Need your help bad...

[Anonymous]

OK guys,

I have the offy installed and the 3 webers, the header, a mallory distrbutor and coil, new clutch, all the gaskets , etc..

Now i have hit a wall. It won't start. I crank the key and the starter solenoid just makes this loud continous clicking sound. I have tried replacing it and the starter, both are new (remember the headers resting on starter thread?), and it still just clicks. I am beginning to get a tad bit frustrated. I have tred cleaniong and tightening all the grounds, everything is hooked up right.

I thought that because it has run in a while the engine might be seized, so I turned it over a couple of times by putting a wrench on the crank and it turns over just fine...

I really want to get the car back on the road, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Bill

 

[CoupeBoy]

That sure sounds like a dead battery or a bad connection. How old is the battery and when was it last charged? You *could* always cheat and jumper the starter directly from the + on the battery to the starter cable at the solenoid. When I have done this in the past I used 1/2 of a good jumper cable set.

redneck hints from
ron

 

[Anonymous]

I thought about that and tried it. The battery is not that old and I put a charger on it and set teh charger to "engine start". I even tried putting the positive side of teh charger onto the starter itself....

Thanks for the reply, keep em coming...

Bill

 

[Anonymous]

I thought about that and tried it. The battery is not that old and I put a charger on it and set teh charger to "engine start". I even tried putting the positive side of teh charger onto the starter itself....

Thanks for the reply, keep em coming...

Bill

 

[CoupeBoy]

You know I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but was the starter tested before you put it in? Or did you take their word that it was rebuilt and slapped it in? You *may* want to yank it and put jumper cables on it directly from a known good battery (maybe you daily driver) and make sure it spins like it should. Or take it back to them and have them test it on their machine. Rebuild does not always mean good/perfect.

One more thing first though, try running your jumpercables (I love thos things) from the - to the mounting location of the starter where it bolts to the block, maybe there is a grounding problem where it bolts on? (it could happen)

ron

 

[Anonymous]

yeah I was a dumba$$ and just bolted it up. I shoudl have tried it. I will try teh jumper cable thing, thats a good idea...

It is definitly a starter battery issue though right?

Bill

 

[CoupeBoy]

I just like to rule things out. Get it down to the bare minimum that is required to do anything, this time all that is required is a battery, some cables and a starter, if only that header weren't in the way... At my house I would have already yanked the battery from my pickup (daily driver also new 3 months ago) and stuck it in and tried it. If you have to make a trip back to the parts store you might as well drag along the battery and have them check that for you. I like to use/abuse the free services they offer.

ron

 

[gtm1086]

Do you have a volt/olhm meter. If not you may want to get one. Check the voltage of the battery. Then check to see if you have any voltage on the starter side of the solenoid. Then check at the starter.

Rebuilt does not allways mean that it was rebuilt right. If I had to guess it would be the starter. Same thing happened to me on my six :roll:

 

[61Futura]

If that header is touching the pos. connection to the starter, things will act that way and would be hard on the starter relay and battery. You'll be pumping out hundreds of amps of current through your headers and its paths to the batteries grounding point. It could be posible to explode a battery under that kind of load.

Steve

 

[Anonymous]

One more thing you might do is clean the battery post. Also the cable connections. If the have any corrosion at all that can even cause it not being able to be started by jumping it. This happens quite often in my part of the country.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys, I am retarded.

It was the battery. The battery charger was acting funny, so I just tried jumping it from another car and it turned over jsut fine.

KISS (keep it simple stupid) I learned my lesson on that one. ALways check the easiest thing first, I was getting too far ahead of myself.

After making sure the distributor was set correctly ( I had set the car at TDC and pointed the rotor to the nmber one spark plug, but unfortuntaly it was TDC on the exhaust, smile) so after turning it 180 degrees, she fired right up, after being dormant for over a year, smile.

Thanks for teh help!

Bill