What the heck? Or won't go, will go....

[Bigums]

I'm not sure where to start.

The particulars: '70 Wag with Buick 350 and TH400 tranny. Engine doesn't run especially great, but its a daily driver, and has been fairly reliable.

Today I raced across town to meet my wife for a sonogram appointment. After leaving the hospital, I jumped in the Jeep, and nothing. The amp light comes on like normal, and dims when you turn to start, but nothing happens. Okay, wiggle shifter (neutral safety switch acts up sometimes), still nothing.

Get out, pop hood and check connections, push negative cable to the side. Get back in to try. What's this? Amp light now on and pulsing (without key). :confused: Jump out and check on negative cable. Everything seems alright. Get back in and try again. Same results (amp light on, then dims on attempt to start).

<send wife home so she doesn't see me curse the beast>

Fiddle with different connections for a while. Try many times to start Sit in frustration for many minutes. Try many times to start. Fiddle, try, sit, curse, repeat..... I just gave up smoking recently and am sure I'm being tested. :rolleyes:

At any rate, after about 30 minutes I give up and call my pops, and ask for help. He has no ideas, but says he's on his way. I call the wife to tell her what's going on, and just for fun turn the key. The mother of all backfires occurs along with a nifty cloud of black smoke, but she's purring like normal. :confused:

What the heck happened? I have a feeling its heat-related and electrical as well, but am dumbfounded. Any thoughts?

[Tad]

Been down around those starter wires lately? I was looking at mine last week when I had the inner fender off and all were heat fried and brittle beyond belief. Rewired everything back up into the harness and starts like a different wag now. Just hate hearing about these things on another 70.

[Crazy_Jeepman]

Either the starter solenoid is bad or the wires to it are. Sounds like the solenoid is bad since the AMP light does dim when key is turned all the way. ;)

[RustyJeep]

I had the same thing on my 73. It would start right up and run fine..then one day, there was nothing. I popped the hood, and smacked the solenoid a little, got back in, and it fired right up. It did it to me once after that, and I decided I should get a new solenoid. I found, while taking the old solenoid off, that it's plastic covering and stuff was cracked all the way around it, and was falling apart! :eek:

[ May 13, 2002: Message edited by: RustyJeep ]</p>

[Bigums]

I thought solenoid initially, too. But what about the huge backfire and cloud of smoke? That's the first time its done that.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I really thought I was going to lose it today!

[mtn goat]

Just a theory, but I had a blazer do the same thing exactly. it turned out to b3e the selonoid in that case too. What had hapened in my haste to get it to start, I flooded the engine and when the wires wiggled enough to start, poof, black smoke from a flooded engine.