I have a 71 Pinto with a 289 the battery is in the trunk.The problem is it's very hard to start, even though the battery is new it doesn't turn over very good. After driving it for a while it's really slow cranking.The alt. is new some one said I should get a thicker gage battery cable. If thats the case what gage?
Henry
Henry, mine is like that too. Make sure you have a large battery, i think my cable is a 1 gauge, and use a large gauge cable from the selenoid to the starter. I shielded my starter cable with stuff from work (if you want one i'll get you one for nothing) Make sure you have a good ground, with 1 gauge cable, i grounded my battery in 2 spots on the chassis just to be sure. What size alt are you running?
Are you sure the starter is in good shape? You said it turns over slower when the engine is hot. That sounds like the starter could be at least part of the problem.
The starter , battery, selenoidand alt are all new.I think the starter gets hot because of my headders. Even on short trips I sometimes I need a boost.
Today I tried to start it after charging the battery for 8 hrs and allI got were clicks, it wouldn't even take a boost!Where do I get this cable (cdn tire)?
if your charging it for eight hours and its clicking, either your battery is toast or the starter IS bad or possibly your cables and or connections are bad. Yes you can get the cables from Crappy tire (got mine there) If you do change out the starter, try a starter heat shield.
i used welding cable lead for my battery cable. not sure of teh gauge but i'll check. finer the strands of wire in the cable the less draw is taken away from the juice gointo the starter. also if your battery is new its not always good had it happen to me and clicks from the selonoid means either bad batery or starter but usually low on volts.
brad
78 Pinto had a good point in his first post. Check the engine ground!
Since your battery is in the trunk, you probably have the negative cable going to the chassis. You need to have a good size ground strap from the chassis to the engine block.
Ive read that the welding leads work real well. I will be moving the battery to the rear and have reasearched it a little. The 4 cyl. cars are not going to have such a hard time though. :P
One day my Ranger clicked with a new battery and starter. It turned out to be a loose connector on the wire that slides onto the starter. Its the one that goes to the plunger. I ended up bridging the 2 with a screw driver to start the truck When I got home I changed the connector and everythings fine.
The bad ground or battery sound like it. ??? A guy I work with recently bought a bad battery from Wal-Mart. The 2nd one was fine.
Thank guys I'll try out everthing Sunday.I'll let you know what happens
Henry
Three of my cars has the battery in the trunk. They never gave me a probblem unless it was a bad battery. The ground to the chassy is a must AND a ground back to the motor.
I used 0-guage arc welding cable for mine. Maybe a little overkill, but never had a problem. Make sure the battery is securely grounded to the body back there an the engine has a good ground strap.
I'm using 00 welding cable for mine.