wont start

[aspman]

Drive my 16 every week or so....usually have trickle charger on.Had it out yesterday and noticed start was a little twitchy.Finally wouldnt start at all.Wouldnt jump with cables either.All guages and lights,radio,door open chime etc. came on when in start mode.Weird it wouldnt take jump at all.let it sit 10 minutes ad fired right up...alternator registering 14.1 so I know its working.Went and had battery tested...it has a 3 -20 build date and had 550 cold cranking charge.So its not battery.A little hesitant to take it out as getting it on rollback is not appealing..acts just like old school hooptys that had corrosion on posts ....would taking leads off and cleaning posts help...any hints?

[SRT_BluByU]

faulty clutch safety switch maybe another possibility?

[aspman]

thats been discussed,not sure if i should drive it until checked....waiting on Tom Session...he's too busy flying around acting like a big dawg...may never drive again!

[Mark1107]

Im still on my 2013 battery OEM....I only used a trickle charger for one year back in 2016 when I didnt drive the car when I had my ACR. I know Im on borrowed time with an 8 year old battery.

[Jack B]

1. You did not say if it was cranking when it wouldn' start.

2. Cleaning the terminals would eliminate one potential issue. Remove the negative terminal first.

3. If it would not crank, next time, push a little harder on the clutch pedal.

[aspman]

I just went to it...stepped on clutch hard.Pushed starter and very weak turn of engine then nothing....hear popping in door area which ive heard before...not sure what that is....so nothing.Put trickle charger on and its taking a charge which is curious....ok...still tinkering

[Tunedprt91]

Once my car would not start because I wasn't pushing the clutch all the way down. I moved the pedal assembly a little closer in my direction and it fired right up. Just throwing it out there.

[AZTVR]

If battery is good, then check frame-to-engine ground cable connections for tightness


I just went to it...stepped on clutch hard.Pushed starter and very weak turn of engine then nothing....hear popping in door area which ive heard before...not sure what that is....so nothing.Put trickle charger on and its taking a charge which is curious....ok...still tinkering

[aspman]

Thanks man.

- - - Updated - - -

thanks man.

[SRT_BluByU]

Try new battery maybe?

[Jack B]

I just went to it...stepped on clutch hard.Pushed starter and very weak turn of engine then nothing....hear popping in door area which ive heard before...not sure what that is....so nothing.Put trickle charger on and its taking a charge which is curious....ok...still tinkering

That clicking was the sound of relays making/breaking, that typically happens from under-voltage. That usually happens at less than 80% of nominal or somewhere near 10 volts. The odds are you have a loose or dirty connection.

[aspman]

So didnt take trickle charge over night.That and an inability to jump start bodes further troubles i fear

[Leanmass]

I would try to manually spin the crank by hand to see if the engine spins freely. Don’t attempt to start the car. You could do further damage. You could’ve possibly dropped a valve and it hitting against your piston not allowing the engine to spin.

[aspman]

yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jack B]

I would try to manually spin the crank by hand to see if the engine spins freely. Don’t attempt to start the car. You could do further damage. You could’ve possibly dropped a valve and it hitting against your piston not allowing the engine to spin.

It started normally ten minutes later, it is not a dropped valve.

[TheMadMachinist]

If it didn't take a trickle charge over night...............

Would it be safe to say that you are in need of a new battery to start with. Or did I miss something?

[texasram]

Im still on my 2013 battery OEM....I only used a trickle charger for one year back in 2016 when I didnt drive the car when I had my ACR. I know Im on borrowed time with an 8 year old battery.

Same here

[aspman]

ok so checked trickle charger last nite....on red for hours....left it on over night and go out there this morning and bright green on charger....so jump in and fires right up with no hesitation...wary of taking it out though...dont want to get out and stop somewhere and same thing...wont start...guess I could just drive around and profile.....where the hell is Sessions?

[camarochevy1970]

I'm still going to go with a bad battery, maybe not completely bad yet, but on it's way out

[SRT_BluByU]

I've had bad batteries with dead cells that sometimes tested good. With the time you already have invested in this it seems like a new battery would be a cheap and easy way to rule out a problem... or maybe just fix it.

[AZTVR]

So didnt take trickle charge over night.That and an inability to jump start bodes further troubles i fear

ok so checked trickle charger last nite....on red for hours....left it on over night and go out there this morning and bright green on charger....so jump in and fires right up with no hesitation


Where do you connect both connections of the trickle charger and do have you been connecting them at the exact same spots when you report "no charge" and "starts right up" as a result. Without also having the exact battery voltage at the battery posts for each of the conditions, it is really hard to troubleshoot. I would also want voltages at the starter when start and nor start; but, realize that is not easy.

Also, depending on what you have for a "trickle charger", it would not be surprising if it could not charge a deeply discharged battery, if that is what you had when it wouldn't start after charging overnight.

The following symptom makes me think again that your connections are at fault if the current from the jump start cables follows any of the same path as the current from the battery. For instance, if you did not put the jump start ground clamp on the engine, and put it on the frame, a common fault in the ground connection between the frame and the engine would cause both the battery and the jump start to fail. If jump start had worked with ground clamp on engine and didn't work with ground clamp on frame, then that tells you where the fault is.

an inability to jump start bodes further troubles i fear

[Jack B]

Take a look at the thread I started a few months back on battery testers. An investment of $100 and this thread would not exist.

[aspman]

thanks JaclkB.....also we were jump starting to battery it self.leaving charger off tonite...see what happens in morning....Tom Sessions comes back on mon.....grtting a little tedious for me....may sell it....10 bucks anybody!