The po patched in an underhood start button. The car would start fine from there. But from inside the car it wont start. You can hear the solenoid click and all accessories work. I have replaced the ignition switch and it is properly adjusted but still nothing. If it was a grounding issue why would the push button start the car?

 

Have you tried bypassing the underhood switch?

 

the switch was just spliced in so i took it out. i am lost.

 

What wire do you have on the S terminal of the starter solenoid?

 

i will have to go out and check. what wire should be there?

 

Make sure everything is grounded properly, and make sure all wires are in great shape. I had a similar problem on a car due to old wiring that even though it looked good , it wasnt. Also make sure your battery cables are nice.

 

nothing is matching the wiring diagram. no purple wire etc. where is the fusible link on the starter? i can't find it. the wires on the solenoid have like a braided type cover on them. i have never been this stumped by a car before.

 

if your car is a 74 read this post

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...lp-please.html

it was new to me hope this helps.

Todd

 

You should have the braided cover there.It is like a insulator.
Work w/DWnnch above.He is one of the best mechanics on this forum when it comes to these cars,bud.he will get you there.

 

there are so many terminated wires in there, i am not sure what he has done. at this point i am thinking of just buying a new wiring harness for the engine.

 

Begin at the starter and follow the wires back to their roots. On a '74 you will have at least one wire to each terminal. Two wires to a positive post, IIRC. When a starter is wired backwards on a '74 (Points Iginition) it will not start. Positive 100% Will not! So this should be the first thing to check. Next clean the grounds. Couple of questions. Have you tried bypassing the solenoid? If so, what happened? Have you pulled the started and had it tested to see if it's still good? I can't help much but your answers will tell the others what is happening and they may have the right answers.

Roger (DWnnchs) will be able to help you get it sorted out when he comes back around. He helped me with a very similar problem a little over a year ago.

Blackfoot

 

the starter i would think has to be fine because it would start with the button under the hood.

 

Once you figure out what the button is actually doing, then you will know why the key ignition doesn't work. Least that's the terms I'm thinking about it in. Wanna keep that button there or move it to the passenger compartment? (Joke)

The wires to the button, are they ground wires or are they hot wires? Edit: Where do all the wires start and end at for this button?

Since you say the starter is clicking then you can mark the neutral safety switch (If it's an Auto) and it's wiring off your list of culprits.

 

Track down which wire from the underhood button goes to the starter and see if it's the only wire attached to the small stud closest to the block. If it is, then the PO dropped the rest of the harness off for some reason. If there's another wire, track that one back to the harness and see if it's cut.

Another way would be to go to the clutch pedal (manual trans) or the console (auto) and look for the safety switch. My bet is that the safety switch died and the PO just bypassed it completely.

 

the neutral safety switch was unplugged. the button he had under the hood, one wire was patched into the red the other into the brown. i can't find a purple wire going to the solenoid.

 

it is a manual trans by the way. if it was the nss the solenoid wouldnt click right?

 

Tim, not sure how a clutch pedal safety switch works. I do know for a fact that if the there is a switch wired into the neutral safety switch on an auto and it's switched off and someone tries to start the car by the key everything will work except the starter. Course that's if everything is wired 'properly'. Besides you wouldn't need another switch if the old one died, you could just cross over the purple and purple and white wire. Which would have the effect of not having a neutral safety switch at all, like the even older cars.

Nomomopars, You are correct, if the switch had died you would loose all power to your starter. The fact that it clicks mean you have some power, just not enough to turn the starter.

Edit: I just saw this, "the neutral safety switch was unplugged. the button he had under the hood, one wire was patched into the red the other into the brown. i can't find a purple wire going to the solenoid." Only thing I can tell you is to get out a wiring diagram and start going over the wires from the ignition switch to the starter. Sounds like the PO had a problem and went with an easy fix over the proper fix. Best of advice is to go get the right gauge wires and replace the sections that are missing/routed wrong and give her another try.

Hopefully the weekend crowd will be able to help you out more, I'm off to work. I'll check back on Tuesday.

Blackfoot

 

Just a thought. I don't know anthing about the 74 but we had to replace the engine harness and the starter harness on an 80 because a couple of wires shorted out. A big hit in our budget since I just lost my job. When I took the old engine harness off the car there was a place in the plastic protective covering straight below where it was going in the firewall that was rubbed almost into the wires. You could not have seen it without it coming completely off the car. It looked like it was melted. Even though I could have replaced the two wires in the harness that shorted, I would have still had a bunch of 28 year old wires that would be in question. For around $400 bucks you can replace the engine harness and the starter harness. Do not take the old harness off until you are ready to connect the new one back on. If you do this you will save yourself a lot of misery and time.Oh, and you will need someone with little hands that don't mind getting their hands filthy to help you. The new harness from Ecklers/lectriclimited will be the just like the factory last made them. The people at lectriclimited( where they actually come from) will tell you what each wire connects to if you have already disconnected it and have questions when you go to hook up the new one. Take pictures of everything you unhook and use a laptop to look at the pictures while you are reconnecting everything. I am still looking for someone with little hands that don't gripe at me the entire time they are helping. If you ask your wife or girlfriend you will need earplugs for yourself. The older guys understand.

 

Thanks to vettesbydesign and 74Blackfoot for the vote of confidence.

nomomopars...These 74 systems with the seat belt interlock are a real pain to diagnose if your not used to the way the system works but in your case with the wiring being altered from factory it might be best to temporarily bypass the seatbelt interlock system to get you back on the road.You can always reattach the interlock later if you want the system to work like it was intended.

Do yourself a big favor and buy a wiring diagram set from Doc Rebuild for your 74 it will make your life much easier while working on the wiring.These diagrams are like none other,seriously I'm considering framing mine and hanging them on my wall.

You said earlier you can hear clicking when you turn the key to start,I'm guessing that is "not" the starter solenoid but is the interlock relay.Cargo247 posted a thread link that shows a pic of the relay mounted to the firewall with the little button it.
Do you have this relay still on your car?
Also what do you have to work with in the way of tools-hopefully a 12v testlight or voltmeter?
Look at the starter solenoid and tell me what wires you have going to the small terminals on the solenoid.Especially the small terminal closest to the block term "S".

Just for a quicky guess here is something you can try until you answer the questions.
Put the 2 wire connector back on the clutch switch(neutral safety switch) and note the color of the 2 wires-should be purple with a white stripe and a green with a black stripe.
Next pull off the interlock relay that was in the pic posted by Cargo exposing an orange connector with 4 wires in it - look for the purple wire and the green w black stripe wires-now put a jumper between the 2 wires.
Now try to start the engine while pushing in on the clutch.(we will worry about your stuck in reverse issue after we get the engine to crank)
If your lucky this will get your engine started but if it doesnt and you get me some wire color info we'll get you going soon.
Wiring issues-fun fun fun.

 

just went outside to jump the wires the orange connector has the green with black stripe, but loooks like no purple wire. i think the wire is black. there appears to be another relay beside it on the passenger side that has a heavy gauge purple wire. the orange connector does not appeared to have been tampered with either. ahhhhh!