~~~Mods, I have this same thread posted in the Tech forum. I decided to post here as well since it's pertaining to TPI to get a little extra help. If you'd allow it to stay, I'd greatly appreciate it. ~~~~

Hey guys, I am in need of some help. First off, I just recently bought a 1991 Z28, L98, auto with a little under 150K miles on the clock and ZERO mods. As most of you guys, I want my car to run as close to perfect as possible. This car was definitely neglected by previous owners so I set out to fix that.

Currently the car is not being driven but it was running before we started working on it. So my buddy and I decided to do a tuneup on it. Nothing special, just replace the wires, cap, rotor, plugs, oil, oil filter, and coolant. Well I drove my car about 30 feet to a spot that we started working on it. I changed the plugs, wires, cap and rotor on the car. I made sure the wires went to the right plugs, the plugs were gapped at .035", the rotor was installed in the same position it came off in, etc. My buddy changed the oil and drained the coolant and he topped everything off. No biggie, right?

Well when I went to restar the car, it didn't start. All it does is make a weird clicking noise when the key is turned. But nothing else happens?!?!? We were going to change the thermostat but we didnt' feel like it due to the bolts. However, when my buddy was trying to get to one, he said he touched the alt and it sparked. Could that have killed something in the ignition? NOTHING else was touched except the stuff we changed during the tuneup and as I said, it was running and started up fine before. So what gives? Is there anything I might have overlooked? Anything that might have come lose that I should check for? I am REALLY frustrated and lost as to what happened here. Does anyone have any suggestions as to where to start looking or what to do? I mean, it was just a simple tuneup so I am totally lost as to why this happened. Any wisdom, comments, even criticism is welcome if it is constructive and helps me get this thing running again. Thanks in advance.

 

Usually when you try to start a car and it "clicks", it is a sign that you battery is dead. And when you say your buddy touched the alternator and it sparked, you may have fried your battery or some other ignition part.

 

Yeah, the battery being dead seems to be the general opinion of the guys over at the tech forums. I'm gonna try to play with that tomorrow hopefully and see if that fixes my problem. If not, I'll be back at square one. Thanks for your suggestion though.