Can anyone help me? When I turn the ignition key in my 88 GTA to start, I lose power to everything, the digital dash goes dark, and the engine will not turn over, nothing happens. Everything else seems to works when the key is in run or accessory positions. I checked the starter and solenoid, and they work fine. I'm trying to get this bad boy up and running after it has been sitting for a few years.

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Tom

 

load test the battery and inspect the fuseable links to the starter. possibly the battery not able to hold under load use a DVOM meter on dc volts and take a reading of the battery now connect the DVOM to the bat and see what the voltage does when you try to crank the engine if it drops below 9.5 volts suspect the battery no capable of holding and recovering from the load

 

I'll check the battery under load tonight. I've been taking the battery out of my 91
firebird and installing it in the 88 GTA whenever I wanted to try and start it. About the fusable links? There are two of them? smaller red wires at the starter solenoid?
What/Where do they go to? What is the best way to test that they are OK? I have gotten the starter to turn the motor over by jumpering from the positive battery terminal to the terminal on the solenoid that the purple wire is connected to.

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Tom

 

My car did this last week, turn on key and the pump comes on, then when I try to start it I louse all power, It turned out to be the ground cable were it bolts to the block. I cleaned it and it's fine now.