I have an 84 that has new 305 block and was rebuilt. i have an Edelbrock 1406 carb and have changed from ecm control dist. to vacuum controlled. just replaced starter b/c the other made bad noises and cracked. I have 460 miles on rebuild. all the smog stuff is gone now. no O2 or air tubes on stock exhaust manifold. i've check the wires and battery. the car starts great when cold. there is no starter noise at all. starts very fast and runs great. when I reach normal temp. shut the car off even after 10 minutes it acts like battery is running down. it cranks very slow, all the lights dim as it makes it slow noise to try and start. pump gas while holding the key and it eventually starts and is running fine again. if I close the choke plate while trying to start it starts right up. checked alternator and it's fine. could this be b/c the car is ready to be redialed in and fine tuned? the mechanic said at 500 miles after all the new parts seat themselves, to bring it back in so he can redial the engine in, at no cost. it's just started doing this the past three days. been fine for two weeks. any clues?

 

maybe cause the starter is to hot?does it have a heat shield around the starter?

 

no, the car never had one. unless you're talking about the cover that goes over it and the flywheel. just checked what you're talking about. no I don't have one on my car.

 

ive seen this problem with headers,after driving on a long trip the headers heat the starter up so much that A. it just dont start,wont even turn.or B the solinoid sticks open keeping the starter on. had that happin on my 87 305 tpi with headers,that plastic bell housing that covers the fly wheel would have nothing to do with it. But maybe the wires to the starter get hot and slightly shift or droop,causing a bad connection,my 90 formula had a similar problem,and it didnt have headers.

 

I'll check to location of the wires and see if they are too close. thanks

 

i moved the wires around away from the y=pipe and did a different shim. it seemed to help some. it took longer for the starter to not start. it just cranks over slowly after 15 minutes.

 

I had a truck that did the same thing. 2 things that helped. 1) the heat shield for the starter and also my distributor was off so it started slow. Hope that helped. Check your timing.

Trey

 

i know that it's time for us to take the car back to the shop to have the engine redialed in again. the guy said when we put 500 miles on the new engine to bring it back so he can retune everything. the car didn't do this before the new starter. the other starter made a bad noise and cracked into, so it's only done this since the new one. I'll see if I can get a heat shield. thanks

 

You can get them cheap at Schucks or Cost Less.

 

thanks, I have another question. i saw heat shields for just the solenoids. can I get one of those, or do I need a heat shield to cover the entire thing? thanks

 

Its best to get the whole heat shield. Also when you put it on don't just attach it with the velcro. Use some bailing wire to hold it on. I have lost one before.

Trey

 

o.k. thanks i'll try that and hopefully that helps.

 

our mechanic said that it is a bad starter, that the solenoid is swelling when the car warms up. I'm going to take it back and see how that goes.

 

Remember spend the money and get the wrap!!!! Never can be to safe ALWAYS WRAP IT!!!

Trey

 

thanks, we went to advance auto parts b/c they said they had one in stock and the guy was too lazy to look for it so he ordered one for the morning. he said there was too much stuff in the back to go through.
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does it have to be a heat wrap designed for the starter or a heat wrap in general that can be wrapped around and used?

 

Sounds like our Cost Less Auto Parts. I am lucky cuz I am a frequent flyer. Thats what I get for pushing my rigs to the limits.

Trey

 

so we took the starter back and got another one the next morning. we wasted a lot of gas that day. the starter didn't even go far enough back towards the flywheel. it was like the casing was too short, even with five shims. it wasn't right. i spent a few hours trying to figure out if i was doing something wrong but it just wasn't right. we took it back and they kinda acted like, well it's the right part number and asked if i used shims. i said yes 5. we got our money and core charge back and drove 45 minutes to another store to get one. no one in our area carried it. well this one finally fir and we did get a heat shield for it. so far so good. the car is in the shop getting the engine retuned. thanks for the advice. everything always has to be difficult.

 

That's why car's are named after women. ALWAYS A PAIN IN THE @$$!!!!!LOLGlad you got it all figured out.

Trey

 

thanks, I think it's good. it seems to need the gas pumped a little to start it after the car is warm. it takes a little while but not like it did before. we got the car back and it couldn't have the timing done this morning. he said the balancer is bad, it's 80 degrees off. it he thinks the rubber inside went out. we are taking it on the interstate tomorrow and he said it's fine just he can't set the timing completely.

 

I kinda have the smae problem I dont have time to look at it until the weekend so maybe you can help b4 i go look. My car when cold kinda seems like it doesnt wanna crank, I just upgraded the motor with new 355 and at first crank seems like it dead stops the starter, but the second try it cranks slower and fires up. Its a new battery 2 weeks old but is weak 600 crank amps, could this motor have to much com pression for it or the starter? starter is rebuilt aswell,.

 

i wouldn't think so. do you have a carb on it it? the choke may be open to much causing this problem. mine did that before. the choke was too loose and not closing enough on first start when cold. after it warms up is it easy to start?

 

no its not the choke because at first crank it doesnt really crank at all as if battery was dead, im wondering if it could even be my ignition in the steering column.

 

almost sounds like it;s flooded or not getting gas through at first. my 82 did this for a while and just didn't want to crank. turned out to be the distributor rotor cap, oh and the distributor cap had a crack in it as well. started right up after that and was a cheap fix. could be ignition module going out or is slightly bad. had a bad fuel pump once that wasn't putting enough fuel in and gave same symptoms as well. ran fine when started but hard to start first off. we had so many didn't things go wrong it's hard to keep up with what fixed what. maybe this will help some or maybe not.

 

I got all new accel ignition new plugs wires new everything pretty much new. It doesnt seem to be the fuel or ignition just that it cranks slowly as if its battery was dead and all connections are new and grounds are tight.

 

timing is the only other thing I could think of then. have you tried adjusting the distributor to see if it makes a difference? could also be the starter out of alignment. maybe too close so it's bogging it down and is just loose enough to start after a few times but a little too tight causing to to crank slow acting like it's dead due too not enough gap. any noises when you try to crank it and when it starts? sorry if I'm not much help. I know how you feel trying to get things to work. it gets really annoying sometimes. hopefully you can find something.

 

I just got the car back this week havent had time to mess with it im sure it will be an easy fix.

 

99 TA how is you car running?

Dirty Canadian. Mine did the same my distributor was too far advanced. I run mine way advanced. Better for the take off if you know what I mean. Check that.

 

it's o.k. i guess. it was suppose to be retuned yesterday after 500 miles and the balancer needs replacing. he said he couldn't adjust the timing b/c of it. the balancer is way off by 80 degrees. he said it will be fine driving it like that just may have a little vibration. we plan to get it fixed next week. when it's warm we have to give a little gas to start it. may be b/c of timing.

 

we'll I decided not to take KITT to the cruise in that is an over an hour away. I'm just afraid that the balancer will cause more problems and after having a rebuild, I don't want that. better safe than sorry.

 

today after work i went and got another battery 850 cold cranking amps turns it over much better now, i guess the other one was only 555 amps

 

hopefully that's it then and everything o.k. good luck!