Turn ignition key - clicking noise and nothing else...

Standard first two are battery & immobiliser - can you try a jump start to rule out latter ?

 

Start checking grounds. Wish I was near you looking to test my new powerprobe

 

Andy, either your battery couldn't hold the chage even when charged overnight , means bad battery or you have loose or poor connection somewhere. Have you tried jump starting it?

 

Clicking sound is usually starter solenoid firing off, but not able to energize starter. Almost always a low battery issue or bad ground. Your "immobilizer" comment concerns me, because these did not have a factory alarm system. If the alarm system has gone bad, it could be inhibiting the start.

 

The clicking is likely the starter not getting enough power from the battery to engage. This sounds like a classic bad battery. I agree - easiest thing is to try and jump start it. If you still get clicking its most likely a bad ground or a bad starter motor. If jump starting isn't an option for some reason than A volt meter is cheap and you can use that to test the battery to see if it has enough charge. You could also pull the battery and take it to an auto parts shop to have tested. I'm still betting its a bad battery. If the battery is good, move on to ground wires and then starter motor.

 

You've probably already checked that the battery connectors are tight and free of corrosion, but if not then that's the first (and easiest) place to start.

 

After de-immobilising & turning the ign. key on, does the fuelpump start running/buzzing ? A fuel pump can/should also respond to a less charged battery. Without pump it's probably the immobiliser ?!

 

Hi Andy, check the feed to the starter.
Just jack the car up from the drivers side then block it so it's safe (never rely on the jack)
Then find the starter solenoid wire (White I think) (it's red on mine) anyway its the positive wire to the solenoid, get your meter set to volts and connect positive probe to the solenoid positive and ground the negative probe one the meter to the engine. Then get a friend to go for a start and see what voltage you get....
If it's anything over 10 volts ish, then you have a starter problem and anything under and you have an earth or alarm or a connection at the battery or the battery switch cut off etc etc fault to find.
All the best Bell

 

Hi Andy, happy new year. Sounds like it's the starter sticking on its bushes, and not enough power to turn it over. Remember the old trick of giving the starter a tap with a hammer. If it was more easy to get to I would say put a direct positive supply to the starter. Mine use to do this occasionally when not been used for a while. In the end I replaced it with a high torque lightweight starter. It's a pig if a job to take off as original is very heavy. Good luck

 

Do the headlights look bright? What does your voltmeter say the battery voltage is with the headlights on?

A battery can show good voltage just sitting there but have no power to do any work.

 

This ^^

 

Turn on the headlights, then try to start. If the headlights go really dim while starting, then it is most probably the battery feed (battery, battery ground wiring).

If the headlights don't change, then it's either the large supply wire from the battery to the starter, or the wire terminal or solenoid switch. Continue by giving the solenoid a tap with the hammer, as recommended by Gavin. If that does not help you need to get access to the startet to check the wiring and probably disassemble the solenoid for cleaning.

Good luck,
Adrian

 

Solenoid or dead/weak spot on the starter. I'd bet on the latter. My 308 does this on occasion. A couple of attempts gets the starter past the weak spot and then it starts fine.

 

If you have eliminated the battery, which seems to be the case, the cause would be only just enough voltage is getting to the solenoid when its energised owing to a voltage drop in the current path to it. This could be a corroded connector, bad contact in the ignition switch or a bad relay contact in the immobilizer. If the voltage is going missing in the circuit the solenoid might not engage properly sometimes, and this problem usually is worse when the starter is hot in these cases.
The check that Bell mentioned above is the proper way to confirm this if it does happen again.

Also is the immobilizer installed correctly using soldered joints and not those dreadful 3M crimp connectors. If the latter, remove it or re-install using soldered joints.

 

#1 culprit for all "going nowhere" electrical issues I've had in the cars I've owned. Whilst they are the last to get installed, they are so often the first to fail due to shoddy workmanship & materials. If the quick hammer bash doesn't work first, I'd weed out the immobiliser.

 

First the solenoid. It's just a switch that connects the battery to the starter motor windings. They typically fail because the contacts are making a high current connection and over time the contacts can become pitted and don't conduct as well. So when you turn the ignition switch the solenoid closes but due to the poor contact insufficient current passes throw and the starter motor doesn't have sufficient torque to turn the engine. Turning the ignition on and off a few time may result in finally making sufficient contact for the starter motor to do its job.

Second, weak spot on starter. As you probably know, a typical starter motor has many segments (windings) to the armature. Current is supplied to each segment, one at a time as the armature rotates, through the contact of the brushes to the communicator. One of these segments can become weak due, for example, poor contact between the brushes and that segment's contacts on the communicator. If the starter happen to stop so the brushes are in contact with that bad segment, the next time you try to start the engine the starter will, again, not have sufficient torque to turn over the engine. If the segment is bad the starter may not rotate at all. If you try to start the engine repeatedly with the contact to a weak serment each time the starter may rotate a little until contact is finally established with the next good segment and the engine will turn over.

 

Anyone know of an alternate for a 1978 308gtb ignition switch, FER18001 (Alfa Romeo, eg). The Ferrari price has increased almost a factor of 10 for this part which is pretty ridiculous.