Ok so still got the 85 trans am with carburated 350 swapped in. Been using the old starter off the motor that was in the car until one day i turned over very slow then not at all. I bought a new starter and battery and the motor barely turns over and pulls a lot of juice from the battery. The jumper cables were getting very hot. The motor wont even make a revolution every 10 seconds. Ive had the motor running twice since the problem started with the old starter and everything sounded good. No engine noises and ran great just wouldnt start after shutting off. I was under there today and jumper the main 12v post coming from battery to the small post from ignition so i would be giving it full power from the battery and i had the same problem. At this point im thinking the motor is starting to sieze but it ran great. Any help would be great thank you.

 

Get rid of the stock direct-drive Delco POS from the Stone Age. Put ANY reduction-gear unit on it instead. A stock 96-2000 truck one, a LT1 one, etc.; or of course, aftermarket.

 

In addition to getting a gear reduction starter (I have used the summit brand ones several times, works great) test for voltage drop across the starter cable. These cables corrode over time and with it getting hot there is a good chance that it is toast. Use a multimeter set to dcv, and place the negative probe at the positive battery terminal and the positive lead at the starter main positive. If you get a 1v or higher reading while cranking, replace the cable.

 

I tried a couple different starters before going back to stock but none of the nose cones fit inside the t5 bell housing. I didnt try a mini starter though which i should have done but was a little more money.

thanks for the advice on checking my main wire to see if it is bad for some reason i just assumed such a heavy gauge wire must be good if the coating looks ok. I have yet to check but i will when i get back later.

 

But those old starter sounds bring back the good ole days.

A swap would basically make the car start up like like (1:31 into the video):

 

If your 350 isn't high compression a stock starter should be fine. If you have swapped the battery and starter for known good ones, and the cables/connections (including negative) are clean and good I would look to see if you can turn the engine over by hand with a johnson bar on the crank. If it is difficult, pull the plugs. If still difficult, there must be an engine issue.

 

First, check the OEM part number of the starter MOTOR (not the solenoid). There can be substantial differences. If this is a typical 10MT starter it may have originally been designed to spin over a 122-inch four cylinder and have two-thirds the length of armature and pole size of a Mk-IV truck starter. It could be anywhere from a 1.0 to 1.7kW motor, and thus it might never crank the engine properly. If the power connection from the solenoid to the motor armature holder is about 1" from the end cap of the starter, it was originally a low-torque version. If the connection is about 1/2" from the end cap it was a high-torque version.

If the starter has been through a couple cycles of re-manufacture by the subcontractors of your favorite chain auto parts stores, there is no guaranty the starter is actually what they might list and sell it as. If a rebuilder mixed parts between the two types, you have no idea what it might actually be.

Second, and as stated above, if there is any question about the starter after doing its "background check" replace it with a modern version with reduction gears.

Third, evaluate the starter and ground wiring. If the battery cables are AWG 6 they are possibly limiting current to the starter. If the connections are not perfect, the problem is potentially even worse.

 

Replaced battery and ground cable with 2 gauge wire. Still no luck. Pulled the car with my truck and it started very easily. Ordered a hi torque mini starter from summit, should be here tuesday so we will see. Gotta get this thing back on the road so i can stop driving the 1 ton dump.

 

Yeah, I lust to go back to the days of sitting in the parking lot, waiting for my car to cool back down enough to where the 1st cyl to come to firing after I turned the key, wouldn't light off and drive the starter backwards before it had picked up some speed spinning the motor... man I miss those days... nowadays I can just leave any place any time I want no matter how long or short of a time has gone by since I last shut the car off without even having to do anything special... all these young whippersnappers don't know how good they have it, not having to walk to and from school uphill both ways in the freezing cold and blinding sun...

 

Ok so after all that i think the problem was that the starter was not shimmed. Im assuming the first one went out so quick because it was right up against the flywheel causing it to be tight and burn up quicker. The new starter i bought must have been so close that it was barely able to turn it it was so bound up.
with the dust cover on the bell housing you cant check the gap and i didnt think 2 tiny shims would make much difference anyways. Would have been a pain to take the cover off, install starter, check gap, take back off, put cover on, then reinstall starter. But in reality it would have saved me a lot of time and money.
so anyways I received my new mini high torque starter from summit. Installed and did roughly the same thing but turned over a little faster but would kill the battery instantly. Took the starter out and saw the ends of the teeth were starting to get chewed up so it was pushing hard up against the flywheel. Put the shims in that came with the kit and my car starts so fast its stupid. Thanks for the help guys wish i would have been smart enough to shims the first time.

 

OP,

Double check the tightest of your distributor and then your timing.

Good Luck,

 

I was posting because it is all fixed now. Thanks though still around 12-14 advanced. Should start hot now with the new starter.