Lanbo

Help! I finished installing the procharger supercharger last night and was putting everything back together. I decided before putting the hood back on (took it off to make things easier to get to), the wheels back on, and underbody covers on that I would test it out just to make sure I didn't need to adjust anything. I got in and tried to start it and it tried but then said the hood was open and didn't start (not sure if it's actually supposed to start with the hood open or not). So then I put the hood back on so I could close it. Then when I got back into the car to try again I have no power to pretty much anything. Pretty much everything listed as going to the front fuse box doesn't work. The doors act like they will open but they won't. You can hear them try to release but they don't. The power seats work. The glove box won't open. The screen won't go up or down. When I push the ignition without touching the brake, it turns amber but does nothing. When I touch the brake and push it, it turns green but does nothing (except when I open the door it dings at me). The back hatch works. The remote will lock and unlock the doors. When I unlock with the remote the running lights come on. The lights in the back hatch work. The brake lights work. I can't figure it out. Please help. My wife is coming home Wednesday so I have to figure it out and get it fixed before she returns and murders me. Thanks in advance for any help.

Also, battery is fully charged and healthy.

Lanbo

So that problem was that it blew the 350 amp fuse thing that's on the battery. I've seen those things before but didn't even think about that. That explains why everything else on the car worked except what was tied into that line. Now to figure out why it can't turn the engine over. Something's gotta be seized somewhere.

Lanbo

Update:

It blew the 350amp fuse that is at the battery. By bypassing that it powered up the rest of the car. Now the problem is that it won't crank. It acts like it wants to but it clicks almost like the battery is dead. It's reading proper voltage but won't turn anything. Tried jumping it as well with no luck. I loosened the belt on the supercharger just to make sure it wasn't binding things up and even when the supercharger spins freely, it still can't crank the engine.

I did have trouble when I was removing the crankshaft balancer bolt. I noticed that when trying to remove it, I couldn't use a breaker bar because it would just spin. I had to use a heavy duty impact wrench to get it off. But I noticed that when I was putting the new bolt in to hold the crank pulley on the crankshaft balancer that I could tighten it as much as I wanted without it moving. Not sure if that is normal or not. Having gone through a hell of an install and all the crap you have to move out of the way to get to that bolt, I have not yet tried taking the pulley off. I'm worn out for the day so hopefully someone else knows what the problem is. I also don't know how (or if you can) rotate the pulley manually to try and see if it's locked up or something. I don't want to damage anything so I didn't try. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

beachcomber

Sorry for this, know how frustrating this can be. Now that the weekend is over, I'd call ProCharger first thing and get their advice, I'm sure they'll be able to help you out. They have a good tech department. Please post back what you found the issue to be.

I don't see how it can be anything significant that you won't be able to resolve. Good luck!!

runutzzzzz

IIRC It takes some 250 FTLBs of tq to tighten down the crank.


I'm not sure how you managed to blow the main fuse, you must have directly shorted the starter or the terminal on the fuse block and it would have created a huge spark.

I'd throw a battery jump box on the car and see if it cranks.

Let us know what you find out.

Theta

That was my first thought - that would have been one hell of a bang when that went.

bob guzzy

I would put a charger on it and let it charge slowly all night.

When I was screwing around with the Diablo tuner I had problems getting it to run to completion, what it was the battery died.

Everything seemed to work but slowly if that battery isn't up to snuff it can't complete the starting sequence to engage the starter.

It's very hard to try to push power through a dead battery, letting it charge all night on a low charge can only do your batter good.

11B250

and this is why I don't want do install it myself. lol

Lanbo

I didn't short anything out as there was really no way to do that since I didn't mess with any of that. You literally only have to unplug two wiring harnesses for this install (fan and MAF sensor). Of course you do unplug the battery. But if I had shorted something out, I would think I would not have been able to try starting it twice before it died. And no, there was no pop at all. In fact there were no abnormal sounds of any kind other than the lack of the engine turning over. If there had been a loud pop for the fuse back there, I probably would have saved several hours time trying to figure out why there was no power. I would have heard it and then looked back there.

