not start. I got a grinding, clicky, pop kind of sound. Battery, solenoid or starter. We jumped it and tried a different battery. Nope. And the headlights do come on. I put in a new starter today (the first time I have ever done so all by myself!). Nope. I bought a solenoid. I plan to try that tomorrow.
Suggestions are welcome.

[scout man]

Solenoid was going to be my suggestion. With the new starter in there, try jumping something across the two large terminals on the solenoid. If it cranks the starter than it is likely the solenoid. First thought was dead battery, but clearly you tackled that one already! Of course, also check that all your fuses are present and intact, but in that day and age there were very few fuses to worry about. Probably only have like 6 fuses under the dash I would bet!

[Popsgarage]

And don't forget to check any and all grounds to the starter.

[Hypoid]

Wiggle the cables and see what happens.

[Java]

still a very cool car!! I think it's a rule that if you have 3 things to try, the first two won't fix it.

[Heather]

The Falconrod! Love it! Good luck with it. Looking forward to hopefully seeing it at a night out before too long.

[Jackie]

Kick the left front tire. If that doesn't work, try kicking the...
...nevermind!

Good luck!

[glacierpaul]

X2 on checking the wires esp. the grounds, just had that on my YJ, yesterday.

[Fordguy77]

scout man previously posted:

[Cr33p3r]

Cool Falcon Steph, what year is it 61-63, straight six cylinder or the 260? what plans do you have for it?

[Patrolman]

If I remember, these should have an external solenoid that acts solely as the gate for the power, and has nothing to do with actuating the starter gear. It should be easy to replace and relatively cheap. I think they are known to go out from time to time, probably more often than the starter itself. Money says that fixes it.

[Hypoid]

Pathrat previously posted:

[Jim]

If you have a few bad teeth on the ring gear, and want to get it running - see about rotating the crankshaft several degrees so that "good teeth" are near the starter. To do this you could put the car in gear (emergency brake off) and strap pull the car (I assume it's sitting in the garage) 6" to a foot backwards with another vehicle. This would rotate the engine slightly.

Now, consider leaving the car/engine as-is (with possible bad gears by the starter). Pull the starter so that you could look at the ring gear to see the condition of the gears - do they look terrible (grab a picture and post it)?

[Chris]

When I had my Falcon of that vintage my starter didn't work. As a kid living with my parents and having no money I just pushed started it much to the embarrassment of my parents. For some reason they didn't think it reflected well upon them seeing me push the car, jump in, pop the clutch and drive away.

What do you think Stephanie? It would make a good video when you're dressed up for a night of dancing!

[Pathrat]

I love the comments and suggestions from everyone, thank you!

Kicking the tires did NOT make it run. I cleaned out the garage to get the Falconrod (thanks Heather!) in, and now I have eight rims and ten tires stacked up just waiting for their final distributions.

It was NOT the solenoid, not the starter, not the battery so grounds and wires are what is left. The bartender at the Skylark Lounge has about ten Falcons. He said start with battery cables. Another guy, same thing. I am hearing ground issues. SO, since my friend and I don't know about wiring, and did not go for the obvious first, it was towed down to a shop close to me for a diagnostic. I really, really want to drive it to the Lakewood Grill Car Show event next Sunday.

In the meantime, I did install a seat belt and did an initial fix of the interior. It is FILTHY and needs a good cleaning. I don't want to get my dresses all dirty when I do the clutch pop thing you know.

[Pathrat]

[quote=1freaky1;230395]Cool Falcon Steph, what year is it 61-63, straight six cylinder or the 260? what plans do you have for it?[/quote


Hey Sean! Inline six, the gutless one. What my plans are: I need to do the seatbelts first, and that will require some metal work. I need holes drilled and possibly a plate put down in the rear floorboard. The front floor board is pretty rough. I am going to put a piece of plywood down under the three placemats until it becomes a real issue. The body needs work. I will paint it once I get the fender hole fixed. Getting the trim on would be nice too. I have no plans other than make it run, keep it running and fix things as I go, when I have the cash to fund it.

[The StRanger]

Stay Focused !!!

[Chris]

Faster is better...

[The StRanger]

The StRanger previously posted:

[The StRanger]

Clean !!!