thomasv

i have a 1986 corvette that i bought from a friend. the car sat for a year by a gas station.the guy did not want to fix it the station said it needed a fuel pump and the code had to be cleared. i replaced the fuel pump and the car does not start and the security lamp is on.how do i clear the lamp. this car does not have the chip in the key it was bypassed years ago and it ran until a year ago.

billschroeder5842

I'd start with double checking the fix from a few years ago.

I got a "security" warning light, with no engine turn over and the VATS was suspect. I ordered a VATS pigtail repair that matched my key code and found the the VATS was "repaired" some time in the past.

The old repair was a soldered "daisy chain" of resistors (which was common for the day) that was plugged into the harness wrapped in electrical tape. When I took the old repair out, I found that the soldered connection (super thin) had broken. I popped in my new--professionally made-- VATS pig tail and have had no issues since.

thomasv

is there a way to clear the security lamp (code )

billschroeder5842

Yes. Replace the VATS pigtail.

This is not so much a code as an indicator light. When your light is off your security is off and you can start your car.

Cliff Harris

In 1986 the SECURITY light is controlled by the TDS (Theft Deterrent System). TDS is the one that honks the horn if the door is opened while it's armed. It has NOTHING to do with VATS or the starter.

You can clear the SECURITY light with one of two methods:

1) Turn on the ignition.
2) Close the door.

thomasv

is the vats pig tail put on by the steering colum? if so i though it had a broken wire reconnected the wire and tried to start the vehicle but it wanted to start and then guit and the security lamp flashed on and off so i still have a no start cond. on the pig tail there was only one little blue box with two wires coming out of it and it has a screw at one end.how do i turn off the security lamp

Cliff Harris

Some time in the '90s (I don't know what year), the SECURITY light function was changed to indicate VATS status. I assume the TDS and VATS functions were combined.

It sounds like your "little blue box" has an adjustment to "tune" it for the particular application. Without specific instructions, there is no way to use that function. I guess we can assume that it was set up correctly when it was installed. Given that, it seems you have a wiring issue. The whole car was basically redesigned in 1990, so I don't have any specific suggestions for later year cars. You need a wiring diagram for your car. The VATS key pellet wiring looks like this:

hcbph

Cliff

A little typo there, if I'm seeing that right. For others benefit, the orange wire coming out of the column is connected to the ignition cylinder. That's where the key with the resistor value comes from. The other half from the connector goes to the vats system in the dash. Just noting in case someone was looking for the resistor, they're not going to see it in that picture. If you put a purchased bypass on, you pull apart that connector and connect the bypass (with the correct resistor value) to the part that goes into the dash.

I will say IIRC mine doesn't have the wrap on it coming out of the column and I think one of the wires was actually orange, but then again it's been some time since I was under there.

No offense intended, just trying to avoid confusion. By the way, good picture. My back doesn't handle crawling under there too often.

billschroeder5842

You are on target. My 89 had the orange wire from the column. I disconnected the wires and put my pigtail in and *presto* the engine starts!