Hey guys. Im putting my car back together. It's been down for about 4 months as I'm finishing my drivetrain swap. Everything I did to help troubleshoot is clutch, flywheel, tranny, starter, driveshaft, rear end, axles and 720 secondaries. Got it all back together except putting the cat and exhaust back on and it's not starting. It was cranking over slowly. I unhooked the battery, checked some fuses and tried again and it was cranking very fast, then not at all. i noticed some smoke coming from behind the motor, im guessing from The starter? It was a very light smoke and didn't last the entire time I was cranking.

I was thinking since it had the injectors out and was sitting it's gonna take a lot of cranking go get the fuel flowing but now the battery tested very low and is on a charger overnight and I'll try again tomorrow... Thoughts?

 

Check the starter make sure the live on the solonoid is tight and clean ,check for any loose grounds in the area you see the smoke ..Was the starter hot .. It sounds like you have a poor connection at the starter Check the ground from the battery to the engine make sure they are all clean and tight .. You never said what you are trying to start ..

 

91 na swapped to T2

 

Yea that's where I would start looking .. Being as it spun good then not seems like a connection problem .. Don't spin your engine to long at a time .. It shouldn't take all that much turning to get the fuel flowing Maybe you should check and make sure the fuel pump is working ...

 

put the fully charged battery back in and still no luck. even with a fully charged battery its cranking slow. the starter was a bit hot, not burns you hot, but hot to touch. the positive connection looks clean and tight. any other thoughts? is it possible its a bad starter? I got it "used/never used"

 

Ok. I took the starter out to get tested and it tested good. While it was out I noticed the positive terminal on starter was loose so I tightened it good and put the starter back in made sure all was tight. Now I go to connect the battery and it arches and blows my inline battery fuse

 

You've shorted the wiring somewhere down by the starter. Make sure there's no bare wire on the (+) feed making contact with anything it shouldn't.

 

check where you put the positive wire on the starter.
there are actually TWO big lugs on the starter but one of them is ground for the Solenoid.It attaches the solenoid to the Starter casing.
IF you put the positive there,as soon as you hook up your Battery,,POOF!..blown fuse!
LOOK Closely at the starter,,you will SEE what I mean..it's a common mistake,so don't feel bad.