No juice!?

[fullahotair]

First off, this for an 82 cutlass but since it is a gbody, i think you guys would still be able to help out...

Its a small block chevy engine, with no ecm , so keep that in mind... so here's the issues....

I swapped out intake manifolds last night, went to start the engine and heard a god awful screech/clang, the noise when a starter goes bad....(i have no previous trouble with the starter)

So i tried "bumping" the engine over again with the starter - same noise - but the engine does turn as indicated by the Harmonic balancer....

So i figured, well to be safe, i'll pull the plugs, (which were all dry), and try cranking it over then to make sure anti-freeze didn't get into a cylinder and cause hyrdualic lock, well while trying to pull the rear passenger plug, i shorted some wires somehow. It must have been either the harness that runs over the back of the engine (which has a thicker red wire, a black, and another wire which plugs into another harness that goes over towards the heater box, or the starter wires.... I haven't figured out exactly where the short was or what caused the smoke yet.... BUT either way, no i have NO POWER in the fuse box, i have head lights, the ignition dings when i turn the key, but no turn signals, dash lights, and nothing happens when i turn the key to start. All the fuses appear to be good.


I am taking the starter to get checked out today, but does anyone have any ideas on the issue of not getting power to the fuse box? where to look etc..i figured i have to start following wires...? doesn't the car take its power from the live wire on the starter?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...
Nathyn

 

[TurboBuickSix]

You probably popped a fusible link.

 

[fullahotair]

Well i was thinking I have 2 problems, 1 is the no juice problem, and 2 is the starter noise.


I am thinking the no juice problem lies between the starter and the ignition, because that is where the ignition gets it power from correct? ...there are those white cylinders on the wires towards the end by the starter, but visually they appear OK, not sure though what they look like when they are bad - i didn't try opening them or anything like that... I'll have to get my wire tester out and start checking wires...

But still not sure about the starter? it could be the starter is junked and it coincidently went when i swapped manifolds...?!

any thoughts would be appreciated...

Thanks,
Nathyn

 

[TurboBuickSix]

Using a test light probe both sides of all the links you can find and go from there,good luck.

 

[fullahotair]

thanks, so i think that is probably the source of my "no power" problem, but any ideas on what is causing that god awful noise, when i try to start the engine...its that sound that you get when you try to start your car when it is already started.. my first thought is that the starter crapped out on me and i will be getting that checked out today, but any other ideas? especially if the starter proves to be alright?


Thanks,
Nathyn

 

[BLACK6PACK]

Doesn't sound like the starter, sounds like the flywheel is missing several teeth. Either that or the starter isn't making proper contact with the flywheel and may need to be shimmed.

 

[fullahotair]

yeah i don't know whats up with the starter, considering its been working fine for years, nothing should have changed...the only thing different was the manifold swap, which should make no difference whatsoever...the only correllation i could come up with is if the engine is out of time, it would be harder to crank over, which could put more of a load on the starter but thats it...

never had any instance with the starter what so ever before...and the only thing that i think could generate the noise is the starter...

one thought is that the distributer wasn't all the way in, but i checked the distributor, and that is sitting all the way in with the clamp on it...

Just trying to figure out if the problem is due to the manifold swap or something i did in the process or is just coincidently happening at the same time....



Nathyn

 

[fullahotair]

well it turned out the starter went bad...and a fusible link went out.... What are the odds that the starter goes out the same time the manifold swap.....definately made me scratch my head....

anyway, just wanted to give an update to anyone who was following the thread...

Thanks for the input,

Nathyn