Will-do! Thanks again for the ideas. Now I just need to find time to dig into the car

 

Well fellas I went out to tinker w/ her today and sure as **** she starts right up lol

 

Started before or after the tinkering? Or you didn't do a thing and the car fired up?

 

Didn't do a damn thing and she fired right up. SAME EXACT voltage as 2 weeks ago: 11.1v

 

UPDATE!

Last week I went to go for a ride (before the 8ft of snow..). Car was dead. No start. Radio worked, thats it.

Few days later, tried again for the hell of it. Started up. Drove for 45 minutes. Got home. Stalled it pulling into my steep garage. Went to restart. Dead. WTF?!?!

Played w/ positive battery cable. Cranked the **** out of it w/ a vice grip. Thing started right up. I've tightened this new battery a million times and it keeps loosening up.

I'm fairly certain this is my culprit, but not positive. Will update probably next season.

 

This is a stretch and most likely not the problem but maybe try switching cables?
I think it's highly unlikely that that cable is bad but worth a try if nothing else fixes it.

The weather you're having now (even though rare) is one of the reasons I moved from Buffalo to Texas
I was there for the Blizzard of '77 and the following year I moved to North Carolina

 

Nice! I've got pictures of the '77 blizzard in the family. I live in ski-country so this is almost normal... usually its every day and not all at once though.

I was considering cables, but messing w/ the cable after I tigthen the damn thing down for the 3rd dozen time and it doesn't seem to impact anything??

 

Could be high resistance in the wire. It not staying tight to the battery, sounds like the threads of the battery are stripped or maybe the bat bolt is. Have you changed either yet?

 

I put in 2 batteries this year... bad alternator killed one, then I thought the battery kept dying and swapped that new one out again. Good question about the bolt being stripped out! I'll have to check. The battery isn't stripped; I snug the bolt up real nice and tight each time but this past time I went even more snug than I have been. I guess we'll see if it holds up; hopefully thats been my problem.

 

If there's one thing I really hate it's electrical problems.
Water you can see....air you can feel. I suppose a qualified
guy with the right meters, etc. could "see" the electrical problem,
but that's not me.

A while back I had a problem with my car not starting ('96 LT-1) just after
moving it from the garage to an outside parking spot. It was just completely dead.
On this forum (I think) some guy suggested checking fuses. Turns out I had a blown one.
What made it blow I don't know but the problem was solved.

Anyway, this is another stretch but what's the possibility of an intermittent loss of current in the fuse area?
I'm pretty sure fuses are either good or bad and no in between.
I don't see any reason why they would be the culprit but nothing else worked so far.

I know it's far fetched, but take a look. It won't cost anything.........

 

Great advice! Thankfully I got the vette in the garage before our blizzard hit, so I will be able to tinker for the next 7 mos w/ her

 

Hopefully you're on high ground. I heard your area is in for some flooding after all the snow starts melting. I had a waterfront house on Grand Island for many years but was
high enough from the shore edge so I didn't have to worry about floods. I bet Cazenovia Creek will be a mess with surging water. At least no ice this early in the cold season to cause ice jams.

 

The weather heated up just above freezing and then plummeted the past 2 days in a row (including today). So everything is icing pretty good. The garage is definitely elevated. GI is pretty nice, love the the housing along the shore. I've duck hunted in front of a few several times And without a doubt caz creek will be hell. Maybe it will wash buffalo into the lake

 

So when your car decides it won't start, does it have trouble lights?
Such as Service ASR, security flashing, or System on the speedo display flashing every few minutes?

If so, like when you stalled before getting into the garage AND IT WILL NOT START - try clearing ALL the codes to get it to start.

I know it sounds dumb but here me out....

ANY READERS WITH A NO START -- TRY THIS

On the ALDL (Key off) put a little 3" jumper wire between slot "A" and "G" into the ALDL connector under the drivers side knee bolster.

Depiction of ALDL plug:

- - - - - X < HERE
HERE > X - - - - -

Now turn "key on" engine off
The speedo display will go into onbaord diagnostic mode.

display will begin cycling through all the modules and their codes.

You can watch them through or any any time begin:


Using the buttons just to the right of your IP gauges this is how you navigate:

This side This side
curses back curses FWD


Fuel info Eng Met

Guages Trip ODO

Fuel Trip


Press "trip ODO" to navigate to "1.7"
Press and hold "Eng Met" till you see "---"
Press and hold "trip" untill you see "4.0"
Press "trip ODO" to navigate to "4.7"
Press and hold "Eng Met" till you see "---"
Press and hold "trip" untill you see "9.0"
Press "trip ODO" to navigate to "9.7"
Press and hold "Eng Met" till you see "---"

You have now cleared all the codes

Recap: Module 1 is CCM, 4 is ECM, 9 is EBTCM

If you have digital HVAC their will be an additional module (not sure what number I'll use X)
and you would press "trip ODO" to "X.7" Press and hold "Eng Met" till you see "---" for that number module as well

TURN OFF KEY, Remove the pigtail jumper from the ALDL

Try tyo start the car NOW ( Note: turn key on wait about 3-4 seconds before engaging the starter)

If this does not work DO THE WHOLE CODE CLEARING AGAIN

On 92/93 Vettes being FUSSY and stranding you I found this to work near 90% of the time to get you going.

This does NOT fix the source of your problem but will trick the serial data into the fuel enable to get it to start.

the 10% of the time this does NOT work is when the situation is related to the ignition or fuel pump.

Good luck

 

Holy **** that was confusing!

And yes typically my security light is flashing. Thats the only light that stays on. Also, it's an '87.

 

Uh, oh yea this wont work on an '87 - this method is for '92 to about '94 ONLY

HOWEVER - for your '87 might try clearing your codes when it doesn't want to start -
but sorry for the confusion, turns out for the '92 to about '94 ONLY, the above procedure DOES WORK.

 

Just thinking, on those older models about the only thing that makes the security light flash is the key resistor pellet reading not correct. For what ever reason.
Often, it is a break occurring inside your steering column beneath your steering wheel, where the wires come out of your key tumbler.
the years of turning that key eventually just breaks those two little wires inside that orange sleeve so it can't send the key pellet reading. They are a pain in the --- to replace but I used to do them a lot when I worked at Cadillac.

 

Hmm thats definitely something to check. I HATE gm's idea of security on these things. Have had so much trouble w/ it spread over different vehicles.

 

I think it may be your user name. Change it to something more Corvette centric and I bet it starts working much more reliably...

 

^haha! Hey what can I say, the corvette is quite the car!