chevy 4.3 v6 engine help please

jeepcj3a

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2006
Location
winston salem
have a carb. 4.3 v6 in my toyota. went out today to try to start it for the first time in awhile. Hooked up all the wires, gas in the tank, good battery. Turned the key and got nothing, no noise or anything.

Im new to this and have no idea where to start looking for problems. The only thing i can think of is the starter isnt hooked up right, or i dont have the spark plug wires in the right places on the engine.

Any help would be great.

thanks
 
Check your ground wires on your battery and starter. Is your starter solenoid on your starter or seperate. Maybe that has gone bad.
 
im going to check the starter and hopefully thats the problem and i wont have to chase wires all day.

Another newb questions, would it matter what gear the tranny is in, cause i havent hooked up my shifter yet and have no idea what gear the tranny was in when i bought it and had it installed.
 
Is it an automatic or manual? If it's a manual push the clutch in and try starting it if you didn't already.
 
i crawled underneath and the shift lever on the transmission is pushed all the way to the front, which im guessing is park.

I bought a voltmeter and checked the "s" terminal on the starter while trying to crank it the engine with the key and got 3.5 on the reading. I know nothing about this stuff but read that If you have power there, then you know the electrical system is good and the problem is with either the starter motor or the starter solenoid.

Is that true?
 
Chad,
#1 On the th350, where the shift collar ("U"-shaped bracket with slotted holes on top and bottom) is turn it counter clockwise until it stops. That will make sure it is in park, if it is in gear #1 it would jump forward if it started and #2 it wont start because of the neutral safety switch which is designed to prevent the vehicle from starting in gear. (This is assuming you even have a NSS wired up)

#2 You should have the large wire from the starter to the battery. And a wire that goes to the S (start) terminal on the starter solenoid. When you turn the key ou should get 12V to the S tereminal. You can jump that with eiether a screwdriver or a jumper wire, with the key in the on position to see if it fires. If it does then you have a wiring issue to the starter.

You mentioned spark plugs, that would only matter if it was turning over but not starting.
 
well got it to turn over which is a start. Switched out the battery for the second time and made sure the tranny was in park. Im still only getting about 4V to the S terminal when i tried it last but it still turned over. Not sure if its the battery or not now.

This brings up a few more questions id like to get some help on please.
1) I can try to start it and it will turn over, i can do this 2 or 3 times then the starter just starts to click which makes me think the battery is dead. Put in new battery and it did the same think, after a few cranks the starter just clicks. Anything i can check other than the battery?
2) i looked up a firing diagram online for a '88 chevy 4.3v6 which i believe is around the year of the engine i have. It said the firing order is 1-6-5-4-3-2, and the the number 1 plug wire socket is just about at the front of the distributor. Is this correct?

Thanks for the help so far
 
firing order is correct. #1 wire location on cap dont matter, so long they are in the right order and rotation (clockwise). check your voltage across your battery terminals while you have someone crank it over. observe your voltage drop at the battery. as said before check that you have good battery connections and grounds. also check the resistance across your battery cables. the post and side lug ends with the two bolt clamps are bad to give trouble.
 
Cable terminals nice and clean?
Follow the the ground and make sure it's got a good clean connection to the frame.


Matt
 
I observed the voltage drop on the battery and it went from 11 to 5.6 when someone was cranking it over.
Normal?

Ive cleaned all the cable terminals again, checked the grounds and they are all good. Also checked the "s" terminal and im still only getting about 3.5v when the key is in the start position.
 
im gonna go pick up a optima battery tomorrow and try it again.

It ran when it went off to get work, just cant understand what wouldve changed to make it no longer work.
 
It 's the Toyota rejecting the chevy parts. YOu need to put it on anti rejection meds.:flipoff2:
 
well got the battery/starter problem fixed.

Now it turns over every time just fine, but its not firing.
Double checked the spark plug wires and made sure they were on correctly and in the right firing order on the distributor. Took the distributor cap off, and cleaned the ends up. The engine is getting gas so thats not the problem. The spark plugs were new a few months ago, and the engine was running fine when i ran it last.

What should i do now?

Once again thanks for all yalls help
 
I think in your first post you said it's carbed. My carbed truck starts pretty hard some cold mornings. Maybe too much or not enough fuel to start? It took me a while to figure out what exactly works/how many times to pump the pedal first thing in the AM. Might try some starting fluid.
 
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