Ok, here's the story. I just put the car back together. It hasn't been run for about 5 or 6 months. I just had the battery taken out and recharged so its fresh and the connections are good. My Camaro is a 1985 but the engine is a 1987 L98 350 and I am using the 1987 HEI distributer w/ remote coil. So everything is set, I prime the fuel lines up, pressure gauge reads good, I try and start it, it cranks good.....won't turn over. I try and crank it a few times with no success. I get a pop here and there. So figure timing is horribly off and flip the distributer 180*. Now I go back to start the car...... I turn the key...no crank...I lose all power. I wait a few seconds and strangely power comes back on. What the hell is going on here? I do it again with the same results. I scour the engine bay for lose connections and the such. I found a ground that I missed which I now grounded. I get back in, same result, power goes out, then comes back on. I'm at my wits end. Anyone know what's going on or what I can do????

 

How good is your cable to the starter?

 

I think its pretty good. I cranked it like 15 times before I took off the distributer. And I don't know how I could have messed somthing up by doing that.

 

I had the same problems.. Make sure your battery cables are connected good and tight. Mine was doing the exact same thing, I have side posts, not sure what you have but sometimes my side posts would do that.. I ended up replacing the battery and getting some new posts or whatever they are called on a side post battery.. The ones I had kept stripping the battery terminals.. As for your other problem, it is definately timing, mine was doing the same thing, sorta fixed now but still can't seem to get timing how I want it...

 

Thanks alot for the reply! I'll check the wires and let you know what happens.

 

Ryan, the distributor may be a tooth off OR your engine block may not be grounded to the firewall. You sure you put the strap from the back of the head to the firewall back on? Scratch some paint off the head to get a good ground.

When you installed the distributor did you make sure the #1 cylinder was at TDC and you installed the rotor pointing directly towards the#1 spark plug? Then you set the plug wires acording to that. You didn't use your crazy firing order again did you ? LOL. Good Luck, IM me with any questions.

 

LOL..... How did I know you were going to catch this thread eventually? Yeah I set the timing from TDC ( and yes it was wired right this time). I'd be willing to bet the 180* rotation would do the trick. It's not giving me anything so I assume its off more than a tooth. The strap in the back is good too, I'm starting to suspect those old *** battery cables, they just picked a ****ed up time to go...thats all. I'll get to it on Saturday and post what happens. What are you doing saturday? Wanna swing by and see 6 months worth of smoke?

 

i think its already been mentioned here , but i had a similar problem in the spring , i put a ground wire from a starter bolt to the frame . turns out it was trying to ground through my shift cable - which fried together

 

Ok, here's the update. I took off both battery cables and sanded the **** out of them. I put them back on and try the car. It starts! But the timing is off so it dies after a few seconds. Now I pull the distributer and advance it a tooth since I'm sure the timing was pretty off. Now I get everything back together and try it again. Car cranks, stutters, power cuts out, comes back on, cranks a little more, then click click click click. WTF!!!!!!! This thing is so god damned tempormental. I noticed that the battery cables on my car have four little protrusions coming from it. However my battery doesn't have little nitches for them (well it does now from it being screwed in). Can this have anything to do with the problem. What the hell is going on now. Now the car is cranking but then it clicks and power comes in and out in seconds.

 

You definitely have a grounding problem. Get a set of jumper cables and use them to hook the battery (-) terminal to a starter bolt. Then try to crank it up. If that works then you have a bad (-) batt cable or bad connection to the block.

The four ridge-like protrusions on the side-post terminals are just to ensure a good connection...they shouldnt cause a problem.

 

Ok, I replaced my battery cable and sanded down the connection to the block. In addition to this I recharged my battery which was getting a little low. It try and start it, it cranks then kinda trips and cranks some more. I can't explain the trip too well, its kinda like it loses power but I don't hear the clicks anymore like before. Can maybe my coil be bad? Are there any other grounds in the circuit that can cause this? This is really obnoxious.

 

your block may not be grounding to the frame of the car . try putting a ground cable from a starter bolt to the frame. your problem sounds alot like the one i had. motor turns maybe 1/8 th rotation lights dimmed then click of the starter it would turn over without the sparkplugs in with no problem . i checked every wire connection i had , every ground ,re routed batt cables (battery in trunk) to find nothing then i put that ground wire in and then boom it fired right up. although you may already have a ground there , in which point disregard this post . if not - try it - then check your shift cable

 

Problem solved. My timing was incredibly off. I finally reset it enough to get it running. Thank you all for the help. I suspect that the original problem was the ground not grounding in the stock bracket location which I fixed by moving it to the block. The next problem was that when I adjusted the timing I moved the distributer too much so that it simulated another electrical problem. Any, it's all good now. Hey Mark, wanna fine tune some timing?