Riddle me this!!

[Andy Dean]

Charged up battery (Halfords Heavy Duty 650cca gone flat over the winter) over sat/sun night, installed in corvette Sun morning and it started after second attempt (not too bad after six months).

Drove about 2 miles, stopped for 2 mins, starts 1st time.

Drove another 2 miles, parked up, polished chrome, and after about an hour and a half it starts 1st time again.

Drive approx. 15 miles (at warp factor 9 :o ) to sainsburys Kirkcaldy, put gas in it and click, dead as a doornail! Solenoid not even clicking in place. Thought it may be Chevy hotstart, but tried a jump anyway, and starts 1st time :confused: .

Drove another 10 miles to Dunfermline and park up at KFC, switch engine off and try starting immediatedly, starts fine!

After about an hour and a half it starts first time again and i potter back home (25 miles).

Roll into garage, switch off engine and immediately try to start it again, click, dead again.

Even odds it will start 1st time cold.

:confused:

Crap battery? Current leakage? Discuss...

[Hemi Haggis]

Dear Uncle Andy

I know exactly what your problem is, it's a common condition found in Corvette's - it's called 'Chevy'. What you did wrong you see - you went out and bought a Chevy, no, no, no......you don't want to do that!!!!
What you do now is - sell it, and you go buy a Mopar.....problem solved!! :p

Nah, seriously though - looks like it could be heat sink.
Unprotected Chevy starter solenoids + un-wrapped headers = sticky solenoid! A common prob on the Sshevvies and it can be intermittent. I once had the same prob on my sbc powered Firebird, and once also had a severe 'heat' prob on my Vette, but that's another story eh! :eek:
Option 1 - shield your solenoid
Option 2 - wrap your headers
Option 3 - fit a remote solenoid
Option 4 - option 1 and 2 together.
Option 5 - go to the pub and worry about it tomorrow.

Keep on cruisin dude!

[Andy Dean]

Thats what me thought, but it would jump start no probs, :confused: just not under it's own power. If it was heat sink, wouldn't it refuse to start completely even if you were trying to jump start it?

Either way, option 5 sounds appealing!

[Andy Dean]

Bingo! I think i'm starting to understand this now. I've always assumed that the dreaded Chevy hot start problems were down to thermal expansion causing the solenoid to physically stick, hence i didn't think it was that, 'cause mine would still start with jump leads...

Now, set me right if i'm wrong Ger but from what i've been reading, the solenoid doesn't stick beacuse it's physically stuck, but rather the heat causes the resistance in the lead to the solenoid winding to become too high and prevent enough voltage to produce an adequate magnetic field to actuate the solenoid/engage pinion/close starter motor circuit? which explains why when i was jump starting it the extra juice enabled it to start.

So the remote solenoid theory is the best then cause it allows full voltage to the solenoid winding?

I've seen another method, whereby you attach the solenoid lead to a 30A relay controlling full battery voltage to the solenoid winding too, what do you make of that idea?

[Hemi Haggis]

You gat it ma boy! :D
I little bit of study makes not a dull boy!
If I remember rightly, it gave me the symptoms of a low battery, as in it turned over slowly, but not fast enough to fire. The effect created by just what your talking about.
My Vette was never effected by this as my headers were wrapped and my mini starter had a thermal barrier, as did the cables. Everything in that area is a bit tawght - like a tawger!! I can remember removing the starter with having the fat headers - was a major undertaking!! :rolleyes:

Yer idea sounds fine, at the end of the day tho - the easiest fix is best.
Keep up the good work!

Byefernoo

[Andy Dean]

Well, i spent most of friday afternoon wiring in a relay into the starter circuit, and it seems to have worked :). It starts much better now, admittedly i've not had it really hot yet, so i'll have to wait and see, but it does feel a lot better. Another thing, it now starts with the headlamps on which it never used to :confused: , looking back that was another clue to the Chevy hot start i suppose.

Time will tell but i think i've found the cure.