Frustrating start problem

[catdrugn]

The wife has a '92 240. Last night she leaves work, stops for gas on the way home. Afterwards tries to start the car and nothing. No click(s), no cranking, nothing at all except for the usual dash warning lights that normal come on during start. I check it over but can't find anything obvious. Call a tow truck and about 30 minutes later while waiting for the tow, I try once more and the thing fires up, no problem.

Drive it home, runs fine. Park it and restart it a few times, no problems. Decide it was just a glitch. Wife takes it to work this morning and it starts fine. About 5 hours later she goes to lunch and the car won't start - same as last night. When I picked her up in the evening, I tried it just for kicks and it fired right up.

Any ideas about what systems I can start checking? Battery and cable connections are perfect. Thought it might be the clutch pedal switch but it's good as well. Thoughts?

[catdrugn]

I did some more searching on this site and found a few similar posts indicating it may be the solenoid or starter. Going to try that route for now. If anyone has additional ideas please post. Thx.

[catdrugn]

Had the starter and solenoid tested today and both tested good. Had the battery tested as well just to eliminate that. Anyone have other ideas on what the problem could be?

[mechpro]

have the wife turn the key on and see if you hear the fuel pump if u dont hear it it could be the pump or the igntion switch or a relay if you do hear it get back to me.

[catdrugn]

Thanks for the suggestions. Fuel pump noise is present, sounds like it's working. You're thinking ignition switch or relay?

[GO240]

the ignition pig tail is possibly damaged its an easy fix its like a 50 dollar part

[Azrial]

My battery terminals where bad and mine did this. It was just a lose battery connection on mine. I would take a look at them. Dunno if it will help or not though. I had not owned mine long when it did that. Also there was an area under the battery that is all rusted away. The negative battery cable was connected there I had to move it to.

[catdrugn]

An update: In spite of the faxed that I haven't isolated or fixed the problem, the wife's 240 has been starting with no issues.

Until this morning. No crank, no start. I did notice that when the key is turned to the accessory position I'd hear a click from a relay under the hood. When I turned the key further to the start position I'd hear a click from a different relay.

I isolated the clicks - one was the accessory relay and the other was the starter relay. I took a chance and replaced them both but nothing changed, still no start or crank.

With the key in the start position I checked voltage to the starter solenoid and get nothing, so the problem has to be between the key and the starter.

I striped off the steering column covers to check the wiring to the ignition switch abd as far as I can tell the wiring looks good. I thought about doing an R & R on the ignition switch but the switch looks like it has tamper proof type bolts, almost like the heads were sheared off.......?

Hate to be a pain in the a** but any new ideas based on what I've eliminated?

[-RJ-]

maybe try rigging up a switch from the starter to the battery and if it starts then

[catdrugn]

Looks like I was on the right track with the relays. Turns out it was something called a "interlock relay", about 45 bucks. Starts easily now. Thanks for all the input and suggestions!