Need help! k30 will not start

gbackley · June 17, 2006

I have a 1981 k30 crew cab with a 454. A couple of weeks ago it started to start hard when cold. Once warmed up it would start fine. Cold or warm, it wanted to die when coming to a stop sign or light. Last week it finally would not start and I smoked the starter one night trying to get home. . I had ordered a rebuild Qjet online from a rebutable source. The Qjet finally showed up so I bolted it on. When cranked, it sounded like it wanted to start. But would die as soon as you let loose of the starter. I am getting gas through the accelerator pump. I checked the fuel pump and it fills an 16 oz. cup in about 10 seconds. I took out a spark plug and held it next to the valve cover and have spark. I had the starter rebuilt. I have a Optima red top (I know, I should have bought the yellow top) and a high torque starter from PAW. I checked the voltage across the batteriy. 12.5 volts at rest. But would drop to 8 when cranking. I ran a jumper from the battery to the input voltage at the Accel HEI distributor. 11 volts when cranking. So I pulled the wires going to the starter solenoid and the insultaion was melted into a solid mass of plastic. I clipped them at the engine compartment, replaced with the same gauge wires to the starter and added heat shielded tubing. Now voltage drops to +/- 11 volts when cranking. But it cranks really slow. Took the battery back to Sears and their tester says it is okay. I argued with the manager saying it barely cranked the engine and he continued to say it was not the battery. Dont know if its the battery or the rebuilt hi torque starter at this point. Even when a 50 amp charger is hooked up, it will only crank for 10 seconds before the battery gives out. I have checked the timing off the crank pulley and it is at +/- 8 btdc. I have checked the ground wires. The ground from the battery goes to the alternator bracket. A secondary 14 gauge ground goes from the battery to the radiator support wall and from there to the frame. I have removed these and cleaned where needed.

HELP!!!

mmmikkke · June 17, 2006

Well for one you seem to have made your wiring situation for the starter worse as evidenced by the higher voltage across the battery. When there was only 8 volts across the battery, that indicated you were drawing serious amperage to the starter. Now that the battery voltage only drops to 11 volts, I'd say you are only drawing half as much amperage to the starter as you were before you rewired the starter. Sounds like your old starter wiring was fine. Sounds like the new wiring is not making good contact somewhere.

The fact that your starter can pull your battery down to 8 volts says that you are running huge amounts of amperage to the starter.

When the problem first started happening, was the slow cranking the symptom, or is the slow cranking part of the problems created since trying to fix the original problem?

gbackley · June 17, 2006

Well for one you seem to have made your wiring situation for the starter worse as evidenced by the higher voltage across the battery. When there was only 8 volts across the battery, that indicated you were drawing serious amperage to the starter. Now that the battery voltage only drops to 11 volts, I'd say you are only drawing half as much amperage to the starter as you were before you rewired the starter. Sounds like your old starter wiring was fine. Sounds like the new wiring is not making good contact somewhere.

The fact that your starter can pull your battery down to 8 volts says that you are running huge amounts of amperage to the starter.

When the problem first started happening, was the slow cranking the symptom, or is the slow cranking part of the problems created since trying to fix the original problem?

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No, slow cranking was not a problem at first, but is now. In fact the hi torque starter sounded like a big rigs. It spun the engine fast. I'm wondering if the shop I took the starter to rebuilt the hi torque correctly. I was told by a friend that HEI's have problems starting if the voltage drops below 10 volts. I have checked the crimp connections at the engine compartment and they are fine. They were soldered to a copper connector on the solenoid end.

mmmikkke · June 19, 2006

Did you ever measure the voltage at the battery while cranking the starter before it was rebuilt?

8 volts seems really low, like it's sucking huge amperage out of the battery. 11 volts would be ok, but if you changed wiring and that took you from 8 to 11 volts, there's something wrong either the starter itself or the new wiring.

You're going to have to fix the starter first.