After spending what little time I had left to try and figure it out, I ultimately had to bite the bullet and give up since I was running out of time before the wife got home. I had it towed to the local shop (not the dealer since those morons don't even know where the battery is located). I'll update you when I find out exactly what the problem was.

I had the battery tested under load by O'Reilly but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. The battery on my truck (which is identical and I know it works) wouldn't jump start it, but it's too difficult to get out so I didn't have time to actually put it in the car and try. I pulled the spark plugs so I would think that theoretically it shouldn't have anything to do with built up compression. If I were in Vegas, I would bet that it's either the battery or the starter, but I simply ran out of time to test it all. I can at least tell my wife now that it wouldn't start and I sent it to the shop. She hopefully won't ask questions so I'm not forced to lie about it (though I have no problem fibbing to preserve my life). If the battery and starter aren't the problem, then the only thing I can think of is that the engine is somehow locked up, but I can't see how anything I would have done could have caused that.

The one thing that throws me for a loop and that I keep going back to in my mind is the harmonic balancer. When I was loosening the bolt, I could not use a breaker bar because it rotated freely counterclockwise while trying to loosen it. I had to use an 800 ft/lbs impact wrench to get it off. And even then, I had to crank the PSI on my air compressor to 150 psi (wrench recommends 90 psi for 800 ft/lbs) just to break it free. However, when I was putting the new bolt in after putting the new pulley on the balancer, the balancer/engine did not freely rotate clockwise while tightening the bolt to the specified 240 ft/lbs of torque. At the time I assumed that was normal (that it would only rotate freely in one direction). I have yet to receive an answer from anyone (including GM) as to whether it should freely rotate in both directions or not. Since the ProCharger instructions did not say anything about needing to lock the pulley in place in any way while tightening, I didn't think anything about it. Though it could have been assumed since they talk about locking it up while loosening it if your impact wrench doesn't do the job. However, their instructions for using a breaker bar call for putting the car in high gear and having someone step on the brakes. Seeing as how I have an automatic, that is not possible.

Anyhow, hopefully it's something simple and cheap. On the plus side, it's now sitting where it needed to go soon anyway: the performance shop so they can dyno tune it.

Oh, and those damn fuses on the battery block are $85 at the daeler just FYI. If it happens again, I'll just rewire everything myself to use those MEGA Fuses made by Littlefuse. They're less than $5 each.

runutzzzzz

It should rotate in either direction. at some points it maybe difficult to turn due to compression but it will eventually go.

I say there's a huge problem somewhere. If you didn't short anything out (you would have heard and saw it) and that main fuse blew, you have a major issue somewhere.

IF it happens again, you still have a serious issue. That fuse is only meant to blow if there's a serious short between the fuse and front fuse block and or starter. If it was anything after the fuse block then the smaller fuses would have gone.

There's no way of seizing up / frying the starter from just manually rotating the block.

I'm curious as to what the issue is, keep us posted.

tblu92

Sorry to hear about all your trouble-----
These LT1 engines have a keyed or pinned balancer and reading the instructions from Procharger and several others they all say " removal of the factory balancer IS NOT NESSARY "
So why did you take the bolt out ? Not sure if it is necessary to add a S/C pulley or not- Maybe so---Don't quite understand what you mean by the bolt would just "spin" or that it would tighten without moving ? What is not moving ???
Also---YES when the hood is opened the car will not start OR if running it will die if you open the hood---Trying to start it with the hood connections unplugged may have sent a glitch to your ECM or BCM----The best way to get rid of a computer glitch is to disconnect the battery for at least 4-5 hours again and let all the capacitors unload of voltage---
Did you happen to add longtubes ????
Check the alternator wiring for a dead short somewhere--

Lanbo

The only thing I installed was the supercharger, nothing else. Though after the problem, since I was taking the spark plugs out anyway to release any compression I was going to install the recommended cooler spark plugs, but ran out of time. But that has nothing to do with the problem since the problem existed before that point. As far as the supercharger install goes, it's really straightforward and pretty easy other than all the crap you have to move out of the way and the tight spaces when running the air ducts. I did not remove the harmonic balancer, instead you remove the bolt that holds the balancer in place and you install the supercharger crank pulley over/on that pulley and use their longer bolt to put everything back together. When you try to remove that bolt, the balancer will just spin if you try to use a ratchet or breaker bar. You have to use an impact wrench. The instructions say you can put the car in high gear and have someone step on the brakes and then use a breaker bar, but my car is an automatic so that wasn't an option.

