Intermittant starting issue with a Grand Prix

I'm trying to help my father-in-law out so he can sell his 2002 Grand Prix (yeah, I know...its a POS). It has an intermittant starting issue that we can't figure out, he wants to make sure its fixed before he sells it to anybody. When you turn the key to crank the car, nothing happens other than you can hear a click over in the interior fuse box. All other electronic functions are fine. He used to get it to go away by shifting the gears (its an auto) a few times and the car would crank. This made me think neutral safety switch, but that was just replaced. I don't think its the security system locking it out, apparently if that happens the security light will blink at you, but that's not happening. I checked the voltage coming out of the underhood fuse box at the wire that goes down to the starter, and there's no power there. Its been dead since Thursday, I've played with the shifter 100 times and I did get it to randomly crank once, I shut it off and immediately went to crank it again and got nothing. I've tried 2 different keys for it just to rule that out. Any help would be appreciated!

 

The wire that goes into the starter solenoid. I'm trying to track down a wiring diagram for it, there are 2 plugs with a ton of wires going into the neutral switch, I'm not sure which one I would need to wire around. I also tried to crank the car in neutral, no luck there.

 

I would try tapping/banging on the ignition switch. I worked at a GM dealer for 3 years and replaced about 1,000 of those stupid switches.

Here's the staring circuit diagram.

 

I will try that. Thanks for the diagram!

 

No problem!

 

Smacked the switch around some, no change. Think I should just go ahead and replace the switch? This is the longest its ever had the issue, intermittant has turned into permanant.

 

I am sure you probably checked this already...But what condition is the battery. Are there any loose terminals? My wifes pontiac had a short in the wire that would run from the fuel pump to the ECU. Over time after rubbing the frame it shorted out and the car would not start for 15mins after every short. I was told by GM the computer would shut down to protect itself from harm. It was a bitch to find.

 

id say its the starter solenoid?? I just got new connections for the solenoit because they where all gunked up and worn out and it worked like a charm.

 

Yeah, I checked all the battery connections as well as the voltage. Fuel pump is fine, I can hear it priming when you turn the key on.

sch0enne: I'm going to check that first thing in the morning, its raining right now. However, I'm not leaning toward the solenoid because when I check the power at the under hood fuse box, there's no power going down to the starter from there. I'm so tired of messing with it though that I'm going to check anyways in the hope that I'm reading something wrong at the fuse box.