95 Regal custom 3.1 no start (electrical issue)

[Regal900]

Hello, I hope you are doing well, my car sat for like 2 weeks and then unsurprisingly the battery died. I took the battery out and charged it and I put it back. The car did have electricity but I didn't try to start it that day. I tried to start it the next morning but the car had no electricity at all as if it had no battery. So I got a new battery from walmart, I put it on the charger since it wasn't fully charged.

At this point this is where things get a bit weird.. The electricity comes and goes quickly sometimes, it doesn't crank but I hear clicking sounds with a delay like a second after I turn the key. I have a suspicion that the terminal screws are bad (the threading is damaged) and since I couldn't find any new ones in my area I decided to do a top post conversion. Is it really as simple as cutting off the old terminals and and attach the new ones? I barely know anything about electrical things. Do I need to use heat shrinks?

In addition I noticed that there's a wire that comes from the positive post to the fuse block and it looks like it got soldered in hell and turns out that wire gets really hot over time for some reason and then it then it creates a lot of resistance which causes your blinkers to blink slowly, dim lights and the ABS light comes on so I wanna fix that too but I don't know how.

Furthermore not all the fuses are the right ones.. Some of them have a higher amperage rating than supposed to.. Is my car a potential fire hazard?

Btw all my fuses are fine so the no start issue is not a fuse thingy. The previous owner removed the horn relay, I have heard that these old Buicks have issues with their horns getting stuck but that's a fix for another day.

Thank you!

 

1995 Grand Prix Engine Swap

[Robert]

OK, so on these first-gen wbodies, there was an issue back in the day where the ground and power going to the starter would have issues; you would have power, but the starter would click as if the battery was dead or the car would just lose all power. Check those to cables, i would replace if you can and run an extra ground from the battery to the strut tower. Let me know.

 

[Regal900]

OK, so on these first-gen wbodies, there was an issue back in the day where the ground and power going to the starter would have issues; you would have power, but the starter would click as if the battery was dead or the car would just lose all power. Check those to cables, i would replace if you can and run an extra ground from the battery to the strut tower. Let me know.

What do you mean by adding an extra ground? What's the benefit? Btw this is a car that has been rust proofed many times so everything is super greasy and it also has an oil pan leak. Now if I am not mistaken the starter is right under the pan so could it be that the oil leak messed something up??

Any ideas about the fuse block thingy?

Out of curiosity could there be like an anti theft system thats acting up? Something like the GM VATS system?

 

[Robert]

A bad ground or not enough ground will cause issues and can cause wires and connectors to melt; you would see it on old headlights and stuff back in the day. The extra ground is needed because GM uses, like, an 8 AWG instead of a 6 AWG. Check your main wires for this reason; the starter is not under the pan; it's in front of it if you're looking directly at the engine. It's under the exhaust manifold. It has 3 wires: positive from the battery, negative from the battery with are 13 mm, and a purple wire that engages the solenoid, 8 mm. Also, you can upgrade that starter to the smaller high-torque starter found on the 2.2, later model 3400, the 97+ 3800. gives you more room and less noise, too. Just throwing that out there if you even need to replace it. You have better options.

 

[Regal900]

A bad ground or not enough ground will cause issues and can cause wires and connectors to melt; you would see it on old headlights and stuff back in the day. The extra ground is needed because GM uses, like, an 8 AWG instead of a 6 AWG. Check your main wires for this reason; the starter is not under the pan; it's in front of it if you're looking directly at the engine. It's under the exhaust manifold. It has 3 wires: positive from the battery, negative from the battery with are 13 mm, and a purple wire that engages the solenoid, 8 mm. Also, you can upgrade that starter to the smaller high-torque starter found on the 2.2, later model 3400, the 97+ 3800. gives you more room and less noise, too. Just throwing that out there if you even need to replace it. You have better options.

Thank you for your time, I will replace the battery cables (including the starter section) and hopefully that fixes it.

 

[Robert]

Hop on the discord if you want some live advice, we have a good group of people there. discord.wbodytech.com