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Do you have good grounds between the engine and the frame/battery? Eric has a couple of videos about looking for current loss. Good luck and let us know how it goes.
I would do a voltage drop test on the feed and ground side of the starter system to rule out any excessive resistance issues that would cause a weak crank.
Make sure the battery terminals are clean and you use a DVOM or test light on the S terminal of the starter solenoid while someone turns the key to run. If the DVOM reads voltage or the test light lights up, then the control circuit is fine. If not, start checking fuses and fuseable links.
It might be either a poor battery terminal connection or a bad pos wire to the starter (the thick one). Take a thick pair of jumper cables (2 guage), connect ground first (neg batt terminal, other end on engine block near starter) Try to start the car now. If the problem goes away, the you have a bad ground somewhere. If not, take the jumper cable and connect one end to pos terminal and the other to the pos input on starter solonoid. MAKE SURE to not touch the pos cable against ANY metal or you will have a ton of sparks and possibly short out something. If the engine cranks normally after that, you either have poor connections or a bad starter wire. Make sure battery connections are tight and not paper thin. If you can wiggle the terminals or twist them back and forth AT ALL, you need to tighten them or replace them. (or the redneck fix is to driver a screw in between the battery post and the terminal)
Hope this helps.+1 on the voltage drop test. My bet would be resistance caused by corrosion on some wire.
If everything checks out there, maybe a current draw test? If it’s pulling 150+ amps (that’s a ball park estimate) and still not turning the engine over maybe it’s
It was starting by going straight power from the positive battery terminal to the solenoid wire but now won’t There is 12.6 volts at the Starter Power wire. They are not top post type batteries their side posts and the connections are tight and clean. The rest of the ideas here I will have to try tomorrow I’ll let you know how it goes.
Here’s another vote for a voltage drop test. Of course it is a dynamic test, so it’s critical to do it properly.
Increased resistance in the wires can cause a lack of power to the starter causing a slow crank condition, this video shows how to perform the voltage drop test people have been referring to that may help you find the problem.
GM side post batteries are well known to have corrosion problems inside the cables as well as at the ground and positive attachement points and this is a major problem on GM FWDs. Also do not forget to check out the positive cable from the battery to the underhood fuse panel and well as the main body ground from the negative cable. A slightly loose or corroded connection here will cause starter issues. Remove the side post bolts from the battery cables and either slide off or cut off the rubber boots to check for corrosion there.
I ended up finding the problem it was a seized AC Compressor pulley…….I replaced the compressor with a bypass pulley because the ac didn’t work in the car anyway and wala. thanks to everyone for their suggestions.
Thanks for the update. I guess I was jumping to the conclusion that it was an electrical problem, and it was actually a mechanical one. Another example of jumping to conclusions, and ending up way off base, ha ha.
Sweet I’m glad you found the problem thanks for keeping us up to date. If you get the chance change the ‘traffic light’ to green on the post if you could.
Quoted From EricTheCarGuy:
Sweet I’m glad you found the problem thanks for keeping us up to date. If you get the chance change the ‘traffic light’ to green on the post if you could.
How do you change the light to green?
At the top of your post you should see the ‘light’, just click on the green part and that should do it.
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