i have an 89 trans am and that sucker needs so much cold cranking amps to start it's not funny. is this normal or do i have a problem? i had a battery that wasn't any good with 630 cold cranking amps and i hooked a booster box up to it and it wouldn't start it mean while it started my carburated 84. so i hooked jumper cables up to my dads truck and it started. so last night i went to auto zone and i get a brand new battery and it had 550 cold crancking amps. put it in and wouldn't start, tried it again and it was stone dead. by now i'm really frustrated and go back to autozone and buy the 70 dollar duralast battery with 700 cold crankin amps, it starts fine now. is it normal for the 305 TBI to use so many or do i have a problem somewhere?

 

not sure what kinda battery i am using, but sounds like you fixed the problem with a better battery; as long as you got it to work that would be fine enough for me.

 

There is something wrong for it to not start like that. It should have been fine with the other batteries.

 

thats what my dad was thinking.. he said maybe the starter was going or bad wiring or something he said it should start with the battery they gave us.. any suggestions on what it could be?

 

Make sure your battery connections are absolutely clean and then clean all the cables connecting to the starter. Voltage decreases when it has to try to pass through dirty connections. This might help. -John

 

yeah, make sure the cables arent corroded on the inside either
high resistance=less current

 

Check all connections/cables. If they're all good, then your starter is dragging, and is probably getting ready to let go.