car keeps cranking!

The only time I had this happen was when a battery post was contacting and arcing on the hood of my '89 and in turn fried the solenoid. Could your posts or connectors on your battery cables be touching anything underhood?

Solenoid is bad, contacts are welded together. Rap it with a hammer to unstick them (so you can drive to the store and buy another one!)

Your starter may be pulling too much current and welding the contacts of the solenoid together.. I would pull the starter and have it checked. Most auto stores can do this for you - they will tell you how much current it is drawing (of course it will be a no load current).. Hope this helps

I had the same problem with a my '70 Fastback. Kinda scary isn't it when your car continues to run and spin your starter up to amazing speeds even though the key is off. I went through 2 cheeper solenoids in a few months and finally bought the best that Oreilly's had and experienced no further problems in the last 10,000 miles.

Hope this helps,

'68 Coupe - '70 Fastback - '99GT

You might also try the starter drive in the starter,,it may just need cleaned and lubed as well,,

I had the same problem last year and it turned out to be the ignition switch. Eventually I had to replace the starter too because it fried from being spun by the engine.

To test, try squirting some contact cleaner into the key slot of the ign switch.

Had the same thing happen to me this weekend. It also quit when I wrapped on the solenoid so I thought that was the problem. I bought a new solenoid and starter too since mine was old and I wanted to replace it anyway. Bolted everything back up and it still did it.

I got the wife to turn the ignition switch while I tested the leads. It seemed to work OK as long as the starter wasn't hooked up and drawing it's current. But as soon as I hooked it all up it would lock in again.

Since everything was new except the ignition switch I figured that had to be the real problem. My suspicions were confirmed when my wife started the car once, the starter disengaged like it should and the engine was running. So I motioned for her to turn it off. Imagine my surprise when she waved the keys at me! It was turned off, I had to pull the wires off the solenoid to shut the car off.

two things cause this: 1) a sticking solenoid and 2) a bad ignition switch. since you already kinda isolated solenoid you probaably have bad ign switch. to check measure voltage at "S" terminal on solenoid. if you get 12 V then you have bad ign switch (or very remotely a short in your starting circuit). PM me if clarification or question.

Thanks for all of the help gang! I ran to Napa after work today and picked up a new ignition switch and starter soilenod. Hopefully thier parts are better quality and will hold up. Got them installed and we'll see what happens down the road. Hope that takes care of it. Thanks to all who helped! James.

I got the new napa ignition switch installed and have been using it for a few days, it sure feels different than the old one, lots firmer and turns smoother, that may of been the problem I am hoping. At this point though, I love Autozone, but from now on I think all my major parts are going to be from Napa. Thanks again for all who helped me out with this. James