I recently bought a '69 fasback with a 302, it started up fine for a few days, but then it would struggle to startup. I could hear the solenoid making noise and the engine was at least trying to turn over. After jumping the battery the car would startup with some pumping of the gas. This morning when I went out to start the car up, nothing, I could hear the solenoid, but the enigine wasn't turning over at all. When I tried to jump the car the battery started to smoke, now nothing happens when I turn the ignition and none of the lights inside the car turn on except the light under the the dash when the door is open. I'm going to test the battery to see if it's still alright, but I'm guessing the solenoid and possibly the voltage regulator or starter mayneed to be replaced. Any suggestions where to start?

 

Start with making sure you have clean battery terminal ends and a tight ground connection. If these pan out, then have your battery checked for rated load and voltage. If that is good, it's time to take the starter off and have it tested (before this you should probably make sure your engine isn't seized and thats why your battery smoked). this should be enought to get you started.

!! The Vreg is the last thing you should change for a not starting problem!!!

 

a smoking battery sounds scary (acids!)
do just as jlg says, just as addition:
you say that the last time the car started after jumping the battery. so back then the battery was flat. no other problem.
This time it seems to be something different. try as well to just replace the battery with a known good one
Instead of starting pull battery from one car and put it into the stang. maybe the stangs battery is mad and that's the easiest way to figure.
before you remove the battery, make sure to understand that you might need to readjust clocks, re-code radios etc !!

Kalli

 

Did you mean the battery cable was smoking? Probably starter in that case.

I have had batterys so bad you couldn't even jump them. Internal short.

If a part is bad it is probably only one, solenoid or starter, not both.

 

Yeah, the battery cable started to smoke from what I could see. The cable going from the battery to the solenoid was very warm, while the cable going from the solenoid to the starter was cold. I had a suscpicion that it was the starter, my neighbor is a mechanic and he said it sounded like it was struggling, I'm guessing that it was starting when I jumped it because I was sending an extra jolt of voltage to the starter. It has to be something in the electrical/ignition system, cause once it gets started it runs like a champ. I just want to hear that sweet roar through the glasspack again.

Edit: Irecently installed a new Ignitor II, Flamethrower coil and spark plug cables, butit was having problems starting before that.

 

Just to post an update, I replaced the solenoid because after I checked all the connections the car still wouldn't start up and the solenoid was not making its normal clicking. I realized last night that I had accidentally swapped the Ignition and Coil terminals on the old solenoid and I think that's what may have caused this problem. Anyway the car still will not turn over when I turn the ignition, but now the solenoid is clicking. I checked the continuity of all the wires and I found that the Ignition Switch terminal on the solenoid is grounded. Is this normal or is there a short somewhere? It would be great ifsomeone can offer me some advice on what to check or how I can check the starter without removing it.