engine not cranking over?

you need to turn the engine manually with a socket if it doesn't then it may be seized. also if the flywheel/flexplate has a ring gear that have teeth that were broken where the stater is engaging it, then the starter won't have anything to turn.


Check out this guide I found it should help

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/starter-not-working-repair

Please run down this guide and report back.

if the starter just clicks loudly and lights dim then engine is froze. if starter spins but makes no noises then it's not engaging flywheel.

Ok I'm having the same problem. I have a 94 silverado 2500 4x4 350ci with 185,000 miles. Haven't had it long but when I bought it the starter sounded like it was dragging so I thought no big deal I will change it in a couple weeks since I only drive 100 miles a week back an forth to work. Well went to the store shut it off for 10 min and went to start it back up. Turned over 3 times then clicked once and quit. So initially thought well starter went out. So I got a rebuilt one that was on my father in laws wrecked truck which was working fine before it got wrecked. I got nothing no click nothing. So we pulled it to his house and tested his and mine by hooking them up to car battery with jumper cables and well both worked great. So first thought no power to starter. Found the ground wire to starter(little red wire) was really close to the manifold and looked burned some. We spliced it with same gage wire. Hooked back up but did not install the starter just let it hang and bumped the key. Starter operated as should so I put it back together and tried it. The starter engaged but and tried to turn a tiny bit but did not turn motor over nor did it retract. So we thought its in a bind. We tried to adjust it an tighten bolts every which way. Still just a click so we shimmed it. Still one click. We tried both starters this way and still one click. Starter engages like it should but acts like in a bind. So we checked the fly wheel and turned it witn screw driver and turned like it should. Even put a breaker bar on altinator pulley and turned motor over just fine like it should. So motor not seized. Check oil and coolant and took plugs out and all was normal. Oil only has 100 miles on it. Checked fuses and checked wire harness and come up with nothing different. Checked grounds as well. Now someone before me bolted the ground from fire wall an back of block together then to frame it does look rusty and rough. But no matter what we have done nothing changes starter still engages to the fly wheel but wont turn motor over. Very frustrated and just give up tonight on it. Please help what could it possibly be. Its like either its not getting enough juice once it tries to turn over motor or ground i don't know just need help before I push it off in the river.

I only use AC Delco starter motor becasue almost everything else I have tried has failed. Here is a guide on how to test and replace the starter motor. Never use sims on a GM starter.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-replace-a-starter-motor

Here is a good test as well.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-load-test

Please let us know what you find.

Cheers, Ken

I had to replace the AC Delco starter cost me $104.00 all fixed.


Here is the starter


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007QBT0WA/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=2carprcom-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B007QBT0WA&linkId=7bd6be7430f7d53062d2040b85e536dd

Hi guys, so im in a bit of a bind here. I just intalled a new starter on my 98 silverado with a 5.7. It wss the gear reduction starter, everytging bolted up fine no issues with the intstal but i went to go start the truck and my motor just keeps turning over and over. There are times were it spunds like it catches and wants to start but nothing actually happens. Could it be a bad fly wheel, or do i need to shim it? I did not have shims on the old starter and shims did not come with the new one.

Maybe I am a little unclear as to what the engine is doing. Are you saying that the starter is spinning and not spinning the engine or the starter engages the engine/flywheel and spins it but the engine just cranks but does not fire?

Maybe get a video of what it is doing and that will get us on the same page quickly. Thanks

two weeks ago the engine would not start. next day it was fine for a week. last week it would not start again, I turned the steering wheel and the ignition started. now last evening I had the same problem again. all my accessories are working but it just wont turn over, and there isn't any sound at all as far as the starter or other parts are concerned.

