So when I turn on my headlights or running lights at idle, the engine drops about 300 rpms and if the car is in gear it will bog down and shut off. I'm assuming its because an ignition wire is touching a lights wire somewhere, which is possible because I know the previous owner did a lot of cutting and whatnot in the wiring harness but it doesn't look too bad. Also the security thing on the key (that little piece of metal) is bypassed because it was causing starting issues, so idk if that could be the problem. I know there is a pink wire that runs from the coil into the firewall near the fusebox and the lights wires go in that direction too, I thought that might be where they were touching. Also, the relay on my fan is wired to turn on from a ignition hot spot in the fusebox, so it turns on when the ignition is on, but when the car is off and I turn the lights on, the fan will come on, but when the car is running and I turn the lights on, the fan shuts off. Does anyone have any idea on whats going on? Thanks

 

Hehe, you seem to have some hours of restorative work ahead of you.. Fixing hackjobs is not easy to do, nor to explain.. The VATS should not be the cause of your problems at the moment, but I'm not quite able to guess what might have been done otherwise, exept that the relay's ground is obviously not really ground. Measure the voltage on the supply wires to the ignition to see if it's affected much by turning on lights. The engine shouldn't be that weak in itself, but maybe the ignition suffers.

 

Ok I'll do that tomorrow. If its any help when I turn on the lights when the car is running the voltage jumps from about 11 where it usually is to like 16. And also I know the car has enough power to run the lights because I can have had every other electrical thing running in the car other than the headlights and it ran run fine.

 

Get a repair manual with a wiring diagram and start checking. Would check headlight circuit and see if it is shorted to ground. Surprised that you aren't blowing fuses.

 

Ok, so I just tested the wire running from the top of the coil and it was a little more than 11 and when i turned on the lights it didn't change. But when I put the coil wire back on and tried to start the car it started but was sputtering and now it wont start, like it isn't getting any spark at all. I checked the connection thinking I didn't put it on right or the plug wasn't sitting right, but it is, and the the prongs in there aren't corroded or anything. Is there something the multimeter did to the car thats making it not start or what?

 

I just remembered that the day before I checked the coil I dropped something behind the distributor and I spent about 5 minutes trying to find it while moving my hand back there, could i have done something or unplugged something, making it not start?

 

Possible - but not Probable.

It can't hurt to spend another 5 minutes just looking over the connections at the distributor / coil to be sure they are OK. While your back there get a 10mm socket and tighten up the body-to-engine Ground strap to be sure there is good contact !! I very much doubt the wiring grounds on the back of the pass head were effected while you were digging your hand around over there !

Also check the battery terminal connections as well as the Battery-to-body ground wire.

 

Just a few minutes ago i was in there looking everything over and is this passenger side ground that your talking about, does it have like 3 prongs and it looks like the center prong connects to another piece of metal about a half inch wide. I noticed that they weren't connected and connected them and it still wouldn't start.