ConfusedGarage

Hi,

I have a 1988 5spd 305 tpi car, that I converted to a t56 car. When I bought it the prev owner must have bypassed the clutch safety switch, cause you could start it with pressing the clutch in.

Now, it started occassionally, and now it never sends juice to the starter when I turn the key. All acc come on, and I ran a wire right from my pos terminal to starter when it acted ''dead", and it fired right up.

So I replaced the Ignition switch (kind of pissed I dropped the whole column for nothin), didnt help. Is there a good chance it is my clutch safety switch? How hard to replace.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

Easy to replace.

Unfortunately, people who do things like that, often just hack up the wiring; so there's no telling whether you could even still plug it in.

A MUCH smarter way to bypass that switch is to take a short piece of heavy gauge wire like #12, and put male slide terminals on it, and just plug that into the plug. But you know how "people" are, especially "previous owners"; every wire looks to them like it needs a pair of dykes. Seems like that's the only wiring tool most "people" have.

Look around in the wiring near the clutch pedal bracket for thick yellow and purple wires. If you're lucky, they still have the plug on the end, and you can just get a switch and plug them in. But don't be too surprised to see them just cut, stripped, and twisted together, maybe without even any tape. Typical hack stuff.

online170

sometimes starters fail from exposed heat, usually caused by headers. If your car is hot, shut it off for a few seconds, and try to start it. If it doesnt start, ull need a new starter assuming ofcourse, that it was able to start cold on its own.

Otherwise i think youre on the right track.

My saturn started doing this, the safety switch was wearing out, and i was able to start it sometimes by finding a sweet spot by depressing the clutch.

Just some tests you can do to save a bit of $$ instead of throwin parts at it.

ConfusedGarage

Thanks for the replies guys. Ive owned the car for 10 years, and it started doing this about 3yrs ago, so I set it aside.

Now I want to get back into her and not worry if its gonna start every time.

It isnt the starter cause like I said I ran a hot wire to it, and when I turn the key and get nothing but accessories, and I touch to wire to the pos term on the battery it fires right up. I will look into the wiring in the switch area.

Thanks so much! I miss driving this car!

online170

im pretty sure youre right, but a failing starter still will work when cold. But u eliminated that possibility by using the key. Hope it works out, i know the stress of not being sure if ur car is gