My drivetrain is from a 12A from 82 RX7, My battery is roughly a year old and is an Optima Yellow Top, I am running a stock starter, and a factory 5 speed. The car has been fine the last few months Ive had it. Last Tuesday I flooded the car in the morning before work. I pulled the plugs dried the and cranked the engine until it was unflooded, about 2 mins. I did give the starter 3 30 second breaks during that time. I put the car together and it started right up. Then at work about 4 hours later I tried to start it, it did 2 hard revolutions like a dead battery, and then spun fine. I realized I forgot to set the choke. I set it, and pumped the gas, the engine spun fast and started right up. Since then Ive had this problem. When the car sits for a few hours the first 2 cranks are hard then it will crank all day. Ive even tried just cranking it when its cold with out pumping the gas or anything and it does the same thing 2 turns where it almost doesn't crank and then regular speed and I can let go of the key and crank again no problem. So that takes a dead or weak battery out of the equation. Could this be the beginning of carbon locking? Or is it just a bad spot in the starter?

 

Check your battery cables especially to the starter and the grounds.

 

or maybe they are just so old and corroded inside (and can still look OK outside) they need replacing?
30 yr old cables = lots of electrical problems. Unless you _know_ they are newer, I would assume they are the originals and replace them. Then, as tg sez, make sure they are firmly and cleanly attached where they are supposed to...

Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

I solved it. Cleaning all my connections and replacing both battery leads, adding a new ground between the Wankle and the frame only helped slightly. Took the battery to get charged and load tested and it passed. So I pulled the starter out. The previous owner put in an Autozone starter and it just didn't last I took it to the local rebuilder who rebuilt it with quality internals and now the engine spins so fast it starts almost instantly!!