91 Z28, factory 350 TPI.

A couple weeks ago I had the same problem, so just earlier this week I was able to buy a new starter, slapped it in and wired everything correctly and then it started right up. Works fine for a couple days until I try to start it this morning. The accessories come on but when I turn the key to start there's just a rapid clicking again.

Btw, battery is brand new and the alt. is a year old.

 

New parts are known to randomly die. Sounds like your starter solenoid is freezing/jamming up. Check your connections for a solid contact- any dirt/resistance can decrease the current flowing to the starter. If no luck then exchange it for a new one.

 

I would put my money on a battery first. If you are able to do a load test do that before you do another starter swap. Also check your ground cable for corrosion and good solid grounds, and also check your pos. terminal, they are notorious for corroding especially if it is the side terminal style.

 

Bit of a late update. I was able to charge up the car last Friday after shoving it into the driveway. It started right up so I drove it around. Took it home and turn it off. The turned it on again with no problem. Repeated 3 times and nothing failed. Took it to work with no concern. When I started it during my break, there was no problem. Then come time to come home it did the clicking again. Called a tow truck and the guy gave me a jumpstart. This time it struggled but it started. Took it home and parked it in the driveway. The next morning I wanted to see if it would start, nothing worked. Today I charged the battery again and then it started right up. I checked all my connections I was able to get a hold of (starter, battery, alt, ground) all seemed fine (to the naked eye). An hour later I tried again, started right up. I'll try again tomorrow morning. I'm wondering if a diode or the regulator crapped out. Someone else suggested the dizzy coil.

Btw, how do you test the voltage of the alt. (meaning, where do I tap the leads of the multimeter)?

 

To test the alternator voltage, run your leads off the battery terminals.

Just cause you can charge the battery and start the car doesn't mean it isn't the battery at fault. If you sulfated the battery, or are low on electrolyte, then the battery may hold enough charge to start the vehicle, and hold enough for short periods of time, such as a few hours, but when left over night may completely drain.

Also look for something to be running, or on, when the key is removed from the ignition. You may have a parastic load that is draining the battery slowly, hence why you get a no-start problem when it is left sitting long enough, things like hood lights, dash lights, vanity mirror lights, can cause a slow drain.

Also look at the condition of the battery, if you see alot of "water" on the outside you may have an electrolyte leak, which if the fluid comes in contact with the body of the vehicle, or negative terminal, AND the positive terminal the battery will discharge slowly, again why you have a no-start problem after long periods of not running.

I am still putting my money on the battery, hope some of what I said helps!!

 

To do a voltage test just place the black Volt meter lead on the negitive side and the red on the positive side. Engine off should read around 12.5 volts, engine running should read about 14.5 volts. You can't check for proper diode ripple with a voltmeter. If you take it to Autozoo they can check your battery and alternator on the car for free (sears charges about $15 for the same thing). Another thing to check is for parasidic drain (something useing power while the car isn't running) To do so you'll need and Ampmeter that rated to about 10Amps. After the car has sat for a few mintues to allow everything to shut down and return to a rest state(do not disconect the battery), hold the black lead on the battery and the red lead on the ground cable, then with both leads still on, disconect the cable from the battery so that all the current must now pass through the ampmeter. It shouldn't read more than .35 to .5 amps.

 

Well the battery is recently new, but that doesn't always mean anything. Tomorrow I'll have the alt. checked at Autozone. I just bought one of those meters that can read ohms, volts, and amps, but do I still need a separate reader? Electrical stuff confuses the hell out of me.

 

to do the parasidic test i wuold recomend a meter that can read upto 10amps (your meter will say right on it what it is rated too), but i would wait on doing that check the battery and alt. first its easier, free, and more likely culprits.

 

My MM has a dial with 20 settings (including "OFF"). One of them is "10A---" (with the dashes and solid line reversed). And then 4 more with 200- and 2000- u and 20- and 200- m. The rest measure volts or ohms. Are they sufficient? The how would I go about doing the test?

 

Yup that would work, take it to autozone and have them check the battery and alternator first. if they don't find anything i'll try to explain it better.

 

Will do.


Another thing, the tow truck driver gave me a card to a place that will diagnose your car for free if you're a AAA member of any sort (my dad put me on their roadside assistance). Should I take it there or will it be a waste of my time? (I can see them telling me what I already know.)

 

If its free why not? Then goto a parts store buy what you need and fix it your self.

 

Well I took the alt and batt in for testing and they both checked out fine. Tomorrow I'll give that fuse block test a try.

 

just check your alternator fuse. it should be under the dash. sometimes people spark stuff, stuff moves... you overload the fuse, anything. also the wiring to the alt may be bad, or to bat. who knows? just go in there and poke around. my alt just went out after 17.5 years... got it rebuilt for 48.00. but, since your alt passed, and your battery passed... then i dunno. its acting like the alternator is not supplying power to the battery to charge. so i think its a wiring problem, or a junction between the wiring (fuse).

