Nate86

Hey everyone. I just bought my first car recently, and I am having trouble getting it to crank.

My car is a 1985 Trans Am with a LG4 305cid engine.

The problem I am having is the car is very hard to crank. I may be prematurely worrying about this but I would like to know exactly what I need to do to get it to start.

Since I have bought the car (last Tuesday), I have started and driven the car twice; however, I've tried on at least four occasions to crank her and have her just die on me.

Basically, whenever I try to start her, the car will sound like it is cranking, but soon it just stops trying and won't make any sound at all, except for a faint clicking sound. I'm not sure if that is good or bad but that's what happens. Afterwards, I have to wait for a good 3-4 hours before I can even try to crank her again. I noticed that the RPM gauge seems to drop below the 1000 RPM mark after the car starts to make the clicking noise, if that has anything to do with it. I only have about a quarter of a tank of gas.

When I bought the car, the guy said that I should pump the gas if I should have trouble getting her to start... especially in the cold. I've been doing that and still no go. He also fiddled with what appears to be a screw inside of the air filter container and said that it needed adjusting for some reason so the car could start. (by the way, sorry if I'm not using correct terminology... I'm a real newbie to the car scene, although I am eager to learn as much as possible). I have no idea what that did though.

If anyone could shed some light on how to get my car to start so I can at least drive it, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

hank

you are kinda jumping around are you having problems getting the car to run after starting and/or problems cranking the car. the clicking noise you were referring to sounds like a messed starter solenoid. check your battery/alt too these cars eat those and starters like candy. hope this helps maybe the five-seven kid or that dude from ohio will jump in here they both give good advice.

Later

Nate86

Sorry to be indirect... I know the first post was kind of jumpy but I didn't know how to put the problem into words very well. Basically, I just wanted to know why my car wasn't cranking at all.

The situation has somewhat changed and I am no longer having a problem starting the car. However, I am having a new problem. I'll tell you basically what has happened so far, though... so you can get a better idea of the situation.

I had been talking with some of my friends about the problem I was having and most of them agreed that they thought it was some kind of problem with the battery (the turn-over getting slower until it was nothing but a clicking noise) so we first started with that. My friend brought his 89 Camaro and we tried jump starting the car... no help. The car still wasn't starting.

The next day, we went to a parts shop and bought a distributor cap, rotor, spark plugs and wires and replaced all of them. My friend pointed out to me that the metal part of the spark plug had oil deposits on them (all eight of them did). I looked up what the oil deposits meant in the back of the Haynes manual and it read:

"Oily coating caused by poor oil control. Oil is leaking past worn valve guides or piston rings into the combustion chamber. Causes hard starting, misfiring and hesitation."

So I'm thinking that oil leaking into the combustion chamber is definately not good, and what's even worse is that I have no idea to fix it. But I digress; that's not really what the problem is right at the moment.

After replacing most of the major ignition system parts, the car decides to start. However, the car idled at around 2000 RPMs, which sounds a bit high to me. Not sure what's causing that.

Also, the car is STILL making a clicking noise in the "on" position before I crank her. I have no idea what that noise is but I figure it couldn't be good.

I've asked about this and no one seems to be able to give me a decent reason why it is doing this.

Again, any help would be greatly appreciated.

305RSlc

Yeah, I am the "friend" that has been working on his car. It has ample voltage in the battery, it cranks and starts (now that it can actually fire). When we first got it started, it blew an assload of white smoke out the exhaust. Leads me to think that it is somethign to do with the massage amounts of oil that is on the plugs when I pulled those. It idled at 2000rpm with the air cleaner assembly off and no PCV valve and the IAT unhooked. After I put the air cleaner back on and hooked up the IAT, the car started sputtering and wouldn't hold idle. I did not have a new PCV valve to put back on the car so it does have an open vaccuum pull and I dunno for sure if this would be what is causing it to not idle properly. I'm not too experienced with working on carbed engines as mine is EFI, so I am just trying to figure out why it won't idle. When we test drove it it idled as smooth as glass at 1000rpm....750 when it was warmed. So I am leaning towards a vaccuum leak and hopefully that is it. Any of you carb guys feel free to chime in with any advice, criticism, whatever, just something to give me an idea what to do.

Also, how hard would it be to change the vavle seals? I'm not liking the whole oil in the combustion chamber thing and the seals is at least something I could dowithout tearing down the entire engine like I would have to do with new rings. thanks guys

305RSlc

Nevermind. We got it running today and it seems to be pretty good. I am still concerned about the valve seals and that oil problem. Anyone wanna help out, that'd be awesome.

by running I mean driveable

Bandit5

Oil on the plugs and white smoke on startup is a good indication of bad valve seals... pretty common on 305's. Replace those seals and you should be fine until you locate your next problem.

305RSlc

I"m aware that it could be the valve seals, I just wanna know if anyone has any info on how to change em. This morning we tried to start it and the damn thing is right back to sqaure one......

