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Problems with the starter...or maybe something bigger. SUCCESS!!


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Ok, so here is the story, i just swapped the intake from an EA81 carbed motor onto an EA82 carbed motor (because i have an EA81 adapter plate for my Weber, and not an EA82 adapter plate...don't really want to shell out $50 bucks right now for one)

 

The swap went very smooth...no big problems except the EGR valve being in the way. I went to start the car after i did the swap, and the motor turned over for about 3 seconds and then just quit. I turned the key again, and all i got was a *click* Now that is all i get every time i turn the key is the *click* from the starter. I came to the conclusion that maybe my starter had kicked the bucket, so i nabed another starter from my parts car, and threw it on, and guess what....same thing. i still just get a *click* from the starter everytime i turn the key.

 

So now my guess is that i have an electrical issue. I have cleaned and tightened my battery terminals, made sure the starter was hooked up nice and tight, but to no avail.

 

So here is my riddle....I can only hope the answer is an easy one....but that just wouldn't be my luck these days. As always any and all suggestions are welcome. Thanks for the help in advance.

 

donny

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I had a similar problem a while back. Now one possibility is that you have bad starter contacts but since you tried 2 starters, I doubt that the contacts are your problem with both starters but not impossible. The Next possibility and the one that turned out to be my problem would be a bad battery cable. One way to check this is to hook up a voltmeter to the starter end of the battery cable and the other to a good ground. When you try to start it, if the voltage really drops then you probably have a bad cable or cable end. A way to comfier this is to connect a jumper cable to your starter in parallel to the battery cable and try to start it. Be careful when doing this, the last thing you want to do is short out the battery. A third possibility is that the electrical portion of your ignition switch has gone bad and what's happening is the solenoid begins to engage but you loose the circuit as you continue to turn the key.

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good ideas guys but thats the wrong way to test a battery cable. a bad battery will give you the same result.

 

by the way how is the battery? a low or bad battery will give you a click and no start as well.

 

the correct way to check the battery cables is to put one lead at the battery lug(pos lead pos lug)then connect the groung lead to the starter side of the cable. crank the motor or click it in your case. any reading over .5 volts means you either have bad connections or a wasted cable. do the same on the ground cable as well as it can cause just the same problem.

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Ok, i just took another battery, and hard wired my old starter up to it on the ground, and the thing spun just fine. I reinstalled the old starter because i have seen it work. I am going to go throw in the second battery, and if i still get no life from the car, i am going to put on different battery cables....

 

wish me luck i guess....keep the input coming!

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Finally some progress. The positive battery cable was the culprit. Now i just need to tune a few things and i will be rolling in style!

 

 

thanks for all of the input on this one guys. Saved my a**!

 

donny

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