pwnm30rdi3

So I just bought a 1983 Mustang, I trailered it home and it wont start.

So I started with the obvious, I replaced the battery with a fully charged optima battery I had. Still no luck.
I replaced the starter solenoid and wires going to the solenoid and the ground strap. Still no luck.
I then tried to arc the starter solenoid to get it to turn over. Sure enough, the engine turned over for 30+ seconds with no start. I pulled a spark plug out to see how much compression I had and to see if the spark plug was sparking.
No spark... but lots of compression!

The guy I bought it from thinks he kicked something under the dash and that's why it's not working?

So, I then pulled the kick panel off and pulled the panel below the steering column off. I saw some sort of kill switch. So I took it out and just wired the two leads together to bypass it, that didn't seem to solve my problem! I then tore apart the steering column to find 5-6 wires that looked to be spliced together. All the wires that were spliced together seemed to be in decent shape.


A short white wire was detached from the black box that I think belonged in the kick panel but was just hanging from the bottom of the dash. I attempted to put the white wire back into the connector on the black box. It didn't seem to help...
I've got no clue what to do...

Any Ideas? I've gotta have this thing running!

TrimDrip

I would look at replacing the ignition switch myself.

enix187

meet your new friend

http://sbftech.com/index.php?topic=588.0

pwnm30rdi3

This doesn't apply to me, I have a carburated engine. Anything before 1985 was carburated and not EFI!

3stangs

This happen to me once. It was the little white ignition switch box mounted to the bottom of the key switch. good luck!

pwnm30rdi3

There's a black box with 2 or 3 large connectors comming out of it hangin from my dash by the clutch. It's maybe 5x2x1"... It looks factory, what is this?

mjr46

take a pic of it and post it

enix187

alright then, I'll pull one from the box of common sense, have you used a test light/ multimeter to test and see if when someone turns the key if the signal is reaching the solenoid?

by the way, a good part of that tech doesn't even require the car to be a ford, much less fuel injected, there should be power going to various ignition components just because the key it turned to "ON"

pwnm30rdi3

Okay, I replaced the ignition switch and ignition control module. It's still not cranking over.
I'm just going to re-wire the ignition wires because a few wires are all over the place!


So I figured this looked about right:


So let me get this right, I need to run a 1 wire from the ignition switch to the starter solenoid? Then another wire from the starter solenoid to the ignition switch? Do I need a fuse in this wire?

Once I get these two wires ran, I think this will solve my problem!
Anything else I need to rewire in the process?

enix187

It sounds like you've blown a fuse link man, take the harness in the engine apart and start probing wires with a test light until you find one that doesn't get power, there's probably 5 inline fuse links inbetween the ignition switch and starter relay that could be blown. I know because I've blown at least three of them.