I've been working on my 1984 TA and just attempted to fire it up today. I encountered a couple issues. One (the main one) the car didn't fire. I turn the key with a good battery and everything wired up (well almost everything, some sensors are not hooked up but it still should fire). Instead of the sweet sound of a wide open manifold exhaust barking to life I get the starter solenoid clicking at me. The gauges work and lights work and most of the rest of the electrical works. The car has not been started in four years. I have fuel (startup fluid at least if not gasoline though I have gas in the car) and I have it timed to fire at TDC on #1. Also I definitely have air. Any ideas? I am thinking the starter might be shot or just being a pain in the a$$.

Second issue. My lights work but they are not popping up when I hit the switch. I know they can pop up because they did in the summer when I hooked up a battery to test the electrical components.

I am going to check my connections and give the starter a couple wacks with a hammer if I can get on it. If anyone has any other ideas for either of the above issues. I was really hoping to see if this thing runs while I was home on Break. We also have an MR2 that has the exact same problem and we replaced a lot of parts on that starting circuit with no results.

Thanks in advance.

 

i'd bang on the starter too, maybe at a bad winding especially if the bendix is coming out.

 

if you can hear the solonoid clicking it is probably the starter. Do you get voltage at the purple wire at the starter when attempting to crank? Whack it with a hammer i bet it will turn then, unless the motor is siezed. In which case you've got bigger problems then just a starter.

 

motor isn't seized I was able to turn it with a wrench (didn't turn easily but its an 8 cylinder engine with all the pulleys and belts on and I was using a 12 inch ratchet but I was able to turn it enough to see that it wasn't seized). That was the first thing I thought of and I am relieved it wasn't so. I will try banging on the starter and see what happens.

If I do have bigger problems it will just sit in Mom's garage for a couple years until I get the money to put the correct L69 back in and put it back on the road then.

 

A couple of things can cause that...Is your battery and starter connections clean and tight..Next is all of your grounds tight and connected (behind motor to firewall,battery to block and frame.. Next charged battery.... On to the starter... If you can jack it up (on jack stands of coarse) and have some body bump the ignition.. Watch the bendex and see if it is going in and out of the flywheel freely...sometimes it can get stuck and cause it.....if so you would need to adjust your starter....Hope this helps..

 

I checked my battery cable voltages using the guide in the factory Service Manual for the car and I found that my positive cable might be shot. I couldn't get on the starter with the multimeter to check the voltage to the stater but I was thinking about replacing the cable anyway because the bolt at the battery was rounding off anyway. I went to the parts store and was told you had to splice together wires to replacement cables. I got one for the ground cable and the positive cable. The ground cable is not a problem since it is pretty much identical except for the different end for the side mount and I will need to splice in a ground to the fender. But the Positive side is another story. The cable has one lead tied into the terminal. But its of smaller gauge than the factory one going to the Alternator. I know I don't want to mess with gauge size but there is also another lead going to the Distributor. Is there a direct replacement cable out there for 1984 Trans Ams? I found a so called Direct replacement at Classic Industries for 16 bucks that I would be willing to get just because electrical repair is dangerous at best but I don't know if it is indeed a direct replacement. Anyone else find direct replacement cables anywhere?

 

just build your cables. Not hard at all and then you can make them just how you want them.

 

Problem with doing any electrical work on a car is if you f up the work you f up the entire electrical system. I was thinking the hard part and all the hard labor is done. Maybe I will take it to the local mechanic and have him finish it up. I am going to try one last time (give the starter a couple wacks with the old cables hooked up) and see where that takes me. I've had bad experience with electrical systems (fried an electrical system in a VW bus not to mention all the problems we've had with the MR2 that we have) and would prefer not to do my own electrical work if I can avoid it.

 

Thanks to charging up the MR2 and the discovery that the charger is not working on the automatic setting I am going to attempt a fire up again tomorrow. My brother switched the charger to the manual setting and sure enough the battery charged up to powering the lights and a full charge at jump starting within an hour or so. I will see how it goes there is a possibility that there was not enough power in the battery to start the car (crank the engine) I had 10 volts so maybe 12 will do the trick.