Okay, I got the car together, have drove it around the block. Started many times.

I was adjusting the idle speed, had the car in drive, told my helper to put it in park and shut it off, she could not get the shifter to move. She shut the car off, then I was able to get the shifter into park.

I tried to restart the car, it kicked over once, then nothing. YOu can turn the key forward, gets power, light come on, etc.. but when you move it to start it goes dead.

I have checked the fuseable links at the starter, all good. You can cross the solinoid and it will start. I checked the main yellow wire in the under dash harness, and it gets no volts when turning the key.

I got a new ignition switch and pluged it in, and it did not help (did not unbolt the old one, and bolt the new one on)

The weird thing is everything still works, except the remote hatch popper in the console. It worked before.

Maybe the neutral safety switch? IS there a way, I can jump wires on it to bypass it to see if it is the problem?


BTW, car is and 88

 

Tried the NSS, did not fix it.


If I pluged in the new ignition switch, but did not bolt it to the column, would it work? I am thinking it might be self grounding?

 

HELP!

 

The switch mounted on the shifter, Has purple and yellow wires for the Neutral start switch, Black/white and orange/black for the park switch. also check your back up lamps dark blue and light green wires. all on the same switch unit. the safety swich for tail release live there aswell on the parking brake lever thinner orange and yellow wires.. Maybe the connector plug is loose or the switch has moved out of line.
Hope this is usefull.

 

Could be a stupid question but did you check your fuses?

 

Hello Johnny,
I see that you mentioned that the shifter would not go into Park, did it go into neutral and reverse from drive or was it stuck in drive? Have you looked at the transmission cable where it hooks to the transmission? BTW, if the car still thinks it is in gear it won't start unless you jump it at the starter and the hatch release won't work either due to a built in safety feature.

 

The car is in park now. I checked fuses. Tried jumping the wires at the nss, yellow and purple, did not change anything.

 

I will pull the centre console on mine and check how the switch is affected by the position of the shifter. You may have to jump the neutral switch at the same time. cant do it just yet, its pouring with rain here in the UK. will get back as soon as possible.

 

The neutral switch is held in place by two 7/32" bolts and is adjustable. Lilke mentioned before, if the P/N switch looks good check out the cable at the transmission.

 

I have unplugged the connector on the shifter, shorted the thick purple an yellow wires. she started, remove the short and no start.this would eliminate the saftey switch. Might be worth double checking fuses and relays. On the start/ign switch on the steering colomb, try shorting the yellow wire with thick red wire. if it turns over your switch could need adjusting. you tried another switch....the last position for starting is hard to push compared to the other positions.
Also as Trickster says, check the cables from the shifter to the trans and columb