Ok this is my beater car but its a 86 chevy caprice classic broughham....anyway the other day I was driving to work and all of a sudden i heard a noise and i was going 50 then the car started decellerating...i hit the gas,nothing...i floored it it wasnt doing ****....it was staying around 40..and makin a noise sort of like valve tapping...i pull at the light and slow down and the car sounds like its going to die sort of like pre ignition..light turns green and i floor it and it takes forever to get up speed and its still making the weird tapping like noise...anyway i got to work it wouldnt start back up so i had it towed home....right now its in my garage and i pulled off the timing chain i had a feeling it was that and the timing chains a little slack but overall ok....so then i notice the + terminal of the battery had a small hole in it from what looked like a melt...i took my newly bought alternator back and the told me it was fine (i would of tested the amps myself but couldnt get it started) anyway this is where im at and the distributor seems ok too and wires grounds ect....so im not sure what the prob is if anyones had anything simalar or if you are a good diagnostic please help and give me some input id really appreciate it ..THANK YOU.

 

Melting battery terminals aren't good. If this is a new occurance it sounds like a connection problem. You said the alternator was new...were all of the electrical connections tight? (Battery, back of alternator, ground cable at frame or block, battery cable at starter, ground strap from block to frame if it has one.) Loose connections cause arcing and melting. It will kill the car to for more than one reason. Loose connections can cause the battery to not charge which will eventually kill it. Check the battery now to see if it is 1) charged and 2)load test it to see if it has plates touching and is strong enough. This is a good place to start...let us know what you find.

 

I would bet that your starving for fuel. What motor is in it? carbed or Injected? You might also want to check and see if the converter is cloged.

 

I think you may have more than one problem. Did the engine spin over when you tried to start it? The battery of course will have nothing to do with the way an engine will run. My guess is your first problem is engine related, and a ticking sound is usually top end ie valves. Look for something obvious ie oil on the sparkplugs. Pull the dist. cap off look for a broken rotor or bad connection, pull the valve cover off...etc... The only things a car needs to run is gas, spark and compression. A loss of any one of the three will cause a loss in power. IF you can get it to turn over you can test compression for rings valves and seals, spark and gas. I would think the melted battery is a different problem, more likely due to trying to start it "after work". Make sure the connection to the starter is good some. the GM cars ran their positive cable direct to the Starter solinoid mounted on the starter.

 

96 I had the same thought...... has this car been eating gas and or running alil hot?