Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

Hey all, it's been a while since I've been posting but so close to getting my car up and running.

My engine is back in but my cranking does not sound normal. I double-checked my timing marks to make sure it wasn't off and reconnected all my cables.

It's definitely getting fuel and has a new starter and battery. There is definitely oil in the motor, it has new plugs and I double checked the harness behind the motor. It seems to be going from slow crank to fast crank back to slow. Any thoughts?

Below is a video of the cranking behavior.

http://youtu.be/1HU59M1_11k

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

Does it ever start? Have you checked the battery voltage? Sounds electrical.




.

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

I would first strongly suggest taking a look at the battery-chassis ground, the battery-engine ground, the smaller engine-chassis ground up by the dogbone mount, and the battery terminals.

Does it start eventually?

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

It doesn't start at all.

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

Still sound like motor is fighting the starter. Have someone else check the timing with you . Second opinion.

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

is the starter fully seated on the bellhousing?

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

Yes it sounds like the belt is timed wrong.

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

Thanks everyone I will check out the grounds and timing, then report back!

The start is seated properly, it is bolted in as far as it will go.

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

I took a look and found an unhooked cable near the dog bone. Not sure what this goes to or if it's supposed to be unhooked since i have a manual trans?

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

If you've got access to a spare starter you could swap it in and see what happens. My old auto starter gradually weakened over the summer a couple years ago to the point it would barely crank the motor. This isn't the common failure mode for starter (usually they just kick the bucket over night), but does happen.

Have you tried bump starting the car?

Edit: Also, try throwing a breaker bar on the crank pulley bolt and turning the engine by hand to see how easily it spins. It should take modest effort, but nothing herculean.

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

That is the "smaller engine-chassis ground" I was referring to. I have seen posts in the past that not having that resulted in a non-start (I think most likely the other ground was also weak/corroded, but restoring the smaller one was sufficient to fix the problem.

So, how do the other grounds look? I'd try adding an extra engine-battery ground and see how it does.

Re: Help diagnosing my cranking?
 

That wire is the ' engine to body' ground, it runs from the back of the block to the firewall, should not affect the starting as the starter has its own ground, but plug it see what gives.

Harvey.