72 vette will not start

by Jerry Oliver
(Panama City Fl, USA)

I have a 72 vette that will not start for nothing - its getting 12v to the HEI but drops down to 9 volts when turning the engine over? Is that enough for spark? no spark from the wires. Just installed the engine with the distributor set right - pointing toward the number one cylinder - TDC. I found and fixed one huge problem - the main battery cable was melted and touching the driveshaft. I think I fried two distributors trying to get it running previous to that. Just bought the car couple months ago and am trying to fix all the ghetto engineering from previous owners.

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Sep 09, 2011
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Starting Problems in my 72
by: Ammo46190

A voltage drop usually indicates a weak battery or bad ground when starting. You should have at least 14 volts on a fresh battery. You might take the time to do a good "look over" if you have had someone doing all kinds of dumb things to the electrical system. You can catch the car on fire if you don't watch out. It can ignite on it's own when your not around. I would keep the battery disconneted until you get this rat's nest fixed. I have seen a dash fire start on it's own before. Go slowly and keep track of what you do so there is no backtracking or wasting you time. Good Luck!!!

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