Hey guys, I am in need of some help. First off, I just recently bought a 1991 Z28, L98, auto with a little under 150K miles on the clock and ZERO mods. As most of you guys, I want my car to run as close to perfect as possible. This car was definitely neglected by previous owners so I set out to fix that.

Currently the car is not being driven but it was running before we started working on it. So my buddy and I decided to do a tuneup on it. Nothing special, just replace the wires, cap, rotor, plugs, oil, oil filter, and coolant. Well I drove my car about 30 feet to a spot that we started working on it. I changed the plugs, wires, cap and rotor on the car. I made sure the wires went to the right plugs, the plugs were gapped at .035", the rotor was installed in the same position it came off in, etc. My buddy changed the oil and drained the coolant and he topped everything off. No biggie, right?

Well when I went to restar the car, it didn't start. All it does is make a weird clicking noise when the key is turned. But nothing else happens?!?!? We were going to change the thermostat but we didnt' feel like it due to the bolts. However, when my buddy was trying to get to one, he said he touched the alt and it sparked. Could that have killed something in the ignition? NOTHING else was touched except the stuff we changed during the tuneup and as I said, it was running and started up fine before. So what gives? Is there anything I might have overlooked? Anything that might have come lose that I should check for? I am REALLY frustrated and lost as to what happened here. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to start looking or what to do? I mean, it was just a simple tuneup so I am totally lost as to why this happened. Any wisdom, comments, even criticism is welcome if it is constructive and helps me get this thing running again. Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds more like a dead battery. Yes he could have blown a fusable.

 

well all the accesories work. We did not unhook the battery when we were working on it so maybe it was kinda drained from the underhood light. But we unhooked it for a second and then back in to see it that would help, but nothing. Thanks for the input though. Any specific fuses I should look for?

 

does it click over and over or just click once then when u turn the key again it clicks once again.

one click--prtty sure is starter
many clicks--i think it's the bat

not a 100% on either but try jumping it and try hitting the starter while someone turns the key

 

Many clicks if I just hold it in the START position. You think it could be the bat? I believe the guage said close to 10-12volts I believe. I'll have to recheck it tomorrow. Keep the suggestions coming though.

 

I was helping him do the job. We were going to change the thermostat out and I was loosening one of the bolts to remove the housing, and I touched the wrench on the alternator and it made a small spark. I don't know if that would have done anything, but we mention it because it's probably the only thing that we thought could have caused the problem. Again, all we did was change the plugs, wires, distributor cap, oil/oil filter, coolant, and I lubed the suspension.

Anyway, I was observing what was happening when he was trying to start the car from the outside. When he turns to key to "start," the belt moves just barely and the engine makes a clicking noise every time the belt moves.

 

Check the Batt. voltage at rest with a DC volt meter. Here's some spec's.

Spec. Gravity = 1.28 = 12.7v = 100% charged.
1.245 = 12.5 = 75%
1.21 = 12.27 = 50%
1.175 = 12.06 = 25%
1.14 = 11.89 = Diccharged

Auggie

 

Sounds like either the batt is just plain dead, or one of the cables has a bad connection where it hooks to the batt.

Take the cables loose, clean them and the terminals themselves with a wire brush and some water & baking soda if there's a bunch of corrosion. Charge it with a charger. If it still doesn't work, get a battery.

 

So the general consensus is that my battery is the problem. That is EXTREMELY reassuring since I thought i was maybe looking at a new ignition module, or starter, or who knows what else. Thanks for all the input guys. I'll try to check out the battery tomorrow if I can get to it and let ya'll know what happens. I appreciate the help.

On a completely different note, there's an alarm on the car. Dunno what brand or model or anything but it's annoying as hell and goes off everytime it's touched, even when it's switched "off". Well it has the siren in the engine bay. Could I just cut the wires to the siren and remove it w/o hurting the keyless entry aspect of the car? Just wondering because it just bugs me.

 

Check either the siren or the module. Should be a screw with which to adjust the sensitivity.

 

What the hell would drain the battery? The only thing that was on was the hood light. That wouldn't cause that massive of a battery drain would it?

 

No, but did you leave the key forward for a long time? Is there a drain through the alam you guys were having trouble with? If I could see it, it would be much easier to answer, but we're on the internet so I can't really tell you why. Try jumping it to see if it is a drained batt.

 

Nah, we drove it not two hours before doing the work and it started up just fine. We tried to crank it a few times (maybe four at the most) and every time it would do what was mentioned before.

Anyway, it'll have to wait till tomorrow because the car is at his sister's house until he sells his '94 Camaro.

