Im trying to get my clutch switch wired up on my 87 camaro but its not working. I hooked one up and it did nothing. The car wouldnt start. I then put it on an ohm meter and there was no change in resistance. I then tried another switch on the ohmeter and it did the same thing. I didnt try it on the car tho.

Do i have to power the switch or something? I got both switches from the junkyard. I guess theres a possibility theyre both bad but before I went out and bought a new one I wanted to ask and see if im doing anything wrong.
Any thoughts?

 

The clutch safety switch works just like a light switch. It's on or it's off.
There should be a yellow in and purple out. The ignition comes in the switch on the yellow wire, the clutch pedal is pressed 'turning the switch on' and connects to the purple wire which leads to the starter. The switch has to be pressed at least 95% (clutch nearly to the floor) of the way to close (at least on both my cars).

 

Just measureing resistance will work for those switchs. The fact that they dont flow current(have very hight resistance) in either position means theyre bad.

 

The switch does not give any resistance when an ohmeter is connected to it. The resistance does not change at all when I push the switch completely in each direction. Both switches that I have do this. Im really stumped.
Can anyone help me out?

 

If theres no resistance in either position the car should start no problem weather the clutch is pushed in or not.

 

Thats what i thought but it wont start, I'm kinda stumped. Is there anything else I can do? or should i just go buy a new switch?

 

Let me get this straight, I am confused. When you use an ohm meter, you set it to ohms, connect both leads and the meter will go from no reading to 1 or something like that. Then you connect the meter to the switch. Without depressing the swith, the reading will be nothing, when you depress the swith, the reading will jump to whatever the ohm setting is. Basically the reading will jump when the switch is depressed. If you see no movement, the switch is bad. As you can tell, I'm don't know crap about the correct way to use a volt meter but I get the job done.

 

Well yea, i think youre right on the ohm meter part if i understand what youre saying but anyway, this is what happens.

When i connect the ohm meter it reads nothing and when the clutch is depressed, it still reads nothing. Im guessing the switch is bad. Anyone else thing so or have any other ideas?

I have 2 switches and they both do the same thing so Im hoping if i buy a new one it doesnt do the same thing. I geuss i could always take it back if it did....

 

What exactly do you mean by reading nothing? I thought youve been reading 0 resistance. But if your getting no reading you probably have really high resistance in both positions which means you would need a new switch.