I have a 64 super 88 with a 76 455 rocket and th400 trans. Saturday night I was leaving a cool diner they opened in the area, hopped on the highway and after getting on it pretty hard it completely shut off and I had to pull over to the shoulder. Luckily my buddy was following me. He looked underneath and said the starter was the issue and that it was smoking when I was trying to crank it over and he was trying to bang on it.

When I go to turn it over, I can hear a small whine coming from the starter. I still have power to my lights and everything, my battery was still fully charged. I didn't think the starter would be able to shut the car off, since its only used for a few seconds to start the engine?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated if anyone has experienced this before! It has me completely stumped.

And to make matters worse while I was pushing it into the garage, the rubber piece that holds the steering assembly together snapped (not sure what its called) and my steering wheel no longer turns the wheels and spins freely. Not a pleasant Saturday but im glad nothing worse came out of it!

 

It sounds like you lost power to the ignition system or have a fuel issue, then while trying to start it you may have overheated the starter. The rag joint on your steering column is an easy fix.

First, repair your starter, then see if your getting spark and fuel while cranking, then replace the rag joint.

 

Well consider yourself fortunate that the car died there saving you from perhaps a terrible accident due to a rag joint failure. I would say someone was looking out for you!

 

Does the rag joint show any signs of charring/burning/overheating? The joint may have been acting as the ground connection (definitely not a good one) due to a poor engine and body ground circuit.

 

I had a 69 GTO do that back in 1974. After too many dollars spent on misdiagnosed problems, it turned out to be a primary wire (from distributor to negative on coil) had been pinched and it was cut clean through the wire strands, but held together by the backside insulation. When the wire strands made contact, it ran. When the vibrated apart, it would just shut off. Stumped the techs at Chief Pontiac in Philadelphia.

 

I went over all the ignition and starter wiring, replaced the starter and its still doing the same thing. When I turn it over it makes a loud "clunk" and thats it.

 

Leaves a lot open for problem solving at this point. Pop the cap off the dist and see if you can turn it forceably by hand. If not see if it turns when cranking. That will possibly rule out shear pin and timing chain. Though the chain, if original, could still have jumped to the point that the cam is to far out of time for the engine to run. If that's the case just have hope no valves hit pistons.

 

As Smitty said pop the distributor cap and see if you can get a breaker bar on the center bolt of the crank to see if the engine will turn by hand and that the rotor turns in the distributor while turning the crank. If they turn then start checking voltages at the purple wire and the big red one when the key is turned momentarily to the start position.

First clean the battery posts and cable ends plus make sure they are tight. Double check your ground cable the same way. You can also rig a jumper to the purple wire from the battery positive and see if the starter will turn.

 

The crank pulley doesn't turn when I turn the bolt, but when I pop it into drive I can push the car and hear air coming out of the cylinders with the plugs out. My water pump pulley seems kinda out of wack, it sticks every 1/4 turn, but I don't think that would not cause it to even start.

 

Not sure how that can be. The bolt traps the balancer against the crank face. Turning it should turn everything attached to it. Does the distributor turn when your rolling the car with it in gear and the pistons are turning? Their is definitely something not driving everything it should. Might be time to pull it and tear it down.

 

Unfortunately I couldn't tell since I was doing it by myself. But the dizzy did turn a little bit at some point of time with me messing with it. I am confused by the crank bolt, it was fairly easily turned with the breaker bar, but the crank pulley wouldn't turn with it.
Im not very familiar with engine internals so this is all new to me for the most part.

 

Which direction did you turn the bolt. It really shouldn't matter as it should be more than tight enough to rotate the assembly in either direction.

You were on the large center bolt with 1 1/8" head weren't you?

 

Clockwise facing the front of the motor, and yes I was using a 1 1/8" socket on the center bolt.

 

That describes a loose balancer bolt, which sounds like the LEAST of your troubles at this time. Smoke from the starter plus loss of ign sounds like main power cable shorted out to me. In-person diagnosis required from here on.

 

Ill look in to it today, the battery cables are pretty new but anything is possible.

 

Could it be a broken flywheel bolt?

 

Always look first at the thing most recently "fixed".

 

A clunk when starting, a water pump pulley hitting and a balancer bolt not turning the pulley...a broken crankshaft? Is there excessive endplay on the crank? Try grabbing the balancer and pull it forward and backward to see how much movement occurs.

 

Sure enough, I just looked and theres a ground wire ripped off. It doesn't make much since its a moving part?

 

So I made a new discovery yesterday, I checked all my power cables with a voltage meter, and when I go to turn the key it drops to about 2 from 12.6. Theres a serious drop somewhere, just not sure where. It does this at the battery, starter, and horn relay. Any ideas?

 

When you turn the key to what position? Did you clean all your cable connections? Seems to me something is not tight or corroded.

 

To ignition, all my cables are new and so is the battery and starter, they are both good. My guess is a power wire is shorted, just not sure which one. They are all hodgepodged together but all the connections on them are tight and good.

 

did you ck the battery voltage at the BATTERY POST or on the other side of the first joint, at the terminal?

PS new does not equal good
new battery can be dead.

 

A short will roast wires and pop fuses. Remove the battery terminals and scrape the areas that make the connection with a knife until they are a bright silver. Do the same at the battery posts. Remove the connections at the horn relay stud and the starter stud and clean the studs and terminals with a wire brush. Reconnect everything and try again. Make sure the battery is fully charged.

 

Well I did everything physically possible with the wiring earlier today..final diagnosis is a locked motor. Thank you all for the help, im gonna go cry in the corner now... :'(

 

Did you pull the spark plugs and try to turn the engine by the crank? You said in the first post it cranked but the starter was smoking while your buddy whacked on it.