please help!! truck wont start

[nac593]

1969. new everything. new crate motor,hei dist., alttenator,battery....I have put 6000 miles on it since putting the truck together. Everything has been fine. Starts right up USUALLY....Yesterday morning I jumped in and went to start it. It was having a real hard time cranking. Voltmeter showed 8 volts while cranking. I thought the battery was bad so I had it checked at the store and they said it was ok. I charged it , put it in, tried to start it and same thing. 8 volts and struggling to crank. I went and bought a brand new battery and same thing. 8 volts while cranking and struggling. It only cranks a few seconds and the new battery already seems drained. I thought with a new battery it would crank fast but it still barely cranks. Everything has been fine since I put it together about 1 year ago. More info...altenator was showing 18 volts...I replaced the altenator and it showed about 14 volts...drove it about 2 days and then this happened.. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!

[LOW DOUGH]

I don't know.... Get your voltage regulator tested and your Starter. The auto parts store can do it. I'm just shooting in the wind here.

[69sixpackbee]

Battery cables.

[craig24671]

Sounds like your starter might have went bad on you. I would take it off and have it checked

[LOW DOUGH]

Yeah, Probably the Starter

[nac593]

just took the starter out and had it checked. They said its fine. HELP!!!

[El Jay]

Make sure the your cables & stuff are nice & clean & shiny. Use a battery brush to clean the cables (I know, it's a new battery) just to make sure you don't have any unnoticed corrosion on the battery.
Clean the inside of the cable ends with a battery brush.
Make sure the "+" cable is nice & clean at the solenoid & the solenoid is clean.
Ditto for where the ground cable attaches to the engine, Clean terminal & shiny block.....core support ground, engine to frame, frame to cab.

A poor electrical connection can genuinely make you crazy & do some weird stuff to vehicles.

[nac593]

cleaned all cables. redid grounds. same thing. 8 volts when cranking.

[WestButteTruck]

Would you be able to replace it with a known "good" battery and try that? I needed a battery, went to Wallymart and before I left I asked the guy if he could test it just to be sure.....Nope that one is bad, go grab another......test......nope that one is bad too. Let's go to the rack and check a few out. 3rd battery off the rack was finally good. Why? I couldn't answer that other than it was Wallymart.

[mycool72]

Sounds like bad grounds or not enough of them.

[tim21391]

could it be the battery is too small?

[tim21391]

i run a 950 cranking amp on my truck

[hilandr452]

If the distributor slipped or the timing chain slipped and the timing is retarded too much, there could be too much compression during the cranking before the spark is able to make happy piston love. Check your timing. Alternator or voltage regulator would not matter if the battery is fully charged and the starter is good. Could also be the starter isn't aligned properly with the flex plate or pressure plate. You may need to shim it up. That's all I got.



Dan

[americanmusc1e]

bad ground-check and clean connection on battery and motor
bad power connection-check and clean on battery and starter
bad starter-
bad battery-
bad battery cable-
ignition timing off (it made my motor hard to crank)-
valve timing off-
engine tight-you could try to turn the motor over with a 5/8 socket on the harmonic balancer and see if it's tight

not much else it could be!!!

[nac593]

thanks for the help so far guys. I'm going to keep working on it

[nac593]

Got it!! It took a few days but got it started. Had voltage to dist., but no spark. Changed parts in dist. and started right up!! Thanks for all help.

[LOW DOUGH]

so, what did you replace in the dizzy? I had the same problem once. I ended up putting a new dizzy in and it fired right up. so, something inside it was bad.

[cdowns]

BAD GROUNDS cable connections