When I started switching my car to 4 speed , I unhooked battery, and removed steering column. I added, a new positive battery cable, and added a quick connect for starter.... While column was out, I turned on ignition, and new starter cranked over! yea! I took purple wires, from neutral safety switch, and joined them together.. STARTER still worked.. While column was out, the headlights did not work.. The quick connect was carefully re-installed using small wire to small wire to coil, and med wire to med wire to ign and large wire to large wire to battery..Last night, I installed used steering column from Pariesienne with console, and pluged in the 2 wiring harnesses.. The headlights work, but car wont turn over.........
Yes Carl, I did join the purple wires together, and when the column was out the car wound turn over.. I installed the other column, and now it is totally dead at ign.. If I turn ign on the signals will blink... Is there a wire in the column harness that would be different ,in a 4 speed column, versus auto shift column? I will look in electrical diagram thanks so much
So if you can light a test light at the ignition switch (battery power i mean, key is off) and no terminal lights up when you hit crank, to me that means the switch is not working. Or is my thinking on this flawed???
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
sounds better, than my no idea at all I will try test light on switch tomorrow...The gas guage had turned upside down, while column was out,and went back to normal, while I was trying to start it ,and had held the ign switch on Thanks
Looking at a wiring manual for a 65 Impala (I suspect it's the same) it looks simple. Purple wire out of the ignition switch goes through the neutral safety switch to the starter. I would test at the safety switch for power in and out when hitting crank, assuming that you know the red into the ignition is live. If nothing at the safety switch, then check for power on the purple coming out of the ignition when hitting crank on the key. Should be pretty simple to nail down.
Oh, and if there is power leaving the safety switch but not making it to the starter, it looks like the only connection is the bulkhead connector at the firewall.
And of course if you have power live at the starter on the purple when you hit crank, then there is solenoid/starter trouble.
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
My Acadian had bulkhead issues when I drove it regularly in the 90's. My brother taught me years ago that those connections get "green" on the terminals in those connectors.
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
On a Chevy, the two wires to the starter are not terminal specific. On my '66 Grande the wires ARE terminal specific. Try swapping the position of the two.
On a Chevy, the two wires to the starter are not terminal specific. On my '66 Grande the wires ARE terminal specific. Try swapping the position of the two.
Do you mean the two smaller wires going to the solenoid on either side of the positive cable from the battery?
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
On a Chevy, the two wires to the starter are not terminal specific. On my '66 Grande the wires ARE terminal specific. Try swapping the position of the two.
Do you mean the two smaller wires going to the solenoid on either side of the positive cable from the battery?
Yes. On my '66 Impala it doesn't seem to make any difference but on my '66 Grande Parisienne it does. It stumped me for a long time because I had the Chevy for many, many years before I got the Pontiac and just assumed the circuits were the same on both cars. There are a lot of other small wiring changes between the two Canadian GM divisions. For example, Pontiac does not seem to have a lot of ground wires, they rely on common chassis ground for a lot of stuff that Chevy has a specific ground wire attached to the body for that component. Radio speaker connections springs to mind...
That doesn't make sense to me if I understand the circuits correctly.
One wire should be purple and I believe a 12 gauge wire. It should go to the inside terminal on the solenoid closest to the engine. It is live when the key is in crank. It makes the magnet pull in the solenoid that pulls the drive to the flywheel, and also makes a 12 volt connection for...............
The other one (forget the color) goes to the outside terminal and only gets power once the solenoid is engaged. It's sole purpose is to feed a full 12 volts to the coil during cranking. As soon as the key is released from crank, this wire goes dead and the coil gets 9 volts from a resistance wire.
For that reason, I think there is a problem if either wire works on either stud. Sounds like someone has done some rewiring.
And with that said, as always, I willingly stand correction if I am wrong on any of the above.
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars
That doesn't make sense to me if I understand the circuits correctly.
One wire should be purple and I believe a 12 gauge wire. It should go to the inside terminal on the solenoid closest to the engine. It is live when the key is in crank. It makes the magnet pull in the solenoid that pulls the drive to the flywheel, and also makes a 12 volt connection for...............
The other one (forget the color) goes to the outside terminal and only gets power once the solenoid is engaged. It's sole purpose is to feed a full 12 volts to the coil during cranking. As soon as the key is released from crank, this wire goes dead and the coil gets 9 volts from a resistance wire.
For that reason, I think there is a problem if either wire works on either stud. Sounds like someone has done some rewiring.
And with that said, as always, I willingly stand correction if I am wrong on any of the above.
Logically you are right. I'm just relating my personal observations from working on the two different cars. I'm just sayin' that the Chevy will run with any configuration but the Pontiac won't. Then again, that's probably why I kept frying starters in them old daze...
hmmm, I swapped a 6 cyl out for the current 327 in my 66. And at some point grabbed a better harness from a donar car (had V8). Sometime after I realized, I had 3 small wires that went to the starter???? Sometimes the starter doesn't crank, have to jump the big terminal to the inside small terminal with a screw driver, starts and runs. Been while, have to look at it again.
When my buddy got the car, it was a 6cyl, I'll have to check the VIN, back then I'm sure you could order it any way you wanted it, but I'm also sure they were all v8s. I got the 68 327 from the same buddy, out of his uncle 68 Pontiac wagon, it's a small journaled 327.When i was having it rebuilt, the guy wanted to know where I got it from, they don't see many small journaled 327. I think it might have been just 68 for that. Of course, since I had that motor rebuilt, it's changed a bit, found some 1.94 heads off another 68 wagon with the factory 4bbl and dist and heads, we took all those parts, sunk about $1800 into the heads (about 20 years ago). Hmmm, now it sounds like time to freshen that motor up....LOL Maybe I should get the car started first. Gary
Oh, my original thought was, solenoid has been replaced a few times, also replace the ignition switch twice looking for the problem. But it's a new century since the last time I worked on it, maybe this time I'll figure it out. Hmm, posting here will help to didn't have the internet when I was working on it before, this should be easier. Just need to keep a laptop and camera in the garage when i'm working now. Gary
Years ago my Acadian did an intermittent no start. I finally figured out it was low voltage at the solenoid crank wire but could never cure it using the factory harness. I mounted a remote solenoid down low on the inner fender near the starter and it worked flawlessly after that.
It must be either the old wire or a bad connection that makes it do that.
__________________
1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars