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I tried to help, post 16 – I always try to diagnose as best as possible before just swapping in parts. Now you have added the chance for other things to complicate the problem. It is not uncommon for today’s replacement parts to be bad or not as robust as those of old. Plus you have now been mucking around the under dash wires and it is possible something new has happened to the connections.
Here is how I would do it. Start at the part not working (starter), then work backwards through wiring, firewall connection, neutral safety/clutch switch, ignition, then supply to ignition.
It is hot, at least I get the coastal breeze being South of you.
Good Luck
Well, after much gnashing of teeth I figured it out. Best thing I did was go and buy a circuit tester (12v check light).
The problem?
Well it seems a PO redid the wiring to the starter at some point, so mine is a little non-standard. The wire going to the S terminal on the solenoid isn't purple, and as far as I can tell doesn't have a fusible link. On the other hand, the hot line running to the solenoid has two fusible links. This doesn't match the wiring diagrams, so I'm wondering if I should fix that at some point.
Ultimately, the problem is that someone put a connector in the line running to the S terminal, which I can only assume was there as a kind of ghetto disable switch. For whatever reason, this connector (shown below), didn't have continuity. Cleaning it out and reseating seems to have fixed the problem for now, but I'm not happy with the arrangement overall.
My 75 is pretty stock, other than I know the PO replaced the # matching engine (which I have in a crate) with a 78 block, Edlebrock perf rpm headers and straight 2.5" exhaust.
Not sure where the starter came from, or why they wouldn't have reused the existing harness, but as far as I can tell the fusible links are on the wrong line. Doesn't make sense to me, because the rest of the car has been immaculately maintained, so perhaps I'm missing something.