I can say without a shadow of a doubt that absolutely nothing I did could have caused a short. The only thing electrical that was even touched was the negative cable on the battery, the fan wiring harnes, and the mass airflow sensor harness. Neither of the harnesses could have caused a problem and if they did, they would have blown their own fuses. If you've ever pulled your negative cable on you battery, you'll notice that there is no way to short anything unless you take off more than the one bolt. It's connected to other stuff and you can't even move it far enough away from the post to keep it from touching it again so you have to put some insulation in between to keep it from contacting. I closed the carpet back under it so it wouldn't touch again. So if there was any kind of short, it would have been because something was already wrong to begin with or because whatever the problem is caused something to strain too much. While I'm no expert on cars and starters, I do know that when you put a lot of juice through a motor and that motor binds or otherwise can't do what it is supposed to, it'll pull more amps, heat up, etc. Whether it's because something was going bad to begin with or because something is locked up and it couldn't take the strain, I guess we'll have to wait and see. But I will certainly let everyone know and hopefully it might help someone else in the future. I just wish I'd had more time to diagnose it.

Jnape

Can you turn the crank by hand? The amp load to pop 325a fuse maybe locked motor somehow by the new pully/balancer install?

A locked starter motor will pull some high juice.

tanner m

My 2014 will start and drive with the hood open.

3 Z06ZR1

My C7 ran fine with the hood open!
Hood connection's? :LOL:

lsp408

Sounds like something wrong with motir... It should not have lock up and allow you to tighten the crank bolt without put the car in gear or some other means to holding the crank pulley.

I would look into that ... Maybe try to turn the crank pulley back and forth to see if it will go. If it won't go with your breaker bar, the starter ain't gonna do it either.

jedblanks

Maybe the timing chain slipped a tooth or two when you rotated the motor backwards (tightening - but its unclear if it moved this way)? Its odd but it could happen??

If you don't want to wait 4-5 hours you can remove both (+) and (-) battery terminals and touch them together after removing.

Lanbo

I did not try rotating the bolt back counterclockwise to see if that helped (or if it even would) because I had already bolted everything back in place and spent too much time trying to figure out the no power issue. I wanted to and I tried to with the limited space available to get to the bolt, but admittedly with the space I had I could not get hardly any torque on that bolt to try. With the extra pulley on there, there is almost no room to try without moving the steering rack out of the way again. I just simply didn't have the time to try.

beachcomber

Anxiously waiting to see status of your car. Good luck!

tblu92

The only thing I installed was the supercharger, nothing else. Though after the problem, since I was taking the spark plugs out anyway to release any compression I was going to install the recommended cooler spark plugs, but ran out of time. But that has nothing to do with the problem since the problem existed before that point. As far as the supercharger install goes, it's really straightforward and pretty easy other than all the crap you have to move out of the way and the tight spaces when running the air ducts. I did not remove the harmonic balancer, instead you remove the bolt that holds the balancer in place and you install the supercharger crank pulley over/on that pulley and use their longer bolt to put everything back together. When you try to remove that bolt, the balancer will just spin if you try to use a ratchet or breaker bar. You have to use an impact wrench. The instructions say you can put the car in high gear and have someone step on the brakes and then use a breaker bar, but my car is an automatic so that wasn't an option.
OK I now know what you mean--- the crankshaft would rotate when you tried to take the bolt out---Yes this is common with a ratchet or breaker bar --almost always requires an impact tool