After waiting a week to get the "Delco" HEI module for my 81, I slapped it in, and turned the key.... Nothing. The dome lights came on, the power antenna went up, the heater fan came on, with the key in the "on" position, but when I go to start, nothing.

I think my battery's charged, I stuck my charger on it until it said charged. I get 12.54 volts across the terminals, and like I said, all the accessories run.

I even hooked up my remote crank switch to bypass the key, and when I press the button, the starter does not crank, but the battery light comes on and my headlight buzzer (I think) buzzes weakly.

I also tried jumping it from my truck, with no success.

It was cranking over just fine a few days ago, but I haven't touched it since, cuz I was waiting for the module.

I'm leaning towards a bad battery, I think I'll get it checked tomorrow. I seriously doubt the starter or solenoid crapped out just from sitting idle.

Anything else I should check??

Thanks!
Dan

 

If she didn't want to go when you used your truck to jump start I would lean towards it being something other than your battery.

Remote cranck switch? Not sure how this is wired into the circuit but is there any chance this is interfering?

As a general rule check all your wiring - all connections should be tight and free of dirt & oxidation. Use sandpaper or a file to clean them up if you have to.

If you don't even get a click from the solenoid when you turn the key the solenoid is either not getting +12V or it is very weak. You might get away with cleaning & lubing it inside but it may need to be replaced.

If the solenoid clicks but the starter doesn't turn over it could be that inside the solenoid the contacts to send power to the starter motor are dirty. This can be fixed without too much difficulty by pulling the solenoid assembly apart and cleaning it up inside.

Good Luck let us know how it turns out

 

Test/check your new module. It sounds to me everything was working before you replaced the module.

 

I thought of the module being bad too, so I unplugged everything from it, and took the cap & rotor off. Still wouldn't crank.

Interestingly enough, last night I finally found the starter checking flowchart in my service manual, and it suggested trying to crank with the headlights on, and see if they dim when it cranks. So last night I tried it, and the second time I turned the key, the engine started cranking! Unfortunately, it was 11:45, and I couldn't do any more.

So this morning, I checked it, it cranked, I reassembled the distributor, it cranked (slowly), hooked up the battery charger to top it off, and plugged in the wires to the distributor.

Now, my charger has an "Engine Start/Boost" mode, that supposedly helps to start cars with weak batteries, so I switched to that, and turned the key... Nothing.

I'm thinking that my charger is screwing me when I try that, so next time I get it to crank (tried the headlight thing again to no avail), I'm not going to use the Engine start mode.

Any ideas on why the charger would do that? I don't understand what it could be killing to make it not crank.


Thanks for the ideas, I'm still listening!
Dan

 

I don't think it's the charger itself. Sounds more like an intermittant connection to me. Perhaps when your putting the clips on the terminals is affecting an intermittant connection. Check/clean the battery cable connections and also the ground connection to the chassis.

Good Luck!

 

Another thing you might want to try is check the voltage on the battery when you are attempting to start the car. You may have a bad battery. That happened on my daily driver.

It does sound more like a bad connection.

 

Yeah, I didn't think to check voltage while *trying* to crank. I'll do that tonight before I drag the battery over to have it checked.

I'll start looking around at connections too. There are some pretty scary wires near the starter (non-switched 12V with 2" of bare copper showing!!) gotta get that fixed too, before it melts my car, house, dog, etc...

It still baffles me that this morning, it cranked 2 minutes before I hooked the wires to the distributor and the charger to the battery, then stopped again.

I'll update later.

Thanks!!
Dan

 

... was dead dead dead.

So I pulled the battery out & checked all the cells with my specific gravity battery checker, and 4 of the 6 cells said dead, and 2 were very low. I was able to charge it up & get the engine going before the battery died again, and it (the new HEI module) seems to work pretty well.

The battery is an everstart from Wal-mart with a 2 year warranty, the delivery date was June of 03, so It's getting pretty old. (Was in it when I bought the car)

So now after its done raining, I'll wander over to walmart & see if they'll give me some money back & I can go get a real battery.

Any suggestions on brand?? I'm thinking die hard or if I can squeeze it out of the CFO, an optima would be nice...

Thanks!
Dan

 

If you can swing it, I've had very good luck w/Optima Red Tops.

Of course, YMMV.

 

The module has nothing to do with the car not cranking over. First of all you need to check the battery. I recommend anyone who works on his own car to have a load testor. Milton makes a great one at around $60 but you could get a imported one from Harbor Freight for under $20 that should do the trick. With this tool you have 2 cables 1 red and 1 black very easy tool to use. Put one cable on the positive side of the battery and the other on the negative. Now with the car not running there is a little switch on the bottom of the unit. You hold the switch in for about 10 seconds. During this time the tool puts a load into your battery to see if the battery is any good or in need of a charge. If the needle goes all the way to the left your battery does not have enough of a charge in it to turn your starter over. You need to charge the battery with a professional type rollaround floor charger for a hour or two and then retest or if you have a small 10 amp charger you will have to charge it overnight first. If after charging the battery and if the battery still fails the load test, rest assured your battery is shot. With this same tool and the car running you will also be able to see if the car is charging ok. With just the two cables hooked up to the battery you will be able to read on the gauge whether your car is charging your battery or not. This way you will know if your regulator is good or bad or if your alternator is bad. This tool is well worth the money and in this case would keep you from guessing what the problem may be. If the battery is good I would next check all connections from the battery to the starter to make sure all is clean and tight. If all looks ok I would probably pull the starter down and bench test it with a separate battery. If the starter is bad chances are that it is only the solonoid. They are easily replaced and not alot of money, buy a new one. If you are going to replace it I would also take the cap off of the area of the starter where the brushes are and do a visual to see what shape they are in. Being in the parts business I very rarely resort to a rebuilt starter. I rebuild my own GM starter 90 percent of the time. This way I get to keep the original starter for the car rather then trade it in as a core for the rebuilt one.

Fred