Car Has problem starting NEED HELP!

[dudocius240sx]

I have a small problem, I rebuilt my KA 4 months ago, the car runs great, but when i crank it up when cold, it struggles to start and when it starts the RPM jump to 1000 (like normal) but then they drop to like 400 almost stalling. Plus i smell gas right after this, my thoughts were clogued injector not injecting enough gas, but it might also be my fuel pump. What do you guys think?

[ChavezSA]

I'm having a very similar problem. Except, mine isn't just during cold weather.

The other day I got stranded at Taco Bell. It took me about 25 minutes to finally get it running. I had to manually throttle from the throttle body, with my friend cranking on the ignition to get it to start. I went to Autozone and I got some Gumout, and I bought a couple of quarts of oil, since I noticed it was awfully low. I haven't gotten to try the Gumout, because since it requires mixing it with a full tank of gas, I was afraid of getting stranded at the gas station when I'd have to the car off in order to fill up.

Since it was a nice day outside, I tried starting it again today. It didn't want to start. After about 20 minutes of messing around with it, I found that the #1 spark plug wire was loose. I made sure it was snug and tried again. No luck. So, I waited for about 5 minutes. Cranked it and started right up. Cool, I thought. I let it idle for about 10 minutes. Turned it off, just to see if it would start right up again. It did. Wow awesome, I kept thinking.

I went inside to grab my paycheck so I could head off to the bank. I came back out and the car was still running so I thought that was a good sign. But, I wanted to be 100% sure I wasn't going to get stranded. So, I turned it off and tried to start it again. Good thing I tested my theory. Now it won't start again.

I spent another 40 minutes cranking on it, letting it sit, and trying to figure out WTF is wrong with it. Finally, I got someone in the neighborhood ot give me a hand. While he was cranking on the ignition and I was manually throttling at the throttle body, the starter went.

Well, either that was the problem all along, or now my problem just got worse.

[ChavezSA]

BUMP

Anyone want to give us some second opinions?

[Newcastle82]

I had a simliar problem with my stock driver 89 s13. It would crank sometimes and fire right up, other times it would crank and crank and crank but wouldn't turn over, and the cranking would get lower in pitch and slower. Turns out it was a starter problem, the selenoid had gotten tired and didn't want to deliver enough of the juice it was getting from the battery. After replacing the starter it fired right up, no problems. If you do end up replacing your starter and your car still has some hesitation cranking, try getting a jumper-cable assist. Sometimes when a starter is going bad you spend so much juice trying to crank it you end up killing your battery, because there's no alternator to help recharge it. Also, I would have a look at the positive and negative leads to and from your starter. If the metal underneath the plastic sheathing looks pretty oxidized and greenish, try this. Use a razor blade to remove the sheathing about 8" from the connector (disconnect your battery first). Clean the wire with electrical spray and a tooth brush, and re-wrap the exposed wire with electrical tape. These are all quite simple things, and I know it sounds like they wouldn't do much, but we've got 10-15 year old cars. Lots of corrosion, lots of weather, lots of wear.