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1967 Camaro SS 350 with Powerglide transmission.

Sometimes it will not start. No click, no dimming of lights when key is turned, nothing happens. It will do this maybe one time out of 15 or 20 starting attempts. It will always start after I push it into the garage or after I just go back & try it again later on. It will do this with hot or cold engine. I put in a new starter & solenoid, new battery, bypassed the neutral safety switch (column shift), still have the same problem. Ground straps from eng. to body are all fine. Not sure what to do next.

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    It seems like you've pretty well isolated it to the ignition switch. Ca you easily get access to the back of the switch?
    – dlu
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 17:57
  • The 67 has the key in dash ignition, right? IIRC, the 69 was the first year of the column ignition.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 17:57
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    PS: I agree with @dlu ... I think the issue is with the ignition switch as well. It should be pretty easy to test, though. I think there are only a very few wires attached to it.
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 ♦
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 17:59
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    When the car fails to start is the failure repeatable – at least for a few tries?
    – dlu
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 18:14
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    I agree with the switch prognosis. There is another wire to check. There is a small wire (maybe 8 or 10 gauge) that goes from the negative battery terminal to the inner fender. It is prone to corrosion inside the molded lead battery connection.
    – mikes
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 21:31

1 Answer 1

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It seems like you've pretty well isolated it to the ignition switch. If the ignition switch is in the dash this should be quite easy to troubleshoot and fix.

I did some searching and didn't find a switch that was clearly from a '67 Camaro, so what follows is somewhat generic. Many of the switches I found had more than one terminal for the same circuit (for example there might be two terminals for the ignition or the +12 V circuit from the battery).

There are probably four circuits on the back of the switch:

  • Circuit 1 will be +12 V and hot all the time. This terminal may be marked BAT. This should be a fairly large wire.
  • Circuit 2 will be hot in the Acc position. This terminal may be marked ACC.
  • Circuit 3 will be hot (possibly along with 2) in the Run/On position. This terminal may be marked IGN. On some of the switches I found there were two ignition terminals that were not common, it looks like one, labeled IGN1 was used to feed power out to an external resistor which came back on IGN2 to feed the coil.
  • Circuit 4 will be hot in the start position (along with 3 and probably 2 as well). This terminal may be marked SOL or ST.

There are also switches that use a ground position (GND or GD) to test the "idiot lights."

If you put key in the Run position and jump from wire 1 to wire 4 the starter should run. Try that when the problem next happens, if it works reliably that pretty much rules out anything but the switch. (In case it is not obvious my numbers are made up, the actual markings on the switch will be different).

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