starter, bad connection or what?

[cgmtboarder]

i have a '90 talon and i parked the car for a year to put in new tranny and clutch. Before i parked it and took it apart it started right up with no problems. After a year of sitting and getting everything back together, i put a good battery in and try turning it over and NOTHING! it sounds like its a completely dead battery. but if i plug battery charger on to it, it begins to crank over but then dies. what could this be?

 

[garrek11]

did you change the engine oil when you tired starting it after a year?

 

[cgmtboarder]

no i havent changed the oil. all i want to do is start it and make sure it runs. once it does ill change the oil.

 

[clarson_75]

sounds to me like your battery is bad. did you put it on a maintainer for that year or was it just sitting somewhere?

 

[cgmtboarder]

the battery is fine. i took out of my other talon i drive every day. and i just had it sitting in my front yard

 

[garrek11]

try changing your oil sitting for a year can make it really thick i had the same prob with my acura.

 

[cgmtboarder]

well i was wondering if the starter was bad. but then wouldnt it at least make the clicking noise? it doest do anything.

 

[vettesmoker]

a test light will tell you where you are getting power. with the key in the start position, you should get power on both starter terminals. starters can intermittently fail, causing huge headaches when your trying to figure it out too.

 

[jag987]

well i was wondering if the starter was bad. but then wouldn't it at least make the clicking noise? it doest do anything.

That doesn't mean for sure that you starter isn't bad, sometimes when they fail a little extra juice will make them bump over. It could be the solenoid.

 

[vettesmoker]

starter and solenoid= replace as one unit

 

[greg90gs]

i just had this same problem in my 90eclipse it turned out to be my alternator, yes i know very weird but as long as i had a charger hooked up it would turn over fine and try to start, as soon as i took it off i could watch my battery volts on my timer go from 8 with key on then as soon as trying to start it they would drop to 3, i replaced the alternator and it fired right up even before recharging the battery

 

[cgmtboarder]

well im pretty sure the alternator is good. i took it off another car that i know was running but i guess you never know. at first i was wondering if on the the battery connections was bad so i cleaned all the connections i could get to, but still acts like its getting no power at all...

 

[greg90gs]

ya just to be safe i would get the alternator tested, one thing i checked on mine that was really bad was the fuse block on the positive battery cable if you take that apart the internals like to get really coroded and eat through the connecting metal, mine also had that problem, but i dont know if yours has the same fuse block

 

[cgmtboarder]

ya mines got the fuse block to. i guess ill take that apart and check it. ill also test the alternator and starter.