Hello everyone, I have an 88 Camaro that I just purchased on Friday the 4th 2012, yesterday I took it for a trip that was about 300 miles round trip. The car was running fine, when I got to my destination and would turn it on and off for things like pumping gas and going to the store things like that, the vehicle would not start it would crank but not turn over, so I let it sit for two hours came back and tried it again and the car did the same thing but this time I gave it gas and it turned on. So I decided to not turn it off after that and came home on my way home the car started to basically turn off and on while cruising on the highway at about 75MPH but it was so fast you couldn’t notice but I was driving at night so I could see the light blink and the needles on the cluster would jump once like if I turned it off and back on super fast. So I pulled in to a gas station and let it idle for 1 minute before I turned it off, then I pumped gas and put a quart of oil because it was low, got back in and did the same thing cranked and sound like its trying to start with that sound kind of like when you keep turning your key even though the car is already on but the engine would not turn over. I left it there and came back today in the morning and the car still did the same thing I kept trying and stepping on the gas pedal and finally turned on and parked it and haven’t tried it since any ideas why it wont turn over? Lights work fine all power works.

Everything is stock on car its a 5 Speed manual trany. 2.8

 

Hard to say. Possibly starter wire is grounding out or a bad alternator.

 

Just so you are on the same page as everyone else in mechanical land ;
cranking and "turning over" are the same thing; the engine is being rotated by the starter

What you are saying is the engine " will not fire up"

 

Bad guess
He says engine is cranking over fine which means
1. the starter and it's wiring are good
2.the alternator must be working correctly otherwise he would have a flat battery fast by his continuous cranking of the engine

Only need two things to fire a engine up;
reasonable to assume he has the 3rd component ;AIR
so he is either missing fuel or spark ( or possibly both )

Back to auto shop 101
Check for fuel and spark when engine is being cranked over and not starting

 

Not really shop 101.... i would check the wire connections at the starter, check the starter its self. If the starter cant crank the engine. Fast enough it wont start either, if you try to read what was posted sounds like a bad wire connection.

 

If YOU read what was posted nowhere does he say it was "cranking over SLOWLY"

How would as he states "I gave it gas and it turned on" overcome your bad wiring problem

 

do you mean when you try to start it your getting a "grinding" sound?

i had the same issue with a chev 2.8 liter that was in an old AMC jeep. my issue was a broken tooth on the flywheel.

 

you need four things to start....compression,timing,fuel/air mixture and spark

 

So no one read what he wrote? He did state that when he goes to start it that it sounds like the engine is running when he goes to start it, so the starter is grinding, possibly loose, bad, bad flexplate, so which WOULD make it crank slowly and THEREFORE not start. Oh ya this was. Commonsense 101

 

More 101
You also get the same grinding noise if the engine is firing up partially (has fuel and spark but not in correct amount / time)
and driving flexplate against the engaged starter gear;
not because the starter is cranking engine over slowly

 

Oh my god you are stupid, thats called a hard start its because of too much timing advance. If a starter doesnt fully engage the flexplate it will grind and crank the engine slowly because its skipping gears which will cause an engine not to start. Anything else you want to add and make yourself look worse off?

 

Seeing you are doing the calling out ;Junior
1.if you don't have the correct amount of fuel available, the engine will kick and try to fire up.
2.ditto spark ; if only some plugs are firing ( bad plugs or wires ) you will get same result

Big call from someone who has only been here a month and looking at your recent questions ; not exactly up to speed on Auto shop
(witness not having the cable connected on your trans)

You still haven't explained how by
"giving it gas "
he overcome your supposed bad starter wiring problem and the engine fired up ??????????

 

Oh wow yep you got me im not a transmission guy, ill admit it. Thats why i dont help in the transmission section.
We arent talking about transmissions. Wrong fuel wont make an engine kickback. Its all about the spark. Ok one time pumping the gas got it to start, the other problem they have is a loss of power to the electrical sysem, therefore should start lookiin at battery connection starter connection, the starter could be loose from the block make it grind and by uck of the draw catch one good time to start engine.

 

No flexplate.......flywheel, its a stick.... I think the whole problem is the nomenclature that is being used to describe actions. Start from beginning, I don't believe everyone is in the same book let alone the same page..

 

Hell no where near the same book, i dont think same genre lol. Well i think we scared roque away :/

 

OP stated engine was running fine and he doesn't mention anyone stealing his pistons (compression)
or moving his dist (timing) which leaves only fuel and spark

 

If you would stop attacking Vetteoz for two seconds, you'd realize he's probably right. The car cranks, and starts with the application of the gas pedal, then promptly dies. So an honest inference could be made, that it's something with fuel (not enough until the O.P. hits the pedal), or spark (either weak, or only on certain cylinders, or not at all.)
My alterior motive here is that I am patiently waiting for his advice in my own thread, and he's being tied up here lol. So that being said, later.

 

The driver also states that while driving down the road the engine and gauges shuts off then comes back on, which states a bad electrical connection somewhere.

 

His last sentence says lights work fine, all power works...

 

Yet while driving down the road the lights will shut off then right back on and the cluster gauges reset, uh sounds like electrical issue ie bad connection, ya sitting still with a bad connection the lights can come on just fine but the starter may not work correctly. But hey i may be wrong it could be lack of fuel or spark causing the cluster gauges and headlights to loose power. Unfortunately we may never know.