I have a problem with my car, its a 1987 Firebird, it has a 350 shortblock, with 305 heads, intake/exhaust manifolds etcetera. It is carbed. The car wouldn't start, only when its being jumped, and according to the factory volt meter, it would go down to between the 8 and 13 mark, I would shot it off, and retry starting it, but it would either click, or barely turn over. So I jumped the battery, and after letting it charge for a minute, it would start. I then took the charger off, and watched the stock volt meter climb down. I thought this was probably the alternator, so I bought a new one. The auto parts store, said the old alternator was perfect, and he told me it was from the exhaust manifolds heating up the solenoid to the starter. I had them test the battery too, they said they would recharge it for me.

So tonight, I am going to try it again, with the recharged battery/new alternator. If this doesn't work, and the battery still needs to be jumped to get started, what could the problem be? Could it be the starter?

I am trying to get rid of this car also, so any help in getting it running right again would be helpful. I will let you know tonight if I got it to work, but just incase I figured I'd ask. Anyone whos had similar problems please chime in

 

Sounds like a dead short in the battery, but a solenoid can't be ruled out.

 

Well, apparently the guy at auto zone must have been wrong. I installed the new alternator and freshly charged battery and the car runs wonderfully now. It starts right up no problem

Sorry for clogging up the boards, but I wouldn't of known what to do if the new alternator and charged battery didn't fix it.

 

I was going to guess bad battery. But you should also get a new mini-starter just for fun. They are much better, they spin faster, are smaller, and use less power.

You might also want to rewire all your engine grounds with 2 or larger wire and have a direct ground from the battery to the engine block.

 

I had that starter issue you described. What it actually did was prevent the starter from connecting to the flywheel (it fried the...hmm forgot the name of the gear that connects to the flywheel now...well it friend the thing that pushes that out) Starter issues are usually obvious (no clicking, the gear spinning but not engaging making a loud high pitched whine)


FYI, the battery wont get much of a charge if youre just letting it idle, that alt also powers everything on once the motor is turned over. Over 2k is when the battery gets a charge but you have to be careful since motors can get damaged by revving it above that for more than a few seconds (and no load) repeatedly. Im not entirely sure how, but every shop Ive worked for (and the ase training I did in electrical) has made this extremely clear to not do that when testing a battery.

 

I had that problem, and shortly thereafter my battery exploded from a bad starter. It was drawing so much current that it couldnt start on its own. As stated above, a bad battery will also cause this. If the alternator can make 13+ volts above 1k, then its fine.

I also wouldnt worry about revving the motor to 2.5-3k or so if you have to charge the battery. It wont do any harm to it. The alternator still works at idle, but the output is so low that with a drained battery, it might not make above 12 volts.