Startor Problems? Kinda Long *PROBLEM SOLVED!*

[danny7139]

Alright I would search for this and help myself but my membership just fell short of this problem, figures and I don't have the funds right now to renew it. Anyway down to the mystery. I have an 88 k5 mostly stock with a 350 stock motor rebuilt by me 4 months ago. Motor runs great and I'm very happy with it. But just 2 days ago I go out to start it and its very slow to crank over and doesn't have enough power to fire her up. So I figure the battery is drained maybe someone left the radio on. The volt meter reads about 11-12 so I slap on the multimeter and its reading 11.5 I believe it was. So I figure jump it and go. I do and its still slow to start but does crank over and runs fine so I run it for a few and figure the alt. would charge it. It did and I shut it off and tried firing it up again she did real slow but did start. So I get out the battery charger and charged it up till full. Go to crank her over and still slow but doesn't fire. I then took my brothers optima bat. and tried and shes still slow with no fire. I'm lost here. The starter and solenoid are new, not remain, from autozone and has worked fine for the past 4 months. So my brother tells me that before I had the truck it would do this every once in awhile and then be fine a few days later and work for months. Maybe a ghost? Only things I did before this happend was take the teflon tape off the intake manifold temp sensor. I didn't know it would affect the ground. I also reset the ecm by taking off the neg from the battery for 15 mins thinking maybe that was it.

Sorry for the long post but I needed to explain myself

*Edit*

I ended up taking my startor to autozone for testing and it past the test. So I took the ground from the battery, took it off the frame and hooked it into a free accessory bolt hole and it started right up. It starts up alot quicker now and my water gauge works. Thanks ck5

 

[Chaddy]

I went through 2 autozone starters in 1 month and the 3rd has been good for about 3 years now.

 

[roadnotca]

Grounding; battery to cyl. head, cyl. head to frame, frame to battery?
Rope, tie, brand. Yeahoo

 

[danny7139]

Grounding; battery to cyl. head, cyl. head to frame, frame to battery?
Rope, tie, brand. Yeahoo

What? I checked my grounding. I don't know if its right or not but the ground cable comes from the battery to the frame and to the radiator core support and thats it. I replaced the ground rope from the cyl. head to the firewall when I did the engine. The battery is supposed to go to the cyl. head? I thought the cyl. head went to the firewall through the ground strap not to the frame. But the p/o did screw with alot so I wouldn't doubt it.

 

[4X4HIGH]

The large battery ground cable needs to go directly to the engine block or head. The tiny ground strap from the head to the firewall cannot handle the required load that the starter imposes on it. This in itself may cure your problem but make sure you also have a good ground strap from the engine to the frame as well as the firewall so other items get a good ground also.

 

[turtlenut2]

This doesn't sound like a battery or connection problem. AutoZone should be able to do a diagnosis. IMO it's the starter, get a new one while it's still under warranty.

 

[Chaddy]

This doesn't sound like a battery or connection problem. AutoZone should be able to do a diagnosis. IMO it's the starter, get a new one while it's still under warranty.

X2