I will get the tester out and see what I can find....

 

so I am testing the voltage.....when I turn the key to the run position I have nothing at the coil. I also have nothing at the solenoid. Should I getting voltage at the solenoid with the car in the run position? If so where should I test for voltage at on the solenoid?

 

can anyone help me out some more?

so I am testing the voltage.....when I turn the key to the run position I have nothing at the coil. I also have nothing at the solenoid. Should I getting voltage at the solenoid with the car in the run position? If so where should I test for voltage at on the solenoid?

thanks

 

You should only have voltage at the solenoid (the output terminal to the starter or the starter switch leads with the small wires on them) when holding the key in start. You should have voltage at the coil (one side anyway) when the ignition switch is in run (12V when starting, less when running). If you don't, you probably have a bad resistor (as JMD said above) or a bad ignition switch.

 

No, the wire from the solenoid to the coil will only be "live" when the starter is turning the engine over.

For sure you have an "open" circuit between the ignition switch and the coil.

You can run a "very temporary" jumper wire from the battery to the + side of the coil for a tast start to verify this, with the jumper in place your car will start.

An open circuit of this manner will probably be either a bad switch or a wire that is broken inside of the insulation very near the ends of the wire where vibration is amplified.

I think a part of the wire that goes from the switch to the coil is a "resistor wire", but as far as I know they may have moved to a more standard ballast resistor for your model year, but IDK.



The pic is a ballast resistor, look for one of these in the circuit to be sure, if you don't find one then you may need the resistor wire (if it is damaged).

 

JMD, I appriciate all this help.... I do have the "resistor wire" and not the ballast resistor. The only place I can really see it is where it plugs into my tach. With my key in the run position, I checked and I have voltage to the plug for the tach and the resistor wire side. The Tach plug has the resistor wire and the red and green wire that matches the one going to the coil. Let me ask you this.... I have the whole dash out right now.... I dont have the have the tach plugged in....Do I have to have the tach plugged in to complete the curcuit?

 

You have got me on that one, sadly, my experience with tach's does not include the Ford style + wired tachometers, I cant imagine that the tach would need to be connected for the car to start, but sometimes Ford did have a few "Better Ideas" LOL.

Someone here knows the answer to that question....

 

thanks to everyone for their help...I got it running. I was the Tach! The Tach needs to be hooked up to complete the curcuit from the resistor wire to the coil.

 

First, great job on fixing the problem, second thanks for letting people know. How many threads end without resolution? Too many when you are looking for a solution and searching the forum.