69 Camaro 396 Starting Problem

[showtime]

Okay I have a 69 Camaro 396

I dont drive it a lot but when I do it will run fine until I shut it off. Then it wont start. I have read many threads regarding "hot start" but I'm not sure this is my problem. The car will crank after running it slightly with a grunt noise then by several clicking noises. If I jump the car, it starts fine. I've had the timeing adjusted but it didnt solve the problem.

The battery is located in the truck. I use 0-gauge wire from the back to the front. I checked the wire and everything is fine. Now I am using a flexable 0-guage like you would use for car audio systems. Do I need to switch to a thicker copper wire?

I have replaced the battery once, it corrected the problem for about 2-weeks but it came back. Since the car sits a lot, sometimes I do have to jump it initially to get it running.
I have tested the battery when it dosen't crank, voltage is around 12.3 volts but when I crank it the meter drops to about 8 volts. So I know I have a problem somewhere with voltage drop.

Guess I need to put a load on it to see if there is a drain on the battery too?

Any advice you can give me would be great!!

Thanks,

Jim

[esenior]

I would recommend checking your grounds. Make sure you have good ground from the battery all the way to the engine. You can run a jumper cable from your battery to the block if you want to quickly test to see if it is an issue. Just my $.02...

[Jims78elky]

You do have a short or something that is casing the drain on your battery, you should look for loose connections, grounds, ect. That is why your new battery went dead after 2-weeks of use. I had a similar problem with a older truck with a battery that would go bad after two weeks of use, after some tracing down the system I found that I had a bad voltage regulator. I would also look at the alternator to make sure its charging ( you do have one...right? it could be that or a bad/slipping belt, anyways we all know that electrical problems suck big time, its just a matter of Isolating the problem and tracking it down,start with what is listed above use a good volt meter and go from there.

Good luck!

[Debonair]

You have a bad starter. The large voltage drop at the battery is the clue. When it is cold everything fits okay, but when the starter gets hot, the starter armature is drags on the field shoes causing the heavy current draw. If you have headers, you may need some kind of heat shield between the headers and the starter.