 

If he grounded the alt output post and it blew a fusible link its a pretty easy fix. It is near the battery. On a distribution post. Look around its near the battery and radiator. If a wire is burned replace it and it may start,

 

that's where I get lost, how exactly do you tell if a wire is burned? I've read about the fusable links between the bat. and starter and that a telling sign of a burnt one is that it is bulged out where the link is. Is this the only way to tell that there's a burnt wire? I"m gonna try to jump it off today and see what I get...

 

When mine burned its was very obvious. The wire was black and melted. I replaced them and the car started and charged fine again.

 

I'll keep that in mind. I hope to go jump it off today and see if that works, if not, then I guess I'll have to start looking for burnt wires and whatnot.

 

It's not the battery. Tried jumping it today and it was a no go. The battery cables are fine. There doesn't appear to be any burns on any wires either.

Anything else?

 

Yep, battery read 13 volts when trying to start it, then would go down to like less than 8 when I turned the key over. That was only when the jumper cables were hooked up though. When they weren't, there was nothing from the car except the dome light, no guages, no accesories, nothing. Gonna try a brand new battery and see where that gets me, then all new wires, then ????

 

Maybe you set off that alarm system of his and its not letting you start the car. Try unhooking the negative terminal of the battery for 2 minutes or so to see if you can reset it. In some newer cars the anti theft devices disable the fuel pump.

 

Well, I'll try that first. I called a guy at a shop and he said that the alarm would go off if it sensed anytyhing below 8 volts, which it was doing. Stupid f*cking gayass alarm. I plan on taking it out asap cuz it's a piece of ****. I dunno what model it is, but that could be a possibility and something I'll try. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

check the voltage going to the starter. The wire from the battery should be battery voltage. The purple trigger wire should read close to battery voltage when the key is forward (as in starting the car). When the key is in ACC it should read 0. If the purple trigger wire is reading less than 9 volts, than you've found why it doesn't start. Then you need to trace back to find why you aren't getting the voltage.

 

Yeah, get that crap outta here right away. I had three semi working alarms in my car that at one point killed the battery. You can see the aftermath here

 

I'm sure Lewy would gladly rip that **** out of there in an instant, but I understand why he is not.

We basically don't know anything about this alarm system and what it is hooked up to. Since he is pretty much babying this car, he isn't going to just start taking stuff out without knowing what it does first. Can't say I blame him either.

The alarm is great to impress friends ("Listen to the high tech beepy noise my car makes when I press this button!"), but when it comes to actually deterring thieves from stealing the car, it falls short of that expectation.

Plus, it'll startle the crap out of you when it goes off when you're not expecting it to.

 

It sounds a lot like there is a bad connection some where. You said the hood light was on during tune up. When u go to start it what happens to the light? If it goes out than its a bed ground wire. either on the battery or to the starter. If it stays on try taking a old knife and cut out the termials on the battery. then try the wire to stater. All this is very familer to me

 

Yeah, because the car isn't here for me to work on so I can rip that **** out. I honestly don't give a crap about some "high tech alarm sound" if the damn thing doesn't work right. So yeah, it's coming out.

On a side note, my grandpa is going to let me borrow his volt meter so I can check over everything and possibly just recharge the battery if that is the cause. It'd be a lot cheaper than buying a new one..

 

if the batt is good and it won't start with a jump try cleaning the connections at the batt, the grounds, and the connections at the starter, it's either a bad batt or a bad connection.

 

My guess is a short at the starter. The volts shouldn't drop to 8 when you try to turn it over.

 

Ended up being the battery after all. It fired right up after a new one was installed.

Go figure.

 

Yeah, it could be the starter if you heard a sound like something wants to click in. The alternator should have some stripped wires around.

 

Yeah, if I had read this post back when it was first posted, I also would have said it was the battery. Same symptoms (and some other weird ones) when the battery in my mom's van went out. Same symptoms in my neighbor's truck when he called me over to find out why his truck wasn't starting, and same symptoms my car had the other day when I killed the battery by turning the fans on too much without starting the car (was testing chip burning, etc.).

Glad ya got it all fixed though! Get that alarm outta there yet?

 

I don't know if any of you guys know, but the very west end of Florida was recently hit by hurricane Ivan and I believe I'm the only one of us who has power at the moment. So I'm kind of helping him out with responding. My poor T/A got scratched all to hell with all the tree in the road. .

Anyway, he pulled the alarm out about a week ago. He said it was surprisingly easy.

 

Nah dude, I have power. Anywho, yeah, the battery thing was a relief, the alarm was easy as hell to take out, and so far it's been fun ripping apart aside from finding a 3"x8" area of rust that is almost through the floor. But this car should be up and running well within the next month!