Nate86

Ughn... this is really starting to **** me off. The car is not starting again. It's doing the same thing as before, except now it's worse.

After changing a few vacuum hoses that were badly worn and hooking them up properly, as well as replacing the fuel filter, the car seemed to start and run very well. It was riding smooth and cranking it was no problem at all. I also put in about 3/4 tank of gas and some STP Fuel System Cleaner (gray bottle) in the car.

Drove it yesterday and it wouldn't idle--kept dying on me. I finally said screw it and started driving anyway, however the idle was horribly rough and the engine sounded like it was making a popping sound everytime I accelerated. The car wouldn't shift from 2nd to 3rd gear when I accelerated, either.

Tried starting her today and she won't even turn over. She just sits there and makes almost like a grinding noise whenever I turn the ignition to "start." I have no clue what's going on.

Please help.

my84firebird

Sounds like you need several things.....

starting problem sounds like either the starter or alternator. When it wont start, crawl underneath and tap the starter with something metal, like a big wrench or baseball bat. See if it starts afterwards, if it does you need a starter. Don't overlook the battery either.

Did you put on a new PCV valve? When you say popping sound, what do you mean? Is it backfiring?

When you said the guy opened the air filter and adjusted something he was probably messing with the carb, meaning it probably needs a good rebuild, or at least needs to be adjusted properly.

As far as the tranny not going into 3rd, thats definitely not good, that's a good indication it's going bad.

Hope you get these problems resolved, these cars really are cool once you get them working right.......

Nate86

Hi my84firebird,

Thanks for the reply.

Since I last posted, I had the battery checked at autozone and it would only hold about a 10V charge, even after being recharged for about 45 minutes. I figure the battery's about to go bad anyway if it hasn't already. Also, the positive cable has a ton of corrosion underneath the insulation so I am thinking about just getting entirely new cables, rather than trying to clean the existing ones (for all I know, the cables on there now are the ones that originally came with the car).

The popping sound sound I was referring to did sound like a backfire, but it sounded more like it came from under the hood than out the exhaust (unless I am mistaken that backfiring occurs from out the exhast, which I probably am). The car would basically "pop" four or five times until I let off the gas a bit, and then I could cruise normally.

We did put a new PCV valve on, and we have it connected to the right vacuum hoses (the ones that I mentioned were replaced were put on the PCV as well).

Right now I'm just going to get a new battery and cables and hope for the best. I am not confident that getting a new battery will make the car crank, but I figure they need replacing anyway so I'm gonna go ahead and do it now. Both the cables and the battery itself look very old and quite rugged and beat up. I should have asked the guy I bought it from more questions before buying.

Thanks a lot for your suggestions, though. I appreciate it. By the way, during the short time I did get to drive it without much of a problem, I had a blast. :lala:

hank

the car can backfire through the carb it s an indicator you need to have your carb/timing adjusted or a bad sensor(map/barometric egr,etc) the trouble is that's it's hard to find somebody that can adjust quadrajets and evem most dealer "tech's" dont know how to adjust a carb. find a good mech and stick with him or find somebody thats really into hot rods and learn from him

Nate86

/bump

my84firebird

keep us updated on what happens and we'll go from there.....

Nate86

Took the car to a repair shop today. The mechanic said that he didn't know exactly what was wrong, but the best idea he had was that the carburetor needed a rebuild. He suggested that gas may have possibly dried inside the carb and clogged it up in some way. I suppose that make sense because the car had been sitting in the guy's yard for a long while since he had moved down to Florida (the guy was from Iowa).

He also showed me some interesting things. First of all, the fuel line had two fuel filters on it instead of one... a filter near the entrance of the carburetor and another filter on the actual fuel line itself. No idea why the car has two fuel filters on it.

The "screw" I was referring to in my very first post is called the Idle Air Bleed valve and I told him that the previous owner had tampered with that more than once.

I'm currently waiting for the mechanic to give me a quote on how much his shop would charge for a rebuild of the carb. I guess for now all I can do is wait. Could anyone give me a rough estimate of how much a carb rebuild would cost if I was to do it myself (the car has the stock Quadrajet carb on it)?

Anyway, thanks all the previous information. If you have any comments or suggestions to add, feel free to post.

my84firebird

I believe I'm in the same boat, I'm running into an intermittent hesitation/backfiring problem which I've narrowed down to the carb since everything else (and I mean everything) has been replaced.

Can anyone on here post the vaccuum hose routing diagram for the factory quadrajet? My hood is aftermarket so I don't have the sticker anymore.... and I've got a couple vacuum lines that aren't going anywhere......so I'm pretty sure that's whats causing the problem.

If not then I'm gonna get a quote on a rebuild but if it's alot I'm just gonna get a new carb. You can get a brand new edelbrock 600 cfm for $229, which isn't to bad at all. I've also seen rebuilt quadrajets at discount auto parts for about $250.

Let me know what they quote you Nate.....

Nate86

Can do. Hope you get your problem worked out as well.