Horrible Ignition noise when warmed engine

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GIBs 74

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Hello. I have a 74 Duster with a 318, Edlebrock 4 bbl, auto., mild cam. A few weeks ago I took her to a birthday parade. Drove about 45 mins., turned her off for about 15 mins. When I went to start up, there was this horrible tatatatatatata noise, and wouldn't start. Someone jumped me and it drove home fine. Started up next day fine. Yesterday took her for a drive, stopped for gas, turned her off for a few mins. and same problem, tatatatatatata noise. Someone jumped me again. Had battery checked out and its fine. It does have electronic ignition. Any thoughts??? Thank you for any help.
 
Battery is toast or bad connection at the battery terminal.

Test battery voltage while cranking and if it goes below 10.5v its garbage.

Verify your charging system is working when engine is running, too.

If that's not it, could be other things but they're less likely. Tests are cheap/free.
 
Screams of bad connections in the starting cir.

How old is the battery
 
What's the voltage when cranking? Do you have a trickle charger or way to charge battery to max? What's your bat voltage at idle?
 
What is test under load? If it jumped without incident, sounds like poor connection to battery. Clean them (both terminals and clamps) then tighten them and put some Dielectric grease on the connections to prevent corrosion.
 
Phreakish said:
What's the voltage when cranking? Do you have a trickle charger or way to charge battery to max? What's your bat voltage at idle?
Click to expand...
I have a trickle charger. Battery tested 585 out of 600. They told me it was good. Not with car now, I will check voltage at idle tomorrow am. Thanks
 
pishta said:
What is test under load? If it jumped without incident, sounds like poor connection to battery. Clean them (both terminals and clamps) then tighten them and put some Dielectric grease on the connections to prevent corrosion.
Click to expand...
They are tight and there is no corrosion on terminals or clamps. I will double check tomorrow am. Thanks
 
Could be a bad starter relay or starter.

Typically tat tat tat is the starter silonoid or relay attempting to engage then dropping out due to a low voltage condition, at the moment of dropping out there is enough voltage to engage again so it does it again over and over till you let off the key.
 
Not trying to be mean, you need to learn to troubleshoot. As said, "screams" of bad connection. Battery clamp at post(s), cable ground lug at engine, cable terminal at starter, or internal corrosion in the battery cables.

Next time you have a problem, attempt to get it fixed when it happens instead of just "driving it next time." You have a multimeter? Minimal needs are a couple of alligator "test leads" a multimeter and 12V test lamp.
 
I don't trust cranking amp tests any more than I trust gas station sushi. A discharged battery can still test "good" even if very low due to a bad alternator. Charge the battery to full and then check voltage during cranking to get a proper read.

If the battery terminals are clean and tight (the only way to confirm this is to clean them, there is zero way to do this visually) then check your ground connection. Clean the contact at the block and tighten.
Also check that the positive wire is well connected and clean at the starter.
 
Diagnosis on a problem like this needs to be done in a certain order, or, you're just guessing the problem. First thing you need to determine is whether the battery it good or not. The only good way to test it is with a load tester before and after it's been charged. Once you are sure the battery is good (and connections are clean), test to see that the charging system is working properly. If you're still getting a low voltage chatter in the start position, the rest of the battery cable connections need to be checked. That means the other end of the actual battery cables, and the heavy cables going to the starter motor from the starter relay. Make sure the cables are connected to where they're supposed to be connected. The negative battery cable should bolt to the cylinder head or block and with paint cutter bolts/washers. I'd also make sure there is a good ground strap going from the engine to the body and from the negative cable to the body also. With your car cranking fine cold, but, not cranking when the engine is hot, indicates to me that the starter is drawing a lot more juice than the system can handle after the starter warms up. A fairly common problem with headers or an exhaust pipe close to the starter. Sometimes adding a heat shield or wrap will help. It still shouldn't chatter though. Under high heat-no start conditions, usually the starter will just drag and crank real slow. The chatter indicates low voltage or bad connection. You can sometimes check battery cables and the heavy relay to starter wires with jumper cables. The negative cable is easy to check. Just add a jumper cable from battery negative terminal to a clean metal connection on the engine and try to start it now. The battery to relay cable is also not to hard to test in most cars. Test the same way.....jumper cable from battery positive post to the battery post on the relay and try to start. The relay to starter motor cable is a lot harder to jump on a V8 car. Care must be taken not to accidentally ground the jumper cable or cross the wire connections on the starter. Sometime you have to make a jumper cable with better connectors on the starter end.
 
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