Hello everyone. Been reading these forums for years, and finally have gotten my first ride. 1989 GTA trans am. It has a rebuilt 350 tpi in it, stock all the way around.

So the problem... Was out driving the car around yesterday and noticed that the instrument panel was acting weird. The tach was bouncing around everywhere, the engine temp gauge was failing to register and my batter voltage was not right, it was around 8 or 9.

This morning, go to start car and wants to crank but my voltage is saying its only at 8 or so. When it does try to crank the starter makes a weird noise, not the usual one click or machine gun fire type clicking, but something else. Could i just need a jump? Or is there possibly an underlying problem with this one. Only had the car for 3 days, knew it was going to need work but nothing like this... Thanks for any help

 

how old is the battery?

 

looks rather new, no corrosion on it. That was my initial thought as well. Going to have it jumped and hopefully it will start.

 

I would first start looking at the battery grounds, then look for any frayed wires from the battery. make sure the ecu harness is secure. check for anything loose around the coil. its usually alot easier to see small arcs at nite, just move things around and see if anything arcs.

 

Got her running again. Turned out to be a bad alternator. Battery was drained as well but it charged up and a new alternator later i am running again. Thanks for the help.