No Start thread

[Blackthorn]

Alllright r3v. Was working on bring back my lady whos been sitting for 12 years in a back water part of LA. Dropped in a new motor that was from a running e30. Everything was peaches n cream but then stuff happened and now im here.

So basically I put in this new motor, after some fuel issues she started right up. She ran rough so started getting rid of the vac leaks one at a time and finally had her ready to rumble. So i start her up to get things nice n warm, but then realized i needed to take a call so i shut her off after about 5 min. Went back outside and an hour later and bam, machine gun clicking like im in WWII. So thinking its the battery which is 2 years old i take it to autohoes and she comes back perfectly fine pushing 12.79V, 840 CCA (high cause she was on the charger). Anyway now im fixing to check the grounds and then move on to starter / EC but figured id ask the geniuses here on R3v what their thoughts were. I gotta make sure i dont need to sacrifice a goat or my 3rd born child to the BMW gods to get her to run or something.

Anyway happy driving and let me know what yall think.

[Kershaw]

Bang on the starter and then try. Or better, have a friend bang on the starter while you start the car.

[Blackthorn]

Thanks Kershaw, Ill give it a whirl and see what happens.

[Blackthorn]

Alright so no headway on beating it up. So i went and tested my old starter from my stroker build. Autohoes said it was good and it spun right in front of me. Anyway replaced it today and the same thing is still happeneing. Iv got a video so hopefully itll answer some questions.

[Blackthorn]

https://youtu.be/BpGGJeGsJc4

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

[Blackthorn]

Tt - I may end up trying a new battery just to see what will happen.

[e30onBBSs]

nonnonono no new battery

You verified that shit was good. That sound sounds like the starter solenoid is working, but the motor isn't spinning. Whip out the dvom and diag this bitch.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Starter

Read that ^ and get going on the car. Spend money on a meter instead of parts if you don't have one. $10 on sale at sears for a cheap one that will get the job done works well enough for most things you will ever need to do. Before replacing parts and spending more money get data and evidence from a diagnostic plan and start crossing shit off that it CAN'T be. My hunch is that you have a wiring problem or a poor connection somewhere.

The solenoid clicks then starts spinning when it meshes with the flywheel when it's working, yours just clicks and doesn't spin- it seems like you have a faulty connection somewhere because the solenoid keeps banging back and forth.

How did the autohoes test your starter? Did they put a jump pack on it? If they jumped it and the starter piston thing shot out and it spun, the starter is good. Read that article and start checking all your connections and verify power and ground and everything

[parkerbink]

Since it sat for years I'd check/change all the grounds. These cars wiring corrodes and all kinds of oddball things happen.

I'd also clean every connector with electronic cleaner and a file. I had a ton of oddball electrical nonsense on my '92 and cleaning/filing was my friend.

[Blackthorn]

nonnonono no new battery

You verified that shit was good. That sound sounds like the starter solenoid is working, but the motor isn't spinning. Whip out the dvom and diag this bitch.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/index.php/Starter

Read that ^ and get going on the car. Spend money on a meter instead of parts if you don't have one. $10 on sale at sears for a cheap one that will get the job done works well enough for most things you will ever need to do. Before replacing parts and spending more money get data and evidence from a diagnostic plan and start crossing shit off that it CAN'T be. My hunch is that you have a wiring problem or a poor connection somewhere.

The solenoid clicks then starts spinning when it meshes with the flywheel when it's working, yours just clicks and doesn't spin- it seems like you have a faulty connection somewhere because the solenoid keeps banging back and forth.

How did the autohoes test your starter? Did they put a jump pack on it? If they jumped it and the starter piston thing shot out and it spun, the starter is good. Read that article and start checking all your connections and verify power and ground and everything

I took it off my build block and brought it to them. They placed it on a small machine and hooked up some jumpers to it and energized it. The starter extended and spun. Ive been doing some no crank reading and like previously mentioned in the post Ill be tracking down grounds / wiring tonight / tomorrow.

Thanks for the Input btw!

[Blackthorn]

Since it sat for years I'd check/change all the grounds. These cars wiring corrodes and all kinds of oddball things happen.

I'd also clean every connector with electronic cleaner and a file. I had a ton of oddball electrical nonsense on my '92 and cleaning/filing was my friend.

I think you may be right in this. Last night i took off my old motors main ground and replaced it with my strokers (both are nasty and corroded). Funny thing is that once i replaced it with the less crappy of the 2, most of the lights (brake lights / dome / fronts) all seemed to brighten up considerably.

I may just go pick up some sort of generic ground wire from autohoes and see if that improves things.

[Blackthorn]

Alright so i brought a buddy of mine over and we did some tinkering on the e30. So we tried grounding the starter directly and nothing changed. We also tried directly powering the starter (bypassing the solenoid) and still was given that machine gun click. We tested the battery with our simple volt meter and it read out 12.7 but im going to go recheck it and the starter i pulled at the parts store. He told me its got to be my starter but Im just having trouble believing 2 used starters are bad considering the oem track record plus the one thats now installed on the car got the OK from autozone.

[fporro]

have you jumped diagnostic connector ? (11 to 14)., my starters (3) do not make clicking sounds.

I must jump it when random death starter issues happen, is not the battery and boosting it does not help, all grounds cleaned and replaced, high output alternator.

At first it was the main Black/Yellow wire under steering column due to bad alarm install, fixed and it became less frequent.
Replaced starter, same thing but less frequent again.
Cleaned 101 connector.



It seems to happen more often when is hot out.

[jlevie]

Clean all of the primary power connections from the battery positive to the starter as well as the battery ground cable to the chassis connection and the engine to body connection. Then see if the starter works by jumping power from the main power connection on the starter to the solenoid. if that works there is a problem in the solenoid wiring or ignition switch.

Bonus points for monitoring the voltage between main starter power connection and the chassis. A slight drop in voltage is normal, but a large drop indicates a high resistance in the primary power circuit or ground circuit.