'84 Battery Died, now wont stay running

Hi Guys, I am looking at buying a nice '84 with 97000 miles on it. The battery went dead while sitting overnight with the lights on and now it only starts for about 5 seconds then shuts off cold. You can restart it a million times and it still dies a few seconds later.

The owner swears it ran "perfect" but he can't figure it out... and wants to sell it cheap (about $3500). The car is very nice looking, but I am curious what the problem might be.

While it runs, it sounds good... no smoke, knocks or anything (of course it only runs for a few seconds!)
HELP PLEASE! Travis

[Vanity Plate Bob]

I would suggest as the first to do would be put in another battery. Just a test unit so u can tell. Even new batteries can be bad. One may run for a couple days and be bad, as to not carry sufficient power to operate the vehicle.

If the battery has enough juice to start the engine then there is another problem. I would suggest removing the negative cable from the battery for 5 minutes, then reattach and start. Usually when the bat goes dead the ECM looses most of its programming and when the bat is charged it does not fully reset itself. by removing the cable you let it die and when attached to a charged battery it resets. You will need to let it run and drive it so it can relearn the settings.

Thanks for the advice,

I will try both. The battery does not have enough juice to start it by itself. We jumped it.

I'll throw a new battery in (after letting the cables sit un-connected for 5 minutes) and see what happens.

I'll re-post with the results...

Travis

Well I tried...

New Battery... charged... same story. Will run for about 5 seconds then shuts off..

Any more ideas?

[vigman]

Here's my thought..

1st check the oil level ( yes I know it sounds crazy)

there is an oil pressure switch which keeps the fuel pump running AFTER the switch see's over 4 PSI of oil pressure.. if the oil level is good and when you start.. you see the oil pressure come up on the gauge... the switch still might be bad.

Do this first... then I can point you in the right direction to do some more testing.


Oh...I'll get a previous post

BRB!


Vig!

[vigman]

http://corvetteactioncenter.com/foru...ghlight=BroKen

Must be getting old....I forgot about that one....

Thanks... I will double check the oil level... It doesn't sound crazy at all, my Powerstroke truck is the same way.

Thanks agian