I'm not too sure of the problem that I'm having. I have a 71 skylark. The engine wasn't running and i came across a guy that I was buying a rear quarter from and he had a 72 wagon with a 350-4bbl (mine was a 350-2bbl). Anyway, the skylark had no problem turning over and keeping a battery before I swapped engines. The wagon also ran beautifully. After hooking the engine up in the skylark, the battery that was in it wouldn't hold a charge even though it before when it was in the wagon. When I went to jump it the other night, the cables got hot really quick and sparked something fierce when I hooked them up. However, the car still started. I could shut it off and restart it right away with no problem. If I wait ten minutes, it's dead. The only thing that I could think of other than it being a faulty battery is that maybe I hooked up the starter incorrectly. Anyone know if that would cause it?
take the battery from the lark and use it in another car for a couple of days ... if the other car starts having problems ... you will know its the battery!! carry a good battery and cables/battery swappin tools around while you are doing this so you dont get stranded ... :TU:
I've got another battery that I can try to put in there and see if that works. Being that there really aren't many wires to hook up onto the engine other than a few sensors and the coil, I'm thinking I may have some wires wrong on the starter. If I remember correctly, there were 2-3 small wires hooked up on the solenoid. Anyone know where they are suppose to be hooked up? Right now I believe I have the ground hooked up on the inside terminal.
You have the starter attached to a ground wire???? You should only have hot wires to the starter, as the starter grounds through the engine block... You should have 3 terminals on the starter, a big one (for the battery cable, and fuseable links), and two smaller terminals... 1 marked "S" (for the wire that comes from the Key switch), and one Marked "R" (that should be the wire that goes to the coil... not needed if you have HEI ignition). I could be mistaken on the markings for the solonoid, but I'm sure of their purpose
Start the car, and while it is running disconnect the Pos battery terminal being careful not to let it touch anything. If the motor stops running, your altenator or voltage regualtor are bad If the motor continues to runput the battery cable back on to be safe. hook a volt meter up to the battery while its running - you are looking for voltage above 12.5 ... should ideally be about 13.5V. If the reading is is low 12's have someone slowly advance the throttle to ~2,300rpms and watch the reading. The big spark when you connect the jumpers from the good batt. to the bad is normal as there is a significant potential voltage difference between a good batt. and a dead one. Likewise, the wires would get hot carrying enough current (amps) through them to bypass the dead battery and start your car - the dead battery is like a giant resister at this point. Make sure you have a good chasis ground - thick braded strap that goes from under the voltage refulator to the back side of the Pass. head. Make sure both surfaces (the firewall and the head) are totally clean and free of paint or gunk where the strap ends make contact. If you have left the battery in a discharged state for any period longer than a few hours (during the swap and fine tuning) you may have killed it.
Hold On!!!!!! Don't under ANY condition disconnect the battery wile the car is running!!!! This throws a spike to the whole electrical system!!! Sorry Alan, AL.
....I would agree with you on any modern car with sensors and cumputer chips - but not on our old cars where the most Hi-tech thing is a points breaker or possibly an HEI
Thanks for all the replies. I guess I assumed the wire was a ground, but was wrong. I think I do have the purple wire hooked up right. I haven't had a chance to do anything yet this week but probably will this weekend. I've got an extra battery that I'm going to throw in it and make sure the ground is hooked up well from the body to the engine. I'll post on here when I do some of those things.
Andy - Before you throw another battery in, please check your wiring. The wires should not get hot and you may just cook another battrey if you don't check it out first. - Bill
Reversing the small wires will result in a no crank condition, not much else. I would look for short somewhere, or more likely a bad starter that is drawing too much current. Ho old is the starter?
Sorry I haven't replied sooner, I've been pretty busy this week. Anyway, I tried putting a new battery in and the second I touched the positive cable (already had the ground hooked up) I heard like a frying noice and immediately disconnected it. It seems like something may be shorting out. I didn't really have any time last weekend to look into it at all. This weekend I'm going to make sure that I have everything hooked up right and if that doesn't change it, then I'm going to probably change the starter with a spare that I have and see if that works. The starter that's in there now is almost brand new. This shouldn't be too dificult b/c the car didn't have this problem before so it must be something I hooked up wrong, which there are really a few wires that get hooked up to the engine.
.....do not make the false assumption that because the starter is new, it may not be part or all of the problem. I've spent wayyyyyy to much time diagnosing around a new replacement piece only to finally come back to it - and it being the culprit - to ever make that mistake again.
Well, I finally got a chance to work on my car last weekend and figured out what was going on. I'm surprised i didn't notice it sooner. what happened was the positive cable that goes from the batter to the starter had come in contact with the exhaust manifold and melted on it and was then causing all kind of problems. I corrected that and it works like a charm now.
Actually, ANY vehicle can be damaged by disconnecting then reconnecting the alternator. The diodes in the alternator are especially sensitive to this surge, which basically means that the correct method of testing the alternator involves special equipment, not disconnecting then reconnecting the unit. You WILL eventually damage ANY alternator doing this. Ray
you guys are right :bglasses: disconecting a battery while the car is running in an absolute no-no ou: unless you want to buy a new one from me :laugh:
try this Along with the braided chassis ground, check out your relay mounted on the firewall to the drivers side of the voltage regulator, it should have a three prong connector plugged into the bottom of it, if it got hot and melted that connector it could have a dead short in it, happened to me once. And the last time i disconnected my battery to check the alternator, it blew every alot of bulbs on my car, decklid, interior, under hood, etc.
