93 Metro 1.0, Slow Crank/No Start problem

1993 Metro, 1.0, 3 cylinder, carbuerated.

This car has been acting like this for the past year or two, progressively getting worse as time goes on. The car sat for about 7 days, went back out to start it, batter was dead. Put a charger on it, very slow start, barely cranking over. Sounded like it wanted fire, just not enough juice. I could only crank for about 5 seconds before it would totally just die, and not crank anymore. Put a new battery in it, same thing. I did get it push started, car drives fine until you come to a stop, then it dies. Push started it again, drives fine. I took it out on the highway for about a half hour and came back, shut it off, still extremely slow crank for about 3 seconds, then dies, with no more cranking ability. Batter without car started read 12.8 volts, w/ started read 13.7 volts. Battery seems to hold a charge, but something is obviously draining the battery over a long period of time, but thats beside the fact at this point. I can find a battery drain later. I have yanked the aftermarket radio in there thinking it was the culprit of the battery drain. Any suggestions on the no/slow crank?

Well, a weak point to the metro is wiring. Your contacts on your starter are more than likely covered with corrosion. It's a tight reach, but see if you can wire-brush the termainals on the starter.

Second of all, the ground going from the distributor to the firewall is a weak point, and I've melted a couple.

Third.. Check under the fusebox that's in the engine compartment. There's a thick white wire coming from the alternator to the underside of the box. A lot of the time it gets hot, and actually melts the fusebox there and destroys the terminal.

My personal fix for all these problems....

1. buy about 15 feet of 8ga car stereo amp cable, and 3 sets of ends to crimp on. Make sure you get a couple of smaller "O" style ends to fit on the alternator post, and the starter post, and one under one of the bolts on the distributor(where the old one connects)

2. Get a new positive battery terminal that has a universal connector, and a couple of 50a fuses to go in-line with the power wires.

3. Disconnect/remove the wires that go to/from the alternator and starter, all the way up to where they connect to the fuse box and battery.

4. Run one wire from the battery directly to the starter.

5. Run the second wire directly from the battery to the alternator(remember to use the in-line fuse)

6. Replace the ground wire from the distributor to the firewall with the 8ga cable.

7. replace the current cable that goes from the fuse box to the battery in place. It's necessary to get power to all the other parts of the car. It provides power to the entire fusebox.

Here's a pic of what mine looks like.. I put a red line on the wire that goes from the battery to the fuse box
http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/1314/photo082105002yn4.jpg

thanks a lot for the help, I appreciate the reply. Great pic! I will try these things and see what happens.