Took my leaking bird up to cruise. It was about 90 out, car was complaining a bit on the way with a check engine light. Did make and discovered I have a hot start problem. The car would not restart until it cooled down. I had a similiar problem with a 96 Grand Am I had. At any rate, with my cruising hampered, I was able to look at more cars. Saw ywo nice white 86 Cavalier Convertibles. The one was the for sale one I posted before, but another one was a white Z24 with 34K miles. It looked awesome. I talked to the guy at length, they bought it from Pennsylvania and brought it up here. $2600 for a like new car. No other Sunbirds or 1st Gen Js to report.

He was all over my car with the stick and turbo. I guess he used to sell them back in the day. He thinks there is going to be a surge in poularity for the first gens because they are getting to be the "right" age. We will see...

Paul the hot no start could be the coil to the best of my experience.I replaced mine with the engine paint restore job.And also rerouted my starter wiring away from the exhuast with a copper flat metal piece.I could show u that pic but,way to lazy to do it.If u wanna see it go to my cardomain page ronsoldcav its on there if you want to see how I did that.The hot no start would point to the coil unless ur wiring is bit worn or coil wire I doubt it tho.

Ron-

I will look into it. As far as I know, my coil is stock. The coil issue would explain the check engine light that was being thrown... There is no CE light now unfortunately.

I had that problem with my 97 Grand Am, turned out one of the bolts for the battery (I forget if it was + or -) was worn out and would loosen up while driving. After cooling down under the hood, it would make just enough contact to allow for starting of the car again. This would happen until it was too loose for the car to start at all.

Yeah I would stay stock on that part I did.Good luck

May also be battery posts. I have replacement cables and they have short bolts. Gonna look into replacing those also...

Was it this one, Paul?

Here's more of it. It makes me sick because that is what mine used to look like .

Here is a couple more that were there. All of these pics are from a thread over at V6.




74,000 miles ^





196,000 miles ^

Paul-

You nailed the white one. I was actually right across the street with my Sunbird behind my Street Lethal Club peeps at Merollis. The white car belongs to a Merollis salesman. I have his card and was going to call him...

Paul94Z28 wrote:Paul-

You nailed the white one. I was actually right across the street with my Sunbird behind my Street Lethal Club peeps at Merollis. The white car belongs to a Merollis salesman. I have his card and was going to call him...

I wish I was there to see it in person. I hope you keep in contact with him and try to get him to join to share more of his car along with the history of it.

So back to my hot start problem, if it was the coli, why would the starter not turn? I have all other power. If it was the coil, wouldn't the starter still turn?

Paul94Z28 wrote:So back to my hot start problem, if it was the coli, why would the starter not turn? I have all other power. If it was the coil, wouldn't the starter still turn?

Going by my past experience with my Z and it's wonderful ignition system ( distributor ), when the Pick-up coil is bad it will shut down the car when it's hot and won't let you restart the car till it's cooled off. As for the starter not turning.....could be a bad connection on the battery or the starter. It also could be in the ignition on the column. I had that problem with my Fiero recently.

True unless your starter does need the terminals cleaned and tightened.And the key cylinder maybe,however it would also show the symptoms of no idiot lights,radio coming on, but,this can also be a no start due to wear as stated.I would not rule out a dead spot on the solenoid.If it is the starter I would not waste my time changing the solenoid I would buy a whole new reman or new.Good point on paul sieberts comments.

I had a hot distributor issue a couple of years ago. The car would heat up, then not restart. It would crank and sound like a wire was off. I replaced the distributor and have not had an issue since then.

This issue is with the car hot and no crank at all. All other electrical works. I am leaning towards starter electrical. Maybe throw a new starter at it.

Thoughts?

Looks like starter is it...

Starter is not such a bad job. After about an hour of looking at it, it took me about a 1/2 hour to get it out. Should be much quicker going back in.

Boy was I wrong. Top starter bolt took 3/4 of the total job time coming out and going back in. Car starts fine (sounds a little different), we will road test in the heat and see how we do.

Good luck with it.I know when I removed mine the bolts were not to bad to do.Time wise maybe 30 hr total with wiring hook up.And so glad I made the copper bar set up to move the wiring away a touch further from the exhuast heat.Yeah getting it lined up and bolts started are a slight migraine.

Saw the tool at sears I should have had for this job - A ratcheting open end wrench.

Thats going on my Christmas list...