<VV> car won't start on starter postion

[kenpepke at juno.com]

The resistor wire in the run ignition position is designed to reduce the 'run' position 
voltage from somewhere around 14.8 volts to about 7 volts to prevent arcing of the 
points while the engine is running.  During cranking the 'run' position sees about 
10.5 volts further reduced by the resistor which is usually less than enough to 
energize the coil.  To make up for that the engineers included a bypass of the 
resistor wire.  The starter solenoid has two wires off to the sides of the battery 
terminal.  The larger of the two supplies power from the key switch to activate the 
solenoid itself.  The smaller of the two is the bypass circuit and supplies somewhere 
around 10.5 volts to the coil during engine cranking which is enough to energize 
the coil.

I would check the smaller of the two wire terminals at the solenoid during cranking 
to see if it was 'hot.'  No? Solenoid trouble; Yes, bypass wire to coil trouble.  
Ken Pepke
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In my last post I wrote:
"This would have to be a double failure then..." (both the solenoid bypass
and possibly the ignition switch as Dave suggested)

Well, it appears that this is a double failure.  I just checked three '65
Ignition switches (spares) and they all keep the IGN circuit ON during
cranking. This is a back-up circuit for when the solenoid bypass fails.
Evidently both have failed. Fixing either one will get you going but
remember, the purpose of the solenoid bypass is to put a full 12v to the
coil for a hotter spark while cranking. Voltage supplied by the key switch
passes through the ignition resistor wire in the harness, which drops the
voltage to the coil to about 7V.
HTH, Craig

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