Went out last weekend with a local vette club to a drive-in movie on a date with my wife. Drove for about 1.5 hour on an 85 degree day. Turned off the vette at a rest area. Five minutes later she would not start, no click, nothing, just dead.... Car has new alternator and relativley new battery.

A friend used a screwdriver to jump the solenoid on the starter. Turned over fine. I have not had a problem starting in 4-5 starts since then.

Dead spot on the starter? Bad neutral switch? Thoughts?

|UPDATED|4/30/2004 8:22:52 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I was plagued with the same problem. Changed the solinoid, no help. Ended up changing the complete starter and life was good. Heat soak is not our friend, especially if you have headers and they are close to the starter.

There is a heat shield available to help protect the starter. Highly recommended , especially for headers.
I also had my rebuild shop put in a stronger spring kit.Was the only way I could keep it working.

Some folks recommend relocating the solenoid away from the headers. There are relo kits out there to do this. I have no first-hand experience with this approach, but the theory makes sense.

If you have to buy a new starter do yourself a favor and get a new Delco big block starter and selonoid, not a rebuilt, have one in my LT-! motor,spins faster than a s.b starter and no problems with heat sink, I've got hookers with no heat shield to

kind of off topic but I always hated chevy starter solenoids.. they should have ripped off fords idea.

you didnt need a remote start with a ford as long as you had a screwdriver.

and as for heat shield.. if youve got a little redneck blood in you.. you can make one out of a coffe can. woorks very nicely.. just use the rear bracket stud to mount it.

Seems like heat soak is a common problem. I surprised I haven't seen it before this. I will probably just keep an eye on it for alittle while longer until it starts happening more often.

I always thought that if it was heat soak it would not start by jumping the solenoid, you would have to wait to cool down a bit.

Thanks guys.

I have to agree with you on the "heat soak" idea.
You might want to check the small wire on the solenoid for a good connection, if it's ok, the problem is from there up to the igniton switch, or, neutral start switch. Hope that helps some.
xfire