This started 3 days ago. On a warm afternoon in the 90's I hopped into my truck after work to go home, turned the key a the engine started to turn over then stopped with a clunk. Took the key to off, tried it again, no good. Tried it again with all the accesories off. Started up just fine. Got home began looking at the battery cables, and they were somewhat corroded. Cleaned them off and she started up fine. The next morning same problem. Adjusted the battery cables, started up. This has been going on since wednesday. On thursday afternoon she acted like nothing ever went wrong. Several times I have heard a good clunk coming from the engine bay. The battery terminals are going to be replaced today. Also when I was going on my lunch break and coming home on friday the engine heat began to jump up into the high side of NORMAL when it usually runs below the "N" Maybe the thermostat, it was replaced 2 years ago. Any other idea's? I just hoping the engine won't have to be rebuilt yet. The starter is 4 years old by the way and rebuilt when it was bought. Engine oil is where it needs to be with a quart of Lucas oil stabilizer in it.

 

Post your results of the new batt cable results and you will likely get some answers to your post. Let us know about noises and such and change you thermostat if you can.

 

I had the same problem, and it turned out to be the ignition switch. On my 1990 it was located on the steering column. Do a search on "ignition switch" and see if the posts match your symptoms. If it is your ignition switch, be careful, mine malfunctioned and kept the starter going for several minutes. Before that, I would just get a clunk also and no start.

Good luck.

 

Hmmmmm......... Yeah the switch has been sticking in "START" every oncer in a while. Would turn everything off and it would work or would repodtion the battery cables and it would work. Both of those togeather don't add up to being a switch though.

 

I had the same problem and the fix was the ground cable was about eaten away where it was bolted to the block. Put a new terminal end on it and the problem went away. Drove me crazy for about a week. I even put in a different battery and changed out the starter with a rebuilt. Just need to check out everything.

 

Yep replaced both cables the other day as well as the battery with an optima red top. The problem only happened once more. Ripping into the engine to fix a leaky head gasket and found that the spark box cable going to the distributor was corroded at the spark box as was it's terminal. That couldn't have helped.