Hello all,

I am having a problem with my car. I recently got a 1998 Monte from my mother who passed away. Here is the situation. The car had overheated from a blown head gasket and the motor was replaced with a motor from pick and pull by my father. When he last worked on it, it was cranking but not turning over. He has since passed away. The car has been sitting for approx 3 years. I am not sure what the problem is. When I hooked up a in use battery from another running car, all the lights and accessories work, but when I try to start the car everything goes dim and it cranks over very slowly and then just starts to click. I know the battery is good as it is used in a daily running vehicle. The ignition coil packs tested good, as well as the IGM (if I tested correctly lol) any ideas on what may be the cause or what I should check for next? Any and all information would be greatly appreciated.

 

What you described trying to start it is the traditional symptoms of a dead battery. Now, since you know the battery is good (use it all the time), I'm going to assume it's not the battery.

Next, did you connect it directly to the car or use jumper cables? If you used cables, don't do that. It takes a lot of juice to run the starter, pop the battery directly in.

If you did pop the battery directly in, look at the cables and cable connections (at both ends of the cable). If the cables are corroding or have dirty connections, this again means your not getting the juice you need from the battery.

That's where I'd start with this.