car will not start with the key

[halle09]

i made a thread before but i decided to do a new one to clear things up. my 73 cuda 4 speed will not start. in the START position all ignition power to coil dies so to start it i have to jump the relay in the RUN position i looked at the bulk head connection on #23 and #22 thinking it was those two wires and put dielectric grease on all on that bulkhead connection but no luck. i also put a all new weather-pak connector in as the ignition switch plug in thinking that was it and NO luck i was extremely pissed off at this point. worked on it all day looking at diagrams and no luck at all if anyone can give me what wire i need to chase out to check it would be great. and the car sometimes does start with the key as normal and most of the time it doesnt leading me to believe its a loose connection somewhere.(I have a new ignition switch in it i just put in 2 months ago btw) i just dont know where to look at this point i am extremely frustrated that i cant even start my car after all this work ive done.  please help me!!!!!

[Chryco Psycho]

the ign switch should have power at the blue wire in run & the brown wire in start , these both end up at the ballast resister , blue at one end & brown at the other , brown feeds directly to the coil providing 12v while starting then when the ign is released back to run power should go through the ballast dropping the voltage to approx. 8 v

[AARTA340]

Have had similar problems with two vehicles in the past. In both cases it was the actual ignition switch that is activated by the key was the problem. By turning the key to the extreme start position actually after time went past the contact point that connected the ignition circuit. I got past this problem until I changed the switch by not turning the key to the extreme. I only turned the key until it engaged the starter and it fired every time. As soon as I would turn it to the extreme, same old thing, no start.

A quick way to tell if it is the switch giving you the problems, is to connect a good one to the firewall and attempt to start it with the original still in the column, but  unplugged. It is real easy unplugging the old one from the firewall and just plug in a new one for diagnosis.


Hope this helps.

[halle09]

just figured it out. i did a gm ignition conversion and i guess i had to replace back on the ign + and Neg- from the original harness even tho i ran a relay from the batt. but i cant seem to explain why it started sometimes and not others with them disconnected....all well. it fires as soon as i touch the key now and im getting 14v constant at the coil so all good.

[Strawdawg]

strange, it should have run as long as the relay was switched and sending voltage to the coil....


But, I had something similar.  I bought a Challenger that had had a fire under the dash at the ammeter plus it had some rat damage.  Having problems accepting ballast resistors on any car today, I switched to the HEI as I consider it to be an improvement over the Mopar box that needs the ballast resistor.

I hot wired the HEI with a relay from the battery and triggered it off the original blue and brown wires.  Seemed to work fine but at times the car was hard to start and had to be cranked a bit.  Plugs were firing and I could not find a problem.  I considered esoteric items such as the starter pulling excessive current and  depriving the HEI of voltage while cranking, etc.

Last year, I decided to replace the dash with a set of Autometer gauges and while I was at it, I cut the blue and brown wires under the dash where they come out of the column, tied them together and ran a wire thru the firewall to a terminal block.  I then tied in all wiring under the hood that I wanted to be igntion switched to the terminal block.

Car has fired instantly for the past year, hot or cold.  I have no clue why it made a difference.  I would blame it on the light duty/well aged bulkhead connector if I did not know the plugs were firing prior.  Whatever it is, I am much happier than I used to be.   I just hate fixing things and not knowing why

[halle09]

strange, it should have run as long as the relay was switched and sending voltage to the coil....


But, I had something similar.  I bought a Challenger that had had a fire under the dash at the ammeter plus it had some rat damage.  Having problems accepting ballast resistors on any car today, I switched to the HEI as I consider it to be an improvement over the Mopar box that needs the ballast resistor.

I hot wired the HEI with a relay from the battery and triggered it off the original blue and brown wires.  Seemed to work fine but at times the car was hard to start and had to be cranked a bit.  Plugs were firing and I could not find a problem.  I considered esoteric items such as the starter pulling excessive current and  depriving the HEI of voltage while cranking, etc.

Last year, I decided to replace the dash with a set of Autometer gauges and while I was at it, I cut the blue and brown wires under the dash where they come out of the column, tied them together and ran a wire thru the firewall to a terminal block.  I then tied in all wiring under the hood that I wanted to be igntion switched to the terminal block.

Car has fired instantly for the past year, hot or cold.  I have no clue why it made a difference.  I would blame it on the light duty/well aged bulkhead connector if I did not know the plugs were firing prior.  Whatever it is, I am much happier than I used to be.   I just hate fixing things and not knowing why

yea i dont understand it but all well everything works perfect now i think im finally out of the woods on my ignition system