Someone is going to have to do some electrical testing while the problem is present to be able to find this issue. You will need a test light that recognizes both a power or a ground signal. Here is the diagram

I have a 96 Chevy 1500 with 120k on it. I bought it used with about 115k. I only use it on the weekends. It is parked at my work and I take it home on the weekends. A few weeks ago I decide to take it home for the weekend and I turn the key to start it and all I hear is a load boom and white smoke just pours out of the right side of my hood and it doesnt start. I waited a few minutes for the smoke to clear and opened the hood. I didnt see anything out of the norm. I did some searching on the internet and found exploding batteries so I put a brand new battery in it but still wont start. It tries to start but wont so I think the starter is still ok. This past weekend I tried to get a closer look to see if I could see any burnt wiring and the only thing I discovered was old spark plugs and the the wires are a littly rusty. Also on spark plug did have some oil on the white part. Not sure what that means but didnt think it could be a good thing. Do you think that maybe I should try changing all plugs, wires and distributer cap? If these are bad would it cause the truck not to start and or cause that explosion? Any help would be much appreciated.

It could cause the no start, but the battery can cause the explosion. I have had many batteries explode due to acid leaking from them, or poor battery cable connections. The poor connection causes a spark and ignites the flamable gasses inside the battery.

No power to start wire on starter all fuses are good.

Check the starter relay in the under hood box. Also check the actual terminals in the box, they heat up and become loose so they do not make contact. If that is okay then check the neutral safety switch, for that you can jumper the yellow wire and the purple wire in the switch harness. If it cranks now the switch is bad.

When i started my truck i pulled down to change the gear and it popped out of line and now wont start or change gears what should i do?

Have you checked the shift linkage to see if it is loose or came apart?

When I turn the key to the cranking position nothing happen the starter wants turn the gauges on the instrument cluster don' t move no light on in the instrument cluster the turn signal lights not working the head lights are working the hazard flashers are working the bolt that hold the positive cable on the battery the bolt is tight but the cable not very tight how do I tight the cable? The battery have a side post I disconnect the little wire from the starter solenoid and turn the key to crank position and hook a test light to the starter solenoid small wire my test light light up so current is getting to the starter solenoid, so I bench test the starter motor it will crank what could be the cause for the starter motor not to crank when bolted to the engine? how to fix this problem and what to check?

Hey Joe1953,

This is a classic positive battery cable problem, what happens is over the years the positive cable gets internally corroded which is difficult to see sometimes, (look of bulging) start by replacing this cable and get back to me.

I'm not totally sure the problem is electrical but that seems more likely than engine. The truck won't start. When I turn the key in the ignition there is no noise at all. All lights work, radio works, fans work (for air).

Here's what happened
I replaced the starter about 2 months ago and had to replace some wiring with it.
A few days ago when I was starting my truck, I turned the key, there was a metal sounding clunk, a pause and then the truck started fine. The next time I started it, it started just fine. But the next time I started it I heard the same clunk again and then nothing. And there's been nothing every since. I was thinking it could be the ignition switch, the wire I replaced, or the fusible link between the battery and the alternator? I know it's not the starter, solenoid, neutral safety switch, battery or battery terminals.

There is one other piece of info that may or may not be useful in answering this question. The blinkers and emergency flashers aren't working but all the other electronics seem to be working fine.

A clunk during an initial engagement of the starter after it starts points to -drive pinion is too! close to the flexplate, and a high whining during cranking is you are too far-might have to use shims to correct the problem or the flexplate needs replacement-

Could also be the drive pinion is jammed with the flexplate.

Go back underneath and check for battery voltage on the purple wire while key is at start position-do you have it. If so drop the starter and investigate

My truck suddenly wouldn't start, so I am first trying to charge the battery. It's one of those Super Start batteries from O'Reilly's "DO NOT ADD WATER" but I don't know how old it is. In the process of charging the battery, the battery itself started chirping. The engine work light was very dim, and getting dimmer and brighter. Ditto with the internal lights. When the battery chirping starts, the lights blink. Finally got "full bright" on all of the lights, turned the key, and instant dead. No lights, no nothing, but the chirping in the battery, and something under the dash also seems to be clicking along with the battery chirping. Someone suggested to me that there might be a relay inside the battery making that noise. I am currently charging it up again, since it is too dark to work on it right now, thought I would ask here. I have thought that the battery is just shot and to replace it tomorrow, but am very concerned at the instant discharge that happened when I turned the ignition key. Now am afraid it might be something else, and not sure what to look for.

======

Follow up. Additional information.

