My Suburban "The Beast"!

[Rocfrog]

Originally Posted by MalibuSSwagon

there should be a ground to the frame from the engine, ground to the battery from the frame. Also a ground from the engine to the cab doesn't hurt (there is a stock one on my 86).

Whats happening is you're getting enough power to turn everything on, but when you try to start it the grounds aren't good enough to carry the amperage needed to turn over the starter. Wouldn't be a bad idea to unbolt the grounds and clean them.

If your area does not require testing older vehicles for emissions, you shouldn't have a problem removing the AIR and EGR systems.

Thanks! I'll go thru and see if I can find all of those and clean them up.

We don't have any vehicle emissions here they did away with them a few years back, I just wasn't sure if anything was "needed" to make something else work.

Nick

[Rocfrog]

Originally Posted by mud.man.rj

Make sure it is all the way in park or try neutral to start it if that doesn't work check for power at the small wire on the engine side of starter, it may actually be the neutral safety switch on the bottom of the steering column which is used to start in n or park only. I would check for power if none then you know the rest is good.

Not sure what you mean by "all the way in park"? It's an automatic so it's either in park or its not...right..?? Also being that its an auto it shouldn't have a "neutral safety" switch right, I thought that was on manuals to make sure the clutch is depressed before starting.....I could be wrong.....

Nick

[Rocfrog]

Ok so I was tinkering with it again this evening. I cleaned all the grounds up and I still have the same results. I had my son put his hand on the starter while I turned the key to start and he said he could feel the starter turning and he said he could feel it "throw out" and then while it's out you can hear like a ticking sound and he said it feels like it "turning". I figure it's engaging because if it's not then I would hear the fast "whirling".....

Nick
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[mud.man.rj]

So sounds like your getting power to the starter but..not enough so how about a new battery and start that baby up, take one out of something else to try, easy.

[Rocfrog]

I tried the battery out of my Daily Driver the other day and had the same results...

Nick
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[mud.man.rj]

Well at least you tried another battery so that is eliminated so pretty much down to testing for proper voltage and grounds at starter. pain in the but isn't it. You will get it sooner or later, hoping for sooner right.

[Rocfrog]

Hopefully sooner....according to the tags I haven't registered it in 10yrs so it's time to get it going again.

Nick
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[Rocfrog]

Ok so we pulled the plugs and tried it again and still nothing. So I tried putting some oil down the cylinders to help and still nothing. So we took out the starter and bench tested both and they both work. So I figured I needed to rotate the engine a few times to help it out, well like stated before I could turn it over with the breaker bar but had a hard time doing it with just a ratchet. So I'm going to have my son install the other starter and we'll see what it does, if nothing again I guess it's just going to come out and get a rebuild.

Nick

[MalibuSSwagon]

you tried spinning it with the plugs out right? Hmmm thats not good.

[Rocfrog]

Ya we took the plugs out first thing yesterday and they have been sitting on the bench since then.

I had a suggestion on FB about putting "Mystery Oil" in each cylinder and letting it sit for a few days, so I might try that as well.

Nick

[Rocfrog]

Ok, so when I got home we tried a few other things....

Put in a third starter, just to see, and had similar results. So I thought "lets see what happens if we eliminate the truck?" So we hooked up the battery charger directly to the starter while it was in the truck and use a screw driver to "jump" it.....well it did the exact same thing.

So I picked up some of the "Mystery Oil" on the way home and put some in each cylinder and we'll let it sit for a few days because a storm is moving in and then we'll try again.

I'll leave you with a great pic from the night!



Nick
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[Rocfrog]

Well last night we had MAJOR progress! The truck RAN!!! not under it's own power and it does have a bad knock but it ran!!

I had a buddy come over and help me double check everything and after we rechecked everything with no change, we took the "inspection cover" off the bell housing to see what the starter was do (or rather not doing) and we noticed that it was engaging the fly wheel but not turning the motor, and at this point we had ruled out any issues with the motor because now it could freely move when we turned it by hand at the flywheel. So after trying two different starters with lots of different shims and such with no change, he decided we should check the voltage at the starter while I was turning the key to start it, and it dropped below 3volts! So the battery and my little battery charger were not putting out enough "cranking amps" to turn over that big motor, and we determined that the battery out of my Daily Driver was for a V6 and not a V8 so it also didn't have enough Cranking Amps to turn it over. So my buddy had driven down his big rock crawler so we pulled the battery out of it and gave it a try, and sure enough the motor cranked!!!! Well at that point I was super excited and decided to throw the plugs back in and see if it would start/run. Well after a few trys it really wanted to! We dumped some fresh gas down the carb and it kept trying, so I got a can of starting fluid and we could keep it running while he sprayed that down the carb and I keep the key cranked. It smoked out the neighborhood but it was running, sort of.

So now I'm going to disconnect the fuel lines at the carb and pressurize the tank to see if I can get the fuel up to the pump and once that is cleaned out I'll check the fuel lines at the carb and then check the carb it's self. Then once I find a good used battery I'll try it all again. Once I have it running on it's own I'll drain the oil and figure out where the "knock" is coming from.

Nick

[BigBlue89]

Nice Burb, Ill post a couple pics of my girl. She still runs great 190,000. Nothing like hoping in her and taking her for a drive. Feels like nothing can hurt you cause there so damn big.

[BigBlue89]

Here is a couple picturers of Big Blue.

[Rocfrog]

Al right I know it's been awhile since I've updated this thread but this is kind of a major back burner project and I only work on it when I have the "interest" to. And I kind of have been wanting to lately and happen to be talking to my neighbor about tearing the top end apart to see what's going on in there and mate stripping all the "emissions" crap off. And he brings up that he has a few parts that he's never gonna use that I can have!



So now I just gotta start pulling it all apart and figure out what's going on in there but then I get to put all the stock parts on the shelf and put these nice "new to me" parts on!! And yes I know that the air filter is garbage and will not be using it, I have a 14" pro charger chrome edelbrock one sitting on the shelf that I will use instead.

Nick