Parked the vehicle a few months ago and went to fire it up over the weekend, but the starter would not turn. The battery is good, the fuel pump is working and has addequate pressure. Turn the key and nothing, I can hear a very faint click, like a relay from inside the vehicle, but nothing from the engine compartment.

You guys have any ideas. The engine is a 350 Small block, it is in a 1973 240Z, I know, not a 4x4, but figured you guys may be able to help.

is the click just a single click? or click click click...........

did you check to see if your getting power to the starter when the key is turned over?

try jumping the starter over with a screw driver see if it does anything then.

The click sounds like a relay under the dash, it's not the click, click, click, I had that with my Tacoma and rebuilt the starter to fix that. I'll have to double check to see that it is getting power, I did make sure everything was tight, which it was.

Now for the dumb question, how would I go about jumping the starter over with a screw driver?

From the large terminal with a battery connection to the small terminal with the thin wire going to it. Careful as the starter will crank the motor if it is good.

check your battery connections (corrosion) and the ground.

Clean the cables, charge the battery then start the car.

yeah thats low voltage

Well tried jumping the starter and all it did was a little click like the starter gear was hitting the flywheel, but would not try to crank the engine. The cables are tight and I cleaned the terminals the other night. The battery is a newer Optima Red Top and pegs the charger when hooked up.

We are thinking two things at this point: Starter is frozen up and either needs rebuilt or replaced or that somehow the engine siezed up. I think I am going to try and swap a different battery in and see if that does anything.

Any other suggestions, you guys have been a great help so far. Thanks

Pull the spark plugs out and see what they look like. With them out, see if it will spin over

We'll give that a shot next, thanks. Hopefully it will turn over, it is a fairly high compression engine, around 11:1 or so. Let you know what we find. Thanks again.

If the POS Optima battery pegs the charger, sounds like it is defective or gone flat. See what happens with the new battery in place.

I take it you don't like Optimas :D

LOL, cost me a small fortune. 4 years ago when Johnson Controls bought them out their warranty rate on new porduct went from 10 percent to 75 percent at our shop. We started replacing the Otpimas with standard wet cell Dekas and they had better life than the Optimas.

In my drag bike (all electric power) it ran an 14.037 (I think, it has been a awhile) with 3 Optimas. They never made a complete run, 14 seconds from new to junk. With two Deka wet cells it went 13.5's, over and over again.

My recommendations are Odyssey is the best, and priced that way. But you get what you pay for. The Deka Intimidator is a great battery for a great price. Did hear a rumor though that Deka is moving some of its operations to Mexico. They currently are the only mass manufacturer left in North America. So I dont know how they will fair. Cant be worse than Interstate, Optima, Exide, and Delphi. (all bought out by johnson controls, all moved out of North America, and all got really cheap in every sense of the word.)