UPDATE: - problem was fixed - new post is under the FIXED! title below. It was the battery.






(95 LT1 6 spd ~85k miles). last week when I two-toned my Vette (I'll post pictures when I get a chance) - when I re-connected the negative battery terminal and went to start the car... all I got was a loud pop and the battery power dropped and came back slowly... so I tightened the terminal up real tight and that fixed the problem then (I also charged the battery for the heck of it at that time too)...


Anyway - now my situation is that when I go to turn it on - all I get is a pop-pop-pop-pop repeatedly (the battery never drops off completely like it had in the past...) It won't try to crank at all.... - - from what I have read from the old posts is that some people have fixed similar problems by cleaning up corroded battery terminals or replacing the solenoids on the starter.... - - so far I have taken both cables off and scrubbed the contacts with contact cleaner and a toothbrush, but nothing was corroded at all to begin with... after re-connecting them and turning the igniton on - the power started dim and them grew on to full (this seemed odd).... then I tried to crank it to only get the same pop-pop-pop etc... then after trying that I heard a pop come from the passenger door area -- I would have said the door handle area, but I checked the fuses over there anyway and didn't see anything blown (It is always POSSIBLE that the pop came from somewhere else in the apartment parking lot and my ears confused it for being in the car....). - - - - - - - Any ideas as to where to look now? - - - would the solenoid direction sound like a fix to my condition? - - - - - Should I use some method of checing the starter? - one member mentions tapping it with a hammer, but I know I didn't need to touch it to bump the starter on my Ferrari in the past before I replaced its starter.... Thanks as usual for any help!

 

yank the starter. be sure it isn't soaked in oil and grime. If the starters contacts are dirty, they won't fire.

take the starter over to Autozone or whatever and have it tested. If it fails, find a local shop to rebuild it. the parts are cheap...

Check the battery, too.

There is a small fuse block inside the dash above the right knee bolster. That might be where the pops came from.

good luck.

 

The battery is fine. And if I have to pull the starter here that is a bit of a pain without my fathers shop... All I have is a mini-jack and stands that aren't as useful on this Vette as they were the Ferrari.. and I am often stuck having to work with cars parked on either side of me here at the apartment... If I absolutely need to pull it at this point I'll have to wait for next Monday during the day when a lot of people are off at work and I can take 3 spots... But I guess cleaning the terminals and checking the battery were the only easy things to look into? - - - as for the fuses....the only ones I checked were the passenger side fuses on the far right on the dash that the door covers when it is closed.. so I will look for the other fuses you have mentioned and check them... thanks for your input.... If I don't hear anything else I will go ahead and get under the car Monday and figure it out... Thanks again for your input Bogus...

 

Is it a poping or clicking noise? If a clicking noise, I would check to make sure the battery is charged fully and terminals are clean and tight. Which you have done by your statement. I have a 95 that "sometimes" makes a clicking noise when I turn the key after it has sat for a while. The battery is good, but sounds like the starter gets jammed when ingaged. The next turn of the key and it cranks. I know the starter is good and is not a big deal to me now. You can also test the starter before unbolting to see it it gets the proper volts through the hot wire before going through all the work. As Bogus stated, it is pretty inexpensive to rebuild a starter. Just whatever works for you!

 

loud popping - no clicks.

 

I would say there is a starter problem... until you can get that out and tested, I have no better ideas.

 

The popping noise is coming from your cable connections to the battery terminals. Starter current is very high (about 100+ amps) and if you have only a small contact area from cable to battery terminal, it blows up the small patch of metal in contact. Further symptoms of a poor cable connection is your dim/bright occurance upon reconnection. Have someone hit the starter while you watch the battery and you will see/hear the pop from the battery cable connections. Remove the battery cables (neg first) and clean the cable lugs, battery terminals and the bolts and replace (neg last). Buy some 5/8" brass battery terminal bolts from a parts store and replace the OEM wimpy 5/16" bolts. If you still have the problem you may have a bad connection inside the battery from the lead plate connector to the threaded steel insert your terminal bolts go into. Swap the battery with one from another vehicle and see if that cures it. You may also have a poor connection from the battery cables to the cable lugs that go to the battery terminals. You can prove this by measuring the voltage from the battery terminal to the other end of the battery cable while drawing significant battery current, like cranking, or running the cooling fan or back window defroster. Normally the voltage drop will be very low, like under .02 volts. If 1 volt or higher, the cable is suspect, except with cranking current where the cable voltage drop can normally be as high as 2 volts.

 

I will take a closer look at the connections when I get a chance in the next couple of days here. Thanks for your input jfb. Would it make sense that this would be something that would happen all of a sudden without having touched the battery for a week?

 

Yep! Battery acid corrodes the cable connection until one day, the connection is just too poor to pass starter current. Its happened to me too! Starts fine, go to work. Get off work and it won't crank. Clean the connection and I'm good for about another year. Its just a car owner thing.

 

I went ahead and bought a new battery today (Optima red top) and just installed it... Now it fires right up. The battery I took out says Wal-Mart on it in several places...perhaps that explains it.. (Everstart Maxx was the name).

 

I would have told you to measure the battery voltage as you cranked it. That could have given you a direction to go earler it you low voltage while cranking. But your fixed so who cares.

But my real point is I just changed a battey in a 79 Blazer that I have for the third time in less than a year. It will not hold charge or take a charge and hold it for 2 weeks or so. It came from Wallmart. Guess I'll keep running it back there every now and again. Don't use Blazer much but never had this problem till I got this battery. Just wanted a cheep battery for it and I guess I got what I paid for

 

way to go! glad it's fixed!!!

an important lesson... volts are not amps...