I have a gen IV 5.3 out of a GMC Yukon that I have put in a 1993 3 series BMW. I started the engine outside of the car about a year ago, and everything fired up just fine. One thing to note is that the engine has a stand alone PSI Conversions harness on it. Now that I have the engine in the car, and everything is wired up I thought I would try and fire the engine in the car. I double checked all of the connections, and tested the fuel pump and everything seemed good. So I tired to fire the engine, but all I get is a click from the starter. It doesn't even try to turn the engine over. I confirmed the engine spins freely by hand and there was nothing stopping the engine from spinning, the engine spun as it should.

So I pulled the starter off and bench tested it. Everything worked as it should, but the first time I tested it the starter stuttered a little before the solenoid pushed the plunger gear out. All of the wiring is the same as when I tested it outside of the car, and I put a new battery in the car today. The only difference is that when I started the engine outside of the car I had a very short positive cable that went from the battery to the starter. Now the battery is in the trunk, and the positive cable is about 7' long and looks to be 1/0AWG wire.

So my questions are these:
1. Could the issue be that the cable is to long, and the starter is pulling to much to fully engage the starter?
2. On the Gen IV engines does the starter need to be shimmed at all?

I greatly appreciate your guys help.

Thank you,
Andrew

 

Where is the ground cable terminating to? I ran mine from the battery in the trunk to my engine block at the mount. The starter needs a good ground to work properly, so make sure engine is grounded very well. I then jumped from engine to frame to firewall, and from frame to core support. I do electricity for a living so my cars wiring is a little unique.
No need to shim the starter, or at least I’ve never shimmed one or seen one shimmed.

 

On this note, I remember on my '80 F-150, the instruments were going all over the place. I was told replace the IVR, instrument voltage regulator, a little piece that snapped onto the back of the instrument board. Little improvement. Then one of the old hands at the dealership told me to make sure the grounds were good. I got some heavy multi-strand wire and loop terminals and went to town grounding EVERYTHING worthy of grounding. Problem solved.