Faulty Starter Switch(es) ? Options

[euro911]

OK, so I hadn't started the 'BB' for a while, but it was running fine the last time I did. I wanted to make sure everything was in fairly tip-top shape for Bill (Bill1963), prior to him taking custodianship a couple of weeks from now.

I wheeled a very large capacity (255A), heavy (170 lbs), fully-charged battery over to the car and ran heavy-duty jumper cables to the terminals and attempted to start her yesterday ... and nothing. I hear the fuel pump running, lights work, stereo works, etc.

Next, I raise the lift and jumped across the (+) starter cable terminal to the solenoid terminal under the car ... and viola, it cranks just fine. I had my wife turn the key while I checked for voltage on the solenoid terminal, but found no voltage present there.

I found and read a couple of old threads on starter issues, so I did the following: I checked the solenoid wiring from the switch (which is spliced at the bypassed relay box under the passenger seat - it's a '75) and that's fine.

I check the relays on the relay board, burnish the contacts and reinsert - still not activating the starter (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

I also read that sometimes the tumbler mechanism doesn't turn far enough to fully engage the electrical terminals in the ignition switch, so I crank to the right as hard as I can and the starter finally engaged (for a brief second or so). I tried it again several times afterwards without any success.

The ignition switch was replaced with a new one a couple of years ago and didn't have a ton of starting cycles on it ... so how is it, that just not being used for a period of time, that these 'new' switches seem to be failing?

Where can we purchase a quality made switch these days?

Signed, 'Frustrated' ...

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