On my 67 Belvedere I recently upgraded to DIY HEI. Prior to that I hadn't been driving her much. Been noticing hard starts and getting worse. Both cold and hot. I keep the negative cable off and battery on a tender. Finally realized when she did start it was as I was letting off the key. First thought was I messed up the ign start wiring, but checked it with a DVOM and even pulled and checked the ignition switch, and all was well. So, after fighting it for a while tonight I finally put the DVOM on the ign1/ign2 wire. I had 13v in run, but only 9v or 10v while cranking and it would usually catch just as I was letting off the key.

I don't have an amp meter other than the dash gauge and no clue how accurate it is or how many amps it's showing.

Is my starter pulling to much to get the ignition going too. It doesn't sound all the bad, but it does when it's hot and sits for just a little bit. Time for a Dodge truck "mini" starter?

first borrow a known good fully charged battery & try it. Confirm the HEI/coil are both being fed in both crank & run key positions. clean all the cables including ground paths. EDIT I reread & is it cranking too slow or somewhat only wants to start when you let off the key (or both). 13V is adequate for the batt.

You have two ignition circuits, start, which in a stock application, bypasses the ballast resistor and feeds the coil 12V during cranking. The other is run, which feeds the coil thru the ballast.

With your DIY HEI setup it appears you only have run connected so it's only getting voltage when letting go of the key. You need to verify both circuits feed the HEI so that you have power in start and in run

I've been over the wiring. I'm fairly certain wiring is good. Bought all the wiring from Year One back in 06, and made a ground harness that runs back to the battery. Car spends most of it's time in a climate controlled garage.

I messed up my description a little there. Sorry. I've checked both ign1 (run) and ign2 (start) without cranking (starter relay trigger unplugged) and everything is normal. The last check I did, the 13v is run and the 9v is ign2/start while cranking. I also pulled the ignition switch and hooked it directly to the battery to check both circuits and no voltage drop.

Battery is almost new, spends most of it's time on a tender and had no trouble starting my 64 C10.

it sounds like you have something backwards. You should have 13v starting and 9.5v running.

HEI doesn't use a ballast resister so the coil should be getting battery voltage during crank and run but the voltage will be lower during cranking due to the amperage draw of the starter. Nine volts is a little low during cranking which could be caused by a weak battery or excessive starter draw. I would load test the battery and measure the starter draw. As Roberts said, make sure your battery connections are good and your cables are in good shape.

Alrighty. I'll probably pull the starter this weekend and take it to O'Reilly for test. It's a 12 year old Duralast. I just checked their site. They show the Magnum engine starter as new and this style as reman. I'm sure I went with a reman at that time and if they're anything like their steering boxes reman jobs, I was an idiot for buying it.

I'll also check out the cable to the starter a little better and replace if necessary.

I'll have the battery checked out, but again, it started my 64 C10 with HEI no problem.

While your there have your battery load tested. I've been running a magnum starter from Advance on my Dart for close to 15 years. It spins my 434" small block with ease.

Duralast is an AutoZone part, some of which have lifetime warranties.
If you have the receipt, you might not be out any $$.
If you don't have the receipt, and go back to the same store, they can plug in your phone # for a purchase history.
I've used plenty of Duralast parts and had no problems on 90% of them.
I'd also suggest running a 2nd ground between engine & car body.

So, if I read this correctly, you are showing 9V in "start" without the starter actually being used? That is your issue there. You did remove the original ballast resistor? No need for it in an HEI system.

You should be showing battery voltage on both start and run with the starter relay kicking over the starter.

Correct, no resistor, but also no, with the starter trigger wire unplugged from the starter relay, I have battery voltage (13v) under all conditions.

However, I only have 9v on the ign2/start wire while the starter is cranking. I have multiple ground wires. I have a specific ground harness to ground ignition components directly to the battery.

If it is the starter, I'll still go with a new Magnum starter, even if my reman is warranted.

Just a personal curiosity, do you have headers on the Belvedere?

No. Stock manifolds, but the down pipe is kinda close.

Ok, sounds like the starter might be drawing the system down. I'd pull all eight plugs and crank the motor to see if the 9v comes up or not. Also, really double check the battery cables, both ends and look real close at the terminal connections, do a voltage drop test on both as well.

since battery cables have been mentioned, if you have those "bolt on" replacement ends, replace those cables with new, quality battery cables of the proper gauge.
those cheap replacement cable ends cause untold electrical gremlins you can't begin to imagine, and they have NO place in an automotive environment other than a TEMPORARY repair to get you home.
one of my pet peeves when it comes to repairing electrical problems.

Well, yes I have one of those on the positive side, but it is temporary and I have checked voltage drop and it is not the problem.

However, I think I found the problem. Decided to try voltage drop testing the negative battery cable before pulling the starter. Not sure why I hadn't yet, but long story short it was the cable to block connection. It looked fine, but I clipped off a good chunk, shoved it under the bolt and wow. Big difference. Started and restarted 4 or 5 times without issue. I will be investing in some new cables asap, and verifying my start issues are gone. Feeling a little stupid for missing that earlier, but thanks for the help everyone.

And so, on that note, where's the best place to get battery cables these days?

Summit Racing has good cables.

- EM

Most local hardware and auto parts stores carry a good selection.
You could have it in the car in the amount of time it takes you to look it up on line.
Glad you found the trouble and it is something easy to remedy.

I use 1 gauge cables on my 440.Bought the first ones at NAPA.Of course mine is not concourse correct because its a driver.The bigger the better.Rocky

My car is far from original. I've even been chastised on here for the color... I thought I'd look around first and see if there was a nice option that had the solenoid and relay connections. Restoration versions are well over $100 and I'm not worried about looking correct. I found Real-Deal Steel part # RBT08-68C on Summit for around $35. It looks correct, but no info. I emailed them about it. If it doesn't turn out to be what I need I will probably build one using terminals designed for stereo installs.

I just have a fairly stock 318, and will probably never go much much bigger in this convertible.