1966 Ford Falcon Travel Wagon

Yes, thanks certainly much better. As I dive into it more the van seems to have been neglected quite a bit. Also finding out the guy I bought it from did a half ass job on the little work he did in the two months he owned it. The few screws, bolts and other hardware still present are all mismatched. The dog house has about 6 bolts total in it! When we pulled the radiator, the bracket and radiator were missing bolts! Looks like he put one or two back in and that was it! I guess in all fairness not sure if it was him or the original owner but still. I'm just glad I have a ton of spare parts and a bucket of hardware from the parts vans I saved.

After swapping out the parts I mentioned in the previous post I took the van out for a ride.. Like a mile tops over to the gas station. Fueled up and then the van wouldn't start! It just clicked once when I turned the key. Did some tapping on the obvious culprit and nothing.. Now this morning the battery is dead! I tested the battery last week and it checked out fine. I'm 99% sure its the starter. Maybe someone else has an idea. Changed almost every part possible on the engine except for the starter and solenoid. Made the trip to Auto Zone last night and once this cold weather we have again moves out i'll swap them out. AAA is great by the way.. Anyone who doesn't have it should invest in it!              

These vans have had problems with the ignition switches failing, causing engines to start when theirs no key in them and kill batteries. You could have a bad ignition switch, bad ground to starter, bad solenoid or a bad starter. I would start with the easiest...Put a new ground on battery to starter. Then jump the solenoid to see if starter turns over. If it doesn't then change starter....But if it does, work backwards till you get to that ignition switch.jm2c.

Well.. Uncovering the half-ass work continues.

I finally had a chance to better assess the situation. I've been replacing parts as I go just because I don't trust most of the 50 year old parts as it had been sitting for a while. Big W I appreciate your advice but since I plan on replacing everything I kinda went out of order.

First I replaced the starter. Still just a click and wouldn't start. The solenoid was zip-tied to the fuel line and the wires were either broken or just barely hanging on. I will attach a few photos below. I ended up mounting the new solenoid properly on the doghouse. The broken wires wouldn't reach up to the new solenoid so the plan is to extend them and reconnect. I've been busy or else this would have already been done. More then likely this will be the problem.. I guess it'd probably run if the wires were connected properly!  

Ha, those wires look bad! I bet you're right these are the problem....

Yeah.. What a mess! Guess I didn't notice the wires right away since he had the solenoid zip-tied down on the fuel line. Just have bad luck and trusted the seller more then I should have. Although for what I paid for this particular van, no rot with a clean title I can't complain too much. Just wish people were more honest. I had it shipped from California so didn't have a chance to inspect it prior to purchase. All things considered, I suppose it could be worse!

Yup, better this then a lot or rust and filler... But I think, all old cars have something. That's part of the fun and charm too, right? Still I hope you can solve this problem and get back to driving it!