BadjerJim

GiJoe - Please feel free to include the following in your excellent website about VATS defeat:

For those who haven't seen it, GiJoe has created an excellent website about effectively removing VATS from 1986-1989 Corvettes. You can find it here: http://www.joestradingpost.com/vats/.

My 1990 is my daily driver, so it only took about 4 months of ownership for the VATS problem to surface for the first time.

And of course, the Starter Enable Relay is in a different location from what GiJoe wrote up... So I tore into the project for my 1990, and took some pictures along the way.

Eliminating VATS from a 1990 in my case will be a two-step project:

a) Having pcmforless.com burn a new ECM chip that eliminates VATS. VATS will be gone, and I'll get some overall performance improvement.

b) Replacing the Starter Enable Relay.

Now: I started out to hard-wire a relay (always SHUT) to replace the stock unit. But get this: I checked out online prices for the parts, and found genuine AC/Delco was about $20, GM Parts Direct had the same unit for about $15 (with punitive shipping/handling), and my local Shuck's Auto Parts had a comparable part for (get this) $2.79 !! You can find/order the part here: partsAmerica.com Corvette Starter Enable Relays.

I ordered two, and with sales tax, the total was $6.03. They had them in the store, in stock, no shipping charges, ready to go.

And the procedure was so easy that I didn't bother with the 'hard-wire' mod. Honest: you can swap out this relay in 15 minutes flat, with nothing more than a 7mm socket driver. So I threw the spare in the glove box.

Side note: I don't know for sure that the original relay was the problem, a part of the problem, or working fine. I just wanted to put in a new one.

Here's the procedure:

1) Remove the carpeted 'kick panel' from the driver's side. Here's a picture showing the location of the seven 7mm screws (red spots are screw locations):



2) Pull down the 'kick panel.' Be careful... there's some wiring for the 'vanity light' in the driver's footwell, and some other stuff. This will reveal a ribbed aluminum thingy that's part of the heater/AC system, as shown in the following picture:



3) Pull your new relay out of the box, and look it over. Get a feel for 'how big' it is, because you're gonna be feeling around in the dashboard in the next step.

4) Reach straight up behind the ribbed aluminum thingy, and then back towards you (toward rear of car). You'll feel two relays to the LEFT side of the steering column. You want to remove the one CLOSEST to the steering column: that's the Starter Enable Relay. It just pulls straight out (toward FRONT of car).

NOTE the orientation of the relay you've removed (where the spade plugs are, etc.). This makes it easier to install the replacement in the next step.

This crummy picture shows the relay removed. The red spot shows the approximate location of this relay, up inside the dashboard:



5) Using the same orientation you noted in the previous step, insert the new relay.

6) Replace the kick panel. Done.

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For the truly ambitious, and to COMPLETELY make sure that this VATS Starter Enable Relay doesn't kick your a** on a dark and rainy night, I would:

a) Pull apart one of these new $3 relays. The black plastic cover will pry off with a small straight-blade screwdriver.

b) Figure out which two contacts are related to a closed relay, and solder a jumper wire across them. Put the whole thing back together. Done.

Hope this helps. Tomorrow, I should get my new chip from pcmforless.com... and all of this VATS no-start bs will be behind me.

BerniesVette

Great article!
Bernie

GIJoe

Excellent info! THanks so much for the pics, parts numbers, etc. I will get this up on the VATS site for everyone!


***edit: I just added the info in. Let me know if I am missing something or can make it more clear. I added another Year Box on the main page for 1990 and put the starter relay info in there. The actual page I cleaned up a little to make it look uniform, but just copied and pasted your own wording.


Also added to the main page are thanks to those that provided me with some info. If I am missing someone, please let me know

ZBrink

Stranded in Flagstaff 2k from home with a no crank situation on a 1990 ZR-1. Does anyone know the other names or part numbers for the starter relay? Trying to find the relay at NAPA, O'Reilly or AutoZone.

EDIT 1) I think it's Duralast Relay 19273 Part #19273 SKU # 12861 BUT I'm having trouble seeing it under the dash. Anyone have a photo showing it mounted up under there?

WVZR-1

Since you know it's location. The GM # that most any auto-parts store should be able to interchange would be 25520198, Four Seasons # 35928, Standard Motor Parts # RY-116, BWD # R3177. These I believe are correct. You can 'push start' every time?




If perhaps the Clutch Safety Switch has failed you could maybe fabricate a jumper to bypass that. Do you know that when you picked it up that the clutch had to be depressed for 'CRANK'?

19273 Duralast would be correct.