 

It's losing power overnight, no problem charging while running. There's a drain that I can't figure out. Well if it's indeed free I'll just take it in.


Btw, where exactly is the fuse block located?

 

IF its loosing power over nite either the battery is faulty or something is staying on. Check for something that doesn't turn off, have you installed a radio or anything lately? Is there alot of dirt or corrosion around the battery terminals? Are the park, reverse, brake, or head lites staying on (possibly very dim so you wouldn't notice at first)? Any wires damaged that may be slightly ground?

 

I had that problem of rapid clicking when i turned the key mine wasn't the alternator it was actually my battery. It was low and didn't keep a charge but if i jump started it it would run for a while in the end it was my terminals were loose and no good. i just replaced everything battery and terminals.
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Oh ya i had just had my system installed and my amp wire that connects to the battery terminal (i guess it like a battery tap) wasnt the right one and it kept the terminal from properly catching so i replaced it as well.

 

Nothing new is installed such as radios or high powered foglamps. I haven't noticed anything faulty with the wiring nor anything being stuck on, but that was with the naked eye as well. Most of my wiring has that plastic tubing running along it so I can't really check for visual wear. Dumb question, but what's the route for all the wiring that could be causing this? Where are all the grounds located (besides on the body next to the negative post and the engine block)?

 

Last night I left the battery unhooked to the car, and did a volt test and remained the same from yesterday. Hooked it back up and the car started fine, so it's not the battery. There is one thing that's been going on with my car, and that's the back hatch that keeps rattling. The pull down switch functions properly and is never stuck, but could a lever that locks the hatch have anything to do with it? Is that rattling from that thing normal? (this is the only third gen I've ever owned or rode in so I couldn't compare).

 

If you left the batter unhooked and the car was able to start, almost 100% sure here, you have a drain on the batter when you take the key out of the ignition. You need to do a parasitic draw test.

 

Is that the fuse test? How do I go about doing it?

 

What you need to do is remove the negative battery cable and set your multimeter to "A" (amperage), not kA, or MA, make sure it is "A".

Connect the leads, the positive to the battery terminal and the negative lead to your cable end that is connected to the battery terminal usually. Turn your multimeter on and check to see what amps you have flowing, if you have some flowing start disconnecting fuses one at a time, and then reconnecting them and watching the meter.

When you pull a fuse and the amps drop, that is a circuit you have a load drawing on. Make sure the key is out of the ignition completely when you run the test. Then once you narrowed down the circuit, check back here and I can give some more info dependant on the circuit, plus I think I can grab some wiring diagrams for you if needs be and post them up.

 

Disconnect neg cable from your battery, connect your DVOM in series to the cable with the DVOM set to the 10amp setting, Tell us what it says. If normal it should be somewhere in the 7-12 mA range, 30mA at the max, any more and you have a problem.

 

almost always a poor connection(usually ground side),the rattling under hatch is probably the teflon slides fell apartin the pull down motor,the parasitic draw test was descibed early,put your mm in 20a mode,and hook between negative terminal and end of negative wire,your hooking your meter in line to let the current flow thru your ground side,should be less than .5amp,if more then you go to fuse block and pull fuses to find what circuit is dragging you down

 