I had the battery fully charged and lights were bright, and all I did was open the car door and it died again. (Lights went very dim so I didn't even bother to try to start it.) Since I didn't even get the key in the ignition before the battery died again, I am not thinking it is a short in the ignition anymore.

The chirping noise that I thought was coming from the battery turned out to be the horn. I discovered this when the battery became fully charged and so did the horn! That didn't last long, fortunately, and the battery died again because the (presumed) alarm switch is already in the off position.

So how would the alarm system be activated? Which I really did not even know it had. But what else makes the horn honk repeatedly when no one is in the truck? And could this be draining the battery and keeping it drained? There is a switch under the dash that is unidentified, and looks like an aftermarket thing. When I flipped it once a couple of weeks ago, nothing happened, so I am guessing that must be the alarm switch. But it is switched to the off position, so I am baffled.

If it is an alarm system, could it be designed to cut off the battery so that the truck doesn't start? And a malfunction in it is causing this problem?

Can I remove this stupid alarm thing? If that is what it even is? How can I be sure that is what it is? How can I safely remove it without causing a short?

At this point I don't even know where to begin troubleshooting. I am thoroughly baffled.

Hi aquastell. Welcome to the forum. I think you're getting "wrapped around the axle" and way over-thinking this. Your dandy description of the symptoms is exactly what happens when you have a dirty or loose battery cable connection. Due to the high resistance causing the low voltage, computers on the truck will do weird things such as that horn chirp you heard. Common sense says a computer is not needed to honk a horn, after all, we had horns for decades without computers, but common sense doesn't prevail anymore on newer vehicles.

Since this problem is acting up regularly for you, that will make it easier to find. A cheap digital voltmeter can be used but in this case, a test light would be faster. The only thing that can't be checked on GM vehicles is the battery connections because of their side post terminals. Start with the test light connected to the two battery cables. If the test light is dim there, the cable connections must be cleaned and tightened, or the battery has a bad connection internally and must be replaced.

If the test light is nice and bright, move the probe or clip lead from the negative post to the engine block. Also move it to the body sheet metal. There will be a smaller wire attached to the fender that comes from the battery negative post. The light must be bright at both of those places. The wire to the fender is the return for all of the lights, the horn, the starter relay, etc. It is a common source of a bad connection, especially if the inner fender is getting rusty. Next move the probe or clip lead from the positive post to whatever the cable goes to. On older vehicles, that was the starter. Its terminal was used as a convenient tie point for other wires to branch off from. On newer vehicles, look for an underhood fuse box with a smaller cable going to it from the positive battery post. Move your probe to the connection on that box. You're looking for the point at which the test light becomes as dim as the other lights on the truck. When you find that point, that's where to look for the loose or corroded connection.

caradiodoc

[quote:461485595c="caradiodoc"]Hi aquastell. Welcome to the forum. I think you're getting "wrapped around the axle" and way over-thinking this. Your dandy description of the symptoms is exactly what happens when you have a dirty or loose battery cable connection. Due to the high resistance causing the low voltage, computers on the truck will do weird things such as that horn chirp you heard. Common sense says a computer is not needed to honk a horn, after all, we had horns for decades without computers, but common sense doesn't prevail anymore on newer vehicles.

Since this problem is acting up regularly for you, that will make it easier to find. A cheap digital voltmeter can be used but in this case, a test light would be faster. The only thing that can't be checked on GM vehicles is the battery connections because of their side post terminals. Start with the test light connected to the two battery cables. If the test light is dim there, the cable connections must be cleaned and tightened, or the battery has a bad connection internally and must be replaced.

If the test light is nice and bright, move the probe or clip lead from the negative post to the engine block. Also move it to the body sheet metal. There will be a smaller wire attached to the fender that comes from the battery negative post. The light must be bright at both of those places. The wire to the fender is the return for all of the lights, the horn, the starter relay, etc. It is a common source of a bad connection, especially if the inner fender is getting rusty. Next move the probe or clip lead from the positive post to whatever the cable goes to. On older vehicles, that was the starter. Its terminal was used as a convenient tie point for other wires to branch off from. On newer vehicles, look for an underhood fuse box with a smaller cable going to it from the positive battery post. Move your probe to the connection on that box. You're looking for the point at which the test light becomes as dim as the other lights on the truck. When you find that point, that's where to look for the loose or corroded connection.

caradiodoc[/quote:461485595c]

Ok I will check for a corroded or loose battery cable, and try to follow the rest of what you said. I don't have a test light, but I do have a digital voltmeter.

