Ok I have an 83 Z28 and I have been having some problems with the car starting. My brother gave me this car a week ago when he left for the airforce and I really havent done anything to the car, except install internal neons inside the car. I am pulling the hot wire from the 25amp fuse that also controls the brake lights. I also wired up a switch so the neons turn on and off, so I am not pulling any power from the battery when the car is off.

Here is the problem. The second day i had the car, I was backing it out of the garage and it stalled (It needs timed up so that is normal) but when i went to turn the car back over, I lost all my electrical systems. I tried again to turn the engine over and still nothing. I got out my battery charger and when i turned it on, my Dome light came back on and as I increased my ampage on the battery charger the dome got brighter. I set the battery charger to 200amps, which is the start positon and it will usuall start the car right up. I got in and the starter clicked a few times but then turned over and the car started. I didnt have any other problems with it until Thursday of last week. The car was running fine all day and it sat for about an hour b4 i had to leave for class. When i went out to start it, it returned the same results as stated above. I tried to jump it (Battery Charger wasnt available) and this produced no effect. That night I returned with my battery charger and noticed that the battery wasnt holding a charge at all!

I grabbed another battery that had been in one of my older camaros, much smaller and not nearly as much power as the one that was in the car, but it held a charge when i put it on the charger so i swapped batteries and the car fired right up with out the battery being on the charger. The battery wasnt completly charged so i left it on the charger for about half an hour on a 40 amp charge and didnt get back to the car until the next day. The car ran fine all day for me on friday w/o incident. Saturday morning i went out to go to work and the same effects had returned! If a battery charger is put on the battery the car will start but if a charger is left off of the battery for roughly 24 hours the car will produce these effects.

Currently the car will not start. My amp gauge is reading just under 13 when i turn the key to the "On" position but when i go to start the car, the amp gauge bottoms out and the starter will either produce no sound or a clicking sound. So my question is: Is this a battery problem, Alternator Problem, starter problem, or a combination of the 3? There are no other Third Party systems pulling from the battery other then the Neons that i described above. If anyone has an idea on this, please let me know either on here or on my AIM Screen name. Thanx for all the help!

 

sounds like you need an alternator. Whena batteries charged your car will run normal cause the actual runningof the car really dosent require allota power. When night comes and the lights come on and starting your car is what takes allota power. Sounds like to me when you run your car for awhile and turn it off to try to crank it, it puts too much of a load on an already "dead" battery. I think you can test an alternator by placing a screwdriver behind it when running to see if it magnetizes it. I think thats how you do it.

 

Thanks, i will check into it.

 

one more thing to check:

check the rear hatch pull down motor, if it is jammed or broken it can sometimes still pull power ofter the ignition is turned off. it generally takes about two days to kill a good battery but if yours is already weak it could kill it faster.

 

Ok, I have checked the alternator and it is ok. (I magnatized a screwdriver to the back of it) So I am at a loss. I have the automatic trunk release, but it is all in proper working order...... ideas please anyone!

 

try making sure your batt cables are really tight on the battery, other than that i really dont kow whats up with it. Good luck!