So ive had my camaro for almost a year now, its a 1990 iroc, and its been nothing but problems....im gogn to explain everything its been throughf or im afraid it may have something to do with a past problem...So i got the car in south carolina, i was living in north carolina at the time and had to get the car inspected, wellt he horn didnt work and some how my ex father in law went to put power to what he thought was the horn relay and ended up blowing a fuse (at the time we didnt kno we blew a fuse) but only 4 of my 8 injectors were working, so after replacing the computer , spark plugs, injectors..we took it to a chevy dealership and they supposidly went over all the wiring and **** and figured out it was a stupid fuse....so we got the car back to normal...then when i decided to move back to ohio the car did great on the 12 hour drive up then after being in ohio for about amonth my car started overheating...well after realzing it was the damn fans i had a friend try to fix them who went ot collge for this **** but for some reason is a dumbass and cant do ****...lmao ne wayz he hooked the fans up to keyhot....little did he know that somehow he hooked it up to the ignition switch...soo that blew my ignition switch but ofcourse i didnt know that so i replaced the starter/solenoid...ofcourse that didnt do anything..so this dumb *** friend decides its teh ignition switch so i get a new igniton switch and the car starts, i drive it bout 5 miles down the road and it dies, so i finally get ahold of a different friend who is pretty good at cars and pulls back down my collom and realized that the fans were buring out my female plug that plugs into my ignition switch.....so he fixes that and puts a fuseable link from my ignition switch, somhow hooks up to my fans and my battery so i dont blwo anything any more.....i drive the car for about a week and the i let it sit for about a week, when i go to start my car its dead...well it was cold outside so i figured it was jus because i hadnt driven it so i put the charger ont he battery and it started right up, went to my fathers and the car sat int he drive way for botu 6 hours then started right up again, that night i parked my car for the winter....NOW my problem is i got my car out, the battery was dead...took it to advanced-same as auto zone....and the battery was useless, so i got a new battery car started up and took it to my fathers, it sat for two days and then i started it up and put it in the garage to clean it and my interior light is like the original light bulb and it barely lights up and gets EXTREMLY HOT ..so i took it out....10 minutes later my care wont start, batterys completly dead...so i figured it was becuase until i tookt he light bulb out my door was open and drained the battery somehow, so i charge it, then today i get insuranc eon my car and wanted to go out driving and the battery was complely dead AGAIN so i charged it up and put it int he garage, i got new terminal bolts beacsue the ones that where on the battey were longer than they needed to be, i also tookt he fuseable link and put a new conector on nit becaus the old one on my terminal like dot move around and my car will not start if the connection is broken between the fuseable link and the positive terminal. I then charged the battery and it started up. I let my car sit for a half an hour went back out and baterry was completly dead...in a half hour! SO i talked ot my dad and he made me put the meter between the postive cable and the postive terminal, pulled fuses and the voltage stayed 12.87 the whole time. I then unhook my alt and checked again and it was still 12.87 ..I read above not to have the key in while doing this and i cant remeber if mine was or not, so im goign to try that method again tommorrow. My dad is also going to go through all my wires and try to figure out where the short is but ive notices im not the only one with this problem so im hoping theres some other solution beacsue honestly the person who owned thecar before me has wires everywhere that its..its jus bad...lol...I was also wondering abo0ut my trunk hatch beacsue you sorta have to push the button a bunch of times for it to even let it go, and then its a bitch to get it to close again...SERIOUSLY any help would be greatly appreiciated, i honestly only came here looking for a wiring diagram for tommorrows expedition of finding the shortage, lol..and sorry for anyone who decided to read my message, i kno its long but im worried the problem with my car started from an earlier problem...Like i said any ANY help is highly appriciated
Thanks
Amanda

 

is the trunk latch staying in the on position? keeps turning the motor in there? mine does, so i unplugged it lol

 

Ok before I was doing it wrong. My original reading on 10 amp mode was around .26 - .27. Now let me go do this test correctly. How much of a drop am I looking for?

 

I pull out fuse labeled "LID" and the meter drops down to around .20. Should have figured it was that stupid hatch. Right now I'm charging the battery. Should I take the fuse back out and leave it out or will it not make a difference?

 

.26 of an amp shouldn't kill a battery in decent condition,the difference of .06 wouldn't really make a difference,notice camarobaby post?

makes you wonder

 

the relay between my ignition switch and the fuseable link was hooked up back wards, therefore the stupid relay was drawing voltage even whent he car was completly off, so we hooked it up the way it was suuposed to be and volia

 

Hmmmm, never bothered to check my ignition. How do I access the relay?

 

Grim, my relay on my car that i was talking about was put in so my fans would stop blowing my ignition switch...If i was you, and i has a similair problem id drop the collom and check the female plug that hooks into the ignition switch, I thought when my car wouldnt turn over or do anything it was my battery, or my starter and ofcourse it wasnt it was my ignition switch, so if ya havent checked it its only 4 bolts and its right on top

 

Thanks for the tip bab... erm, camarobaby. I think I may have found the culprit. This afternoon I did the test again and the LID fuse was drawing amperage (just to make sure, so it wasn't a fluke). So I yanked the fuse out and disconnected the wires where the switch is (coincidentally a clip for the switch broke so I was able to pull it right out). I left the battery hooked up and went off to work (I use my dad's truck as a donor vehicle, btw). Came home, opened the door... the dome lights up. Slip in the key and starts right up. Usually after 8 hours the battery is drained. I know I should have checked for voltage in the battery, but it's dark and my hoodlight doesn't work. Imma let it sit for 12 more hours connected and see if she starts tomorrow. Anyway, thanks for all the advice and tips.

 

Well grim im glad yours is working...after fixing all of that my oil pressure was acting up and running extremly low so i chnaged my oil and it stopped, Now after ridding in it for awhile, when you go into reverse it stalls and the oil pressure drops, then its a bitch to get it home cuz you have to keep you foot ont he gas to get the oil pressure to stay high enough to run....So tommmorow imma buy a new oil sending unit and see if that does the trick...if not its oil pump...sigh...ill update