Will not start

Hello my name is Dave.

My first question would be does the solenoid click when you try to start it? If it doesn't I would try putting a test light on the small signal wire and see if it lights when you turn the key, if it doesn't try putting it in neutral and see if it does then, if that lets the car start the you either have a bad neutral safety switch or your shift linkage is out of adjustment. Unfortunately there are no wiring diagrams available for your car so trouble shooting can be more of a process of elimination. You want to make sure you have a signal going from your ignition switch to the neutral safety switch, you can do this fairly easily on your car by pulling the switch out of the dash and using a test light check the wires for one that lights when you turn it to start. If you have power going to the solenoid, put your hand on the solenoid and have someone else turn the key, you should feel a click as the magnet inside energizes to make contact. To be sure you can put a test light on the wire going to the starter and see if it lights when the switch is turned. If it doesn't the next thing to check is all of your ground wires. Being a fan of old Mercury's I have found that a common problem causer that is commonly overlooked is the ground strap going from the engine to the firewall. Make sure the bolt in the firewall is good and tight as they are known to get loose over time and will need to be replaced with a larger bolt or relocated due to the fact that they are nothing more than a sheet metal screw. The other thing to be sure of is 3 power cables are in good shape and properly tightened. By this I mean the positive going from the battery to the solenoid, the positive going from the solenoid to the starter and the most important is the ground going from the battery to the engine. Another thing to check is that the bolts securing the solenoid to the inner fender are tight, if they are at all loose what I prefer to do is run a nut and bolt through the inner fender making sure it doesn't stick out to far into the wheel well. If you still don't get power to the cable going to the starter then you most likely have a faulty solenoid even though it's new ( it happens ) if you have power to the starter wire and all your connections are good, including battery terminals, then you most likely have a faulty starter. Please keep us up to date on your progress and than you for using 2CarPros!

Hello again, if the wire to the starter is getting hot I would do a voltage drop check, to do this you will need a volt ohm meter. Set the meter to the lowest DC voltage setting. Keep in mind that you can use these voltage drop tests on any electrical components like the relay you keep mentioning by checking the voltage drop when unplugging the relay with the ignition switch on to energize the relay, and it might be advisable to pull that relay, charge the battery as this could be causing all your issues but we will start with the starter. First simply hook the the red to the battery positive post and the black to the negative post, you should have approximately 13 volts, next using a jumper wire or remote start button energize the "S" post on the solenoid and watch how much the voltage drops when the starter turns, it shouldn't drop below around 9 volts. If it drops more than that then the battery is week and needs to be replaced provided you started with around 13 volts, if it is below 12.5 volts charge the battery and retest the drop. The next drop you need to check will be the positive circuit to the starter, I would do this one in 2 ways, first connect one of the volt ohm leads to the positive post of the battery and the other to the positive on the starter, again jump the solenoid to activate the starter and see what the voltage drop is, it should be no more than.6 but depending on what engine you have it could be slightly higher for a big block. If the voltage drop is within range we can move on to a negative voltage drop however if it is not within range I would run the test again this time moving the lead from the battery to the starter side of the solenoid, if this corrects the problem run the test again going from the battery to the input side of the solenoid, if the problem resurfaces the cable going to the solenoid is bad or has a bad connection, if it doesn't the solenoid is bad. The nest circuit to test is the ground circuit, connect one of the leads to the negative post and connect the other to the starter housing, again jump the solenoid to activate the starter and watch the voltage reading, much more than.8 would be more than what is considered acceptable. Keep in mind the reason I say to jump the solenoid is so the engine doesn't start during testing, alternately you could take one of the wires off the coil and have someone turn the key for you, but either way I would also recommend clamping the hose that feeds the fuel pump to prevent flooding the engine. If you get an excessive voltage drop on any of these tests and you are sure that all of your wires/cables have a good connection then I would be concerned that the engine has an issue causing excessive load on the system, at this point I would pull the spark plugs and then put a breaker bar on the crank pulley bolt and see if the engine turns freely and consistently without dragging at any point. If you find it difficult to turn at any point then you have an engine problem. Please keep us up to date on your progress.