niner

Heres more info about my problem.

Just put engine in and had friend turn over engine to get oil pressure up while I was watching under hood. Everything was good and worked fine for a while and did that several times. then when spinning over engine once I saw sparks coming from under hood in area below oil pressure sending unit. Things were wired correctly. (a few loose wires b/c of broken connectors but they are gone now)

NOW...
Main fuse and starter/tranny main grounds good.

When I hook up battery, the headlights, windows, sunroof and everything works (except for everything included in "room" or "meter" fuse circuits b/c fuses are blown. but that should not cause it not to start)
When I turn key, the starter's solenoid clicks about 2 or 3 times then quits. Then everything stops working. Starter works fine when I test it off car. Whenever I do anything (turn key, turn on headlights etc.) the "main relay" just clicks once. If I unhook battery and then hook it back up, the same happens
Any Ideas? I'm stumped
Its an 87TII

niner

evidence is pointing towards the battery cables now i think
when i jiggle the harness they are in, the radio and fuel pump will actually come on sometimes
i hate electrical stuff...

Aaron Cake

iTrader: (1)

Sounds like the high current wires at the starter are toast. Sparks would certainly indicate a bad connection, and any bad connection would cause extreme amounts of heat and melt the cables (think arc welder). Best bet is to run a new cable directly from the battery to the starter.

HAILERS

Gruesome sounding car problem. Uggggh! Its late so I'll go with my favorite possibility that never works for anyone else. You've got that rectangular fuse box in the engine compartmet. Follow the wires from it and about six to eight inches below it there is a single apporx 18 gauge wire with a spade connector. Feeds the ignition sw I do believe. Pull it apart and see if its melted a bit. Outside of that I think I'd put a meter on the Black wire that goes to the ignition switch (see the diagram I attached to your other post), turn the key to on and observe the meter while wiggling the wires in the engine bay. Easier said than done. Hey! See that diagram I gave you? See the connector called X-23? Thats the single spade connector I'm talking about. Its just below the fuse box in the engine bay. .....
Another thing you might try is having the front of the car on ramps and in neutral, getting under there and jumpering b/t the small blade connector and the large positive lead on the starter. That should engage the starter, running you over if the car is in gear, or if in neutral, spinning the engine. Might give you a clue whether its the starter or the cable connections or??? I've just come off a spell of having to hit my starter with a hammer every couple of weeks because it just did the click thing. I swapped out a set of starter bushes from another starter to get it to work right. The original brushes were getting at the end of their rope, causing the click, click instead of the whirr, whirr. Sounds like yours is a wiring thing though. Black, single spade connector near the fuse box.

niner

Thanks guys!
I quit a while ago on the car for today, I'll figure it out in the morning.
I got the harness off and will replace main cables and go through all the other wires and re-wrap/clean it up. I'll definately check out that black box too.

Oh yeah, I already did the trick to try and get the starter to spin over while under the car. I put a screwdriver b/t the connections of the solenoid, got some sparks but it didnt spin... Pulled starter off and used battery and jumper cables and it whirred nicely. Does this tell me the Pos battery cable is bad? Maybe...

Its late now, Im goin to sleep. Tomorrow it will run. I should be able to figure it out. Then I guess I'll start on the short thats killing the "meter" fuse, or go look for a job.