Ok moving on from starter for a bit. Where do we look for all the grounds?

 

grounds for what?
http://shbox.com/1/battery_cable_ground.jpg

http://shbox.com/1/g103.jpg

 

There are a lot of grounds in your car but if you are talking about a ground that would effect your cranking then you are talking about negative battery cable. Both my LT1 and my 3800 are on the passengers side of the engine block. You should be able to just follow the battery cable to its source.

I explained how to test the cable I think in the starter post. An old school trick to test for a bad battery ground. Use your jumper cables, Connect the black cable to the negative side of the battery, find a good clean solid metal spot on the engine and connect the other end of the black jumper to that. You have added a second ground. Once it is hooked up try to start it. If it starts good then you know its a bad ground. If it still slow try a few other places or just craw under the car and hook the jumper cable directly to the starter. If it still cranks slow it not a ground issue. You can do the same thing with the power side, You just run the red cable from the positive side of the battery to starter. Its how I started engines on my home made engine stand.

 

Would this not have same affect as hooking to another car with jumper cables? If it was a grounding issue at battery and the negative jumper cable was on another car is this not like adding another ground?

 

It's all part of what I suggested in your other thread, to bypass the cars wiring and grounds with your own secondary ones. A good ground at the battery doesn't mean the engine and starter is getting ground at the other end. By the way, how did the starter solenoid/ignition wiring bypass test go?

 

If you're talking about the remote starter thing, he can't get to the starter to hook that up. Only way there's any hand room is when it's unbolted. We think this starter doesn't go on it and it's way too big. Wont surprise me as it seems that it was pieced together at one point. It doesn't look like any we've seen in pics online. There's no way the starter will come out without moving exhaust. Raining right now and tomorrow so it's a no go for now anyway. If I could of gotten it cranked, I'll take it to the shop.

 

If it's the wrong (too big) starter causing the problem, how come it's been working all this while, up till now?

 

I'm not saying it wont work it. It looks larger. I've read somewhere that it's fairly common for people to put the generic large ones in. It's hard to explain but it's bigger than the stock starters.

 

No using the jumper cable between the battery and the engine block is checking for a weakness in the ground cable. Jumping from another car is adding amps to your battery.

Think of it this way. Voltage flows like water and the wires are the pipes. A "bad" pipe is plugged. When you jump one car to another car or battery you are adding more pressure but if the pipe is still plugged it only helps a little. Running the jumper cable to the block is like adding another pipe. If the pipe is not the problem nothing is going to change but if everything starts to work well then you know that your existing pipe is plugged.

Just an FYI I an not sure about the 3.4 but as a general rule after market starters vary is size. It is very common on 90's cars. In some cases larger starters are used to replace their more expensive/smaller gear reduced brothers. I went a head and checked the GM service manual for the 3.4 Step 3 is "remove Exhaust cross over pipe". So even the smaller stock starter requires the exhaust to be removed.

 

Is that pipe shown in the picture on my other thread about starter removal? It's the top picture in first post. My son said you had to replace gaskets if you remove that?