84 Wagon Please help!

Ok this is kinda of a long story, But Im gona try to keep it short..

Started having overheating problems one day with my 84 Caprice wagon, it blew a hose in the circuit city parking.. then another one a few days later.. I Know I should have stoped driving it but it was my only vehicle and I had no other way to work..

I would drive it to work and as soon as i turned it off the radiotor would boil over.. this was going on for about 2 weeks, Didint realy have the time or the money to get the problem fixed, So i kept just trying to see if maby it was an easy fix, had it flushed and everything still overheating...

Then one day on the way to work it just died at a light as i was trying to make a turn into the lot where i worked... Cranked it over a few times hoping it would run long enough to get it off the road... id say it cranked maby about 6 times then stoped... I thought the engine seized up so I had it towed home and its been siting in the driveway for 3 months...

Trying to get it runing now, Engine is not seized, I can crank it by hand without to much trouble.. got the starter to crank it a few times but then it stoped again.. now the starter wont even click....

And I need to know if theres is a way to trip the starter by bypassing the solenoid to find out which is causing the problem.. becouse im realy not looking forward to replace the starter becouse I have to pull off the Ypipe to get it out, and that exhaust is pretty rusted on..

So please any help, on starter or over heating is greatly arpiciated right now... Thanks
Mike C.

Did you fix the overheating issue? It might be as simple as replacing a stuck thermostat, just follow the upper radiator hose to the housing on the intake manifold. Its probably a $10 fix, or less. Look for soft and collapsed radiator hoses, loose fan belt, inoperable clutch fan. Unless the radiator has a major blockage it should be one of these things.

You might have a bad connection (look for green corrosion) at the starter or battery. Clean the battery connections, try charging the battery first over night. Or get a jump. Jumping the starter is possible, which only bypasses the solenoid, but difficult to do without being under the car, which is unsafe unless you have it on a lift.

The starter will come out without dropping the exhaust. There is one brace from the crossmember that is a real SOB to take out, this can blow an hour on you. The last one I did I had to use a combo of metric and SAE tools. The good part is that you can rest it on the y-pipe and do the solenoid connections.

Good luck, Bob

Replaced the thermostate before it died, it was kinda weird, the thermostat was actualy in 2 peaces, botom had seperated from the top..

about an 2 hours ago I grabed the battery out of my bro inlaws truck and tried to crank it over with that, as soon as the starter comes in contact with the fly wheel it stops..
So after screwing with that thing for an hour I fianly got it out.. and now I know why there was small peace of rubber tubing on my trani cooler line, pulling out hte starter breaks that line.
waiting for a ride so i can go pickup a starter, Cant realy ride my bike halfway across town holding that thing in one hand.. :)

Pissed off becosue the last person to replace the starter had this pice of plasic surounding one of hte nuts for the wires so I had to cut it to get it off..
Hoping this gets it started, then ill figureo ut hte overheating issue

I checked the raditor when it was still runing, I could see down inside and everything looked like it was flowing through like it should, but if replacing the water pump dont fix it ill replace radiator.

another thing i forgot to mention, the day before it died I had completely filld it up with antifreeze and water.. when I went to drain the radiator after it died.. i got maby 5oz of liqued out of it.. So im thinking maby a leak, but Ive checked all that.. so i dont know..

If you can borrow a pressure checker (replaces the radiator cap) and pressurize the system you should find the leak. Water pumps can be tricky. You might be able to peek in back of it from the bottom using a mirror and flashlight. You should see a water stain coming out of the weep hole.

Also look at the freeze plugs on the side of the block when you put that started back in. There are some behind the bellhousing but they rarely leak. Do you smell antifreeze when its running? Look at the heater control valve and the heater hoses. Peel back the carpet on the passenger side under the dash and see if the heater core is leaking.

I have an '84 wagon myself and have practically replaced everything on it. Now with the ga$ price$ being what they are, it may be going up for sale before the spring.

Bob

Yeah Im not looking forward to paying gas prices right now, But i just wana get it runing so i can get it moved, I have no problem riding a bike all over town

ok heres where im at.
Replace starter and plugs, Its now runs..
It sounds like thers some low end detonation when it worms up, and it has alot of trouble idling..

And the top radiotor hows has some water flow, but not as much as it seems it should have, When i was filling it up, after the radiator was full the engine would not take anywater unless I was pushing on the gas...

So you think waterpump?

ok, after replacing starter i went to autozone to have them recommend some of the possible reasons for my overheating..

And while I was there It burnt up an egnition wire in the parking lot, and now te starter is starting to radomly grind....

I dont think that car likes you. I would try a water pump. How many miles does it have? You might have a bad head gasket but when mine started to over heat i replaced the pump and now its fine.

lol yeah, shes defintly not making this easy one me :)..
160k, ill probobly go pick up a water pump tomorow.. and if that aint it then the only thing i realy got left is radiator, which ive been saving till last becouse its so expensive..

Well i found out the problem with my ignition and my grandom starter grinding..

The igniton wires run through this metal tube thats saposed to be bolted onto teh block but from some reason it isnt.. on the bottom half of that tube the wires were fine, Untill that one fried in autozones parking lot.. but above that tube, not a single one of the wires are sheilded..so what probobly caused the wire at the bottom to fry is it came in contact with ground.. and the random grinding is probobly it coming in contact with the hot wire that runs along side it unsheilded...

So looks like i gota re run those wires... and cant find my book so i ahve no clue how.. ¿

got my starter fixed, its all good now, and i found my cooling leak, Its the thermostat housing, When we replaced the thremostat both the bolts for the damn thing busted off becouse they were so rusted in, so we used drimmel to grind the old bolts to be flush with the intake then drilld holes inside the old bolts and taped in some new ones, it all held untill the day it overheated and died, becosue I would have noticed it leaking like that when we put it back together...

So gona fix that (any one know where to pic up a intake manifold that I can put the quadra junk on? dont have the money for a new carb, and that carb is runing pretty well right now anyways, I spun the tires leaving the gas station the otehr day and didint even meen to..) and gona replace water pump and hope that fixes it....