I have a newly purchased Z28. Bought it from a friend who said it just died one day. He is mechanically inclined but not with newer cars.


Well, here are the facts.

It has a good starter, pulled and checked it...twice.
Good battery, even tried with the battery charger to make sure.
Good power to the starter.

I can turn it on, hear the fuel pump kick in but nothing in the terms of starting.

Laying under the car I can see the started come out but it does not turn the fly wheel

The engine is not locked up. Can turn the crank.




Searching I have heard tips of checking the security relay under the passenger side air bag?
Any reason that would not allow the starter to turn the fly wheel?


Anything I should check before that?


Scratching my head right now.



Anything will help thanks.

 

test to see if your getting 12 volts to the small wire at the starter when the key is in the start position.

 

The second time I checked it I took it up to my boys at Advance and check it against the part number. It all checked out.


I do not think it is a bad started.


starter***

 

right im sayin check the wire that goes to the starter, the small wire is the start engage wire and when the ignition is turned to the start position it sends power to that wire to engage the solenoid which also engages the starter motor. if your not getting power to that wire then the problem is farther up the line, like the wire itself, the connection at the ignition switch or the switch itself. could also be vats, could be as simple as the shift switch that allows power to the starter if in neutral or park failing. is the starter clicking at all?

 

I have power to that wire. The first time I put the starter back on I had both the wires touching by mistake and as I reconnected the battery it stayed engaged. So I know they both have current.

The starter i not clicking or grinding. The only thing it will do is start to engage the flywheel and then back off. Will not actually spin the flywheel.


So, it is getting power and the starter actually makes contact with the flywheel but does not spin it any.

I am just stumped.

 

If you have the proper starter and you see the Bendix kicking in but the engine is not turning, it means that all control circuitry from ignition switch to starter solenoid id good, but there is a problem on the high current circuits.

1) Contacts in the solenoid are bad, happens with rebuilt starters that were rebuilt on the cheap, and only shows up under load.
2) Bad battery cables or connectors. Check voltage at battery cable at the starter end while trying to crank engine. If voltage drops below 8 Volts it will never turn over.
3) Check voltage at battery while attempting to crank engine. If voltage remains around 12 volt, then the starter is not drawing enough current, same as 1 &2 above.
4) If battery voltage drops below 8 volt while attempting to crank, then either the battery is weak, or the starter is bad or jammed, or not properly installed.

 

Starter is a DELCO reman. So nothing cheep.

Battery cables are fine, and I have the battery charger on it at the high amp start.

I will have to see if it is pulling enough but I had them check the starter again, is tested good about 10 times in a row.

The battery is spinning freely, goes into the flywheel just does not spin it. So it is not locked up. I even shaved it down a little to see if maybe the teeth were worn down but that did not show any gains.



Picked up a fly wheel, so I am going to see if that fixes it.

If not I am back at square one.

 

Well, got under there to start pulling the tranny back to put the fly wheel in and after I got the drive shaft dropped and some of the mounts on the tail shaft I noticed that the transmission was backed off on the drivers side.

Missing a bolt and the others are loose. Would this cause the flywheel not to turn?
It is only back off about 1/8th inch or so but is that enough to put the fly wheel on a bind?

 

If the transmission is loose against the bell housing, then the input shaft could be causing things to jam. Tighten the thing up and see if anything changes. If only the transmission mounts are loose it should not cause any problems as far as cranking the engine. Have you tested the connections as I described, or are you just assuming everything is OK because it looks nice?

 

I checked everything except for the volts on the starter because I have had the starter checked about 12 times now. It is drawing enough power.
But the battery is good, have had it charged up and even jump start the car when I am messing with it.


The transmission was loose. Not the mounts. It was missing a bolt and the lower one on the drives side was stripped out. I have new bolts ready to go.

How do I access the top bolts on either side? I just need them loose enough to straighten it up. I have the 4 lower ones loosened and ready to go but cannot reach the top ones.