Last night after all that happened, I went to bed, got up this morning and went out to see if it would magickally start. Opened the truck door and the horn honk-honk-honked. Put the key in the ignition and all of the lights lit up. HARD CRANKING, but started. It is running now. I am afraid to shut it off lol.

This is not something that happens "regularly". I only had one other time when the truck wouldn't start, and I think it was not all the way in Park that time. There seems to be a lot of anomalies about what is going on with it right now, but this is not a "regular problem".

Also, my truck does not have side post connections on the battery.

Dandy. Your truck had side post terminals originally, but the top post design makes it easier to test. Look at every mechanical connection to be sure they're clean and tight. You can use your voltmeter to measure across each connection. Start with the negative side. Turn the headlights on. When the problem acts up, put one meter probe on the battery post and the other probe on the cable clamp. You should read 0 volts. There will always be a very tiny voltage drop, but the closer to 0 volts, the better. Measure across each connection that way on the negative and positive circuits. One of them is going to have a very high voltage reading. That's the source of your problem.

caradiodoc

[quote:a924b85c10="caradiodoc"]Dandy. Your truck had side post terminals originally, but the top post design makes it easier to test. Look at every mechanical connection to be sure they're clean and tight. You can use your voltmeter to measure across each connection. Start with the negative side. Turn the headlights on. When the problem acts up, put one meter probe on the battery post and the other probe on the cable clamp. You should read 0 volts. There will always be a very tiny voltage drop, but the closer to 0 volts, the better. Measure across each connection that way on the negative and positive circuits. One of them is going to have a very high voltage reading. That's the source of your problem.

caradiodoc[/quote:a924b85c10]

Well I am thinking to just take a day, whether it is acting up or not, and test and clean every connection I can find. It will help me learn my truck better. It's an old truck, but I haven't had it very long. I like tinkering with it. Just wish I had a garage. I had 12.74 on the static battery test, and then when I tested the voltage on that connection to the sidewall fender from the negative, it was fluctuating. So I tightened it as best I could, until I had a solid 12.74 there too. But had to go get the right wrench to do it properly. No more problems so far. But now that I have the right wrench, I'm going to take it off and clean it up and put it back on. Also not too happy with the looks of the positive lead that runs to the fuse box under the hood.

Just replaced the alternator on my 96 Silverado 5.7 liter. The alternator tested bad when I took it off and had it tested. The battery checks out good. When trying to start I get a single click and it won't start. Problem has been intermittent but now it won't start even after sitting for a long time. Most people now think I have a bad starter. How tough is it to change out the starter? Where is it located? This is a 4x4 Silverado. I am fairly handy with tools but wondering if this is a task that I should take on or bite the bullet and have it done by a pro.

Before changing out the starter, I would check at the starter solenoid to be sure you are getting a full 12 volts to the solenoid control terminals. You can do this with a volt-ohm meter or a 12 volt test light (purchase at auto parts house). First step is to find the starter. The solenoid is usually mounted on the starter and looks like a small cylinder shaped object. The solenoid usually has three wires, one big one (connects to the + side of the battery) and two small wires. You want to check the small wires (put your tester on the big wire to see what 12 volts does to the meter or light as a reference). Next have someone turn and hold the ignition switch to start (be sure vehicle is in neutral or park). Put the testor on one of the small wire terminals and then on the other. You are looking for a 12 volt indication on one of the terminals (the positive terminal of the solenoid if you can identify it). If you are getting 12 volts to the solenoid (small terminal) and you are not hearing a click, then you probably have a bad solenoid and should replace the whole starter assembly. If you are not getting 12 volts to the small terminal of the solenoid, then you probably have an intermittent ignition switch or starter relay.