Long story short, my initial plans of replacing exhaust gaskets turned into rebuilding the cylinder head on my evo. With the help of my good buddy Talha, we got the head back on. I buttoned up the rest of the car and went to start it yesterday. Plugged the battery in, turned the key, got nothing. No clicking, just nothing. I figured the battery was dead since it was sitting in the cold unused for about a month. Had it charged at the local auto parts store and picked it up today. Went to put it back in the car and tried again, same thing. Nothing. I noticed the thermostat housing was leaking coolant (just filled it up yesterday) and some of it got on the positive post of the starter. I'm wondering if that shorted it out or something? In the meantime, I unbolted the thermostat housing and let the coolant drain. I'll come back another day to put on a new gasket and a new thermostat and see if it still leaks.

But as far as the starter, I'm not sure how to go about diagnosing the issue. Hence my post. What do you guys think?

 

Might be your ignition switch, same symptoms usually, lights in the dash stay on and car dosnt crank or click at all, a cheap and quick fix, autozone should have the part, hope it helps, but id also check the starter terminals for corrosion and looseness.

 

Using a test light, check if the battery cable is hot at the starter. Then unplug and check if the control wire is hot when the ignition switch is turned to start.

 

You need to check the voltage at the starter. The thick power wire should be hot all the time. The thin power wire should be hot when the key is applied.

That should be the first step.

 

Thanks for the help guys. What kind of voltage should I see at the starter? I suspect I have a weak ground due to a bad cable from negative terminal to the body. I will be replacing that as well, but I want to know if it's getting what it needs.

 

you should see roughly 12.6 volts. also if you checked voltage drop from starter positive to ground while cranking it should show same.

 

Thanks! I'll do some testing tomorrow hopefully and see what's what. I hope I didn't burn out the starter!

 

A starter will pull as much current as it needs. Those amps need to get back to the battery. A flaky cable needs to be replaced whether the starter is bad or not. Also, make sure any grounds that might have been disconnected for the head job got reattached. People have burned up the engine loom due to a disconnected ground.

 

you can only check the voltage while it is cranking - this circuit must be loaded to get accurate measurements that will help you.

 

I'm absolutely replacing the negative battery - ground cable regardless. I'll double check and go through the wiring to make sure grounds are attached, but I think I was pretty thorough. I've done countless engine / head builds on DSMs, but this is my first evo so it's possible I overlooked something. Plus I removed the air conditioning and emissions equipment while everything was apart. I noticed that two plugs on the harness are not connected, and I'm confident one was for the a/c, the other for emissions.

 

Red post gets about 8-9v which I attribute to the bad ground cable that I will replace. The other post gets 0v even when key is turned. Looks like the ignition switch is bad. Now that I think of it, it's always given me a little bit of trouble as I had to turn the key in just the right way for it to start.

 

Put the key in the ignition and turn it to the "run" position

Jump 12V through a jumper wire to the post that has 0v when the key is turned. If the key is in the run position the engine should crank.

The is a scannerdanner video of this on a dodge neon (I believe)

search youtube

 

I'm pretty sure that exact thing happened by accident. While my helper was in the car trying to start it, I accidentally jumped the two posts and the starter moved. More confirmation of the ignition switch.

 

 

Sounds like you got it figured out! Ive been having a pesky starting issue all year too. Mine gets power everywhere when needed. Every once in awhile though, the starter wont turn. I get the click of the solenoid, fuel pump runs, but the starter wont turn. The starter can be jumped with a screwdriver everytime and start.

Ive swapped out the ignition switch with a buddies and got the same thing, this is on my 2nd starter as well and still have a no start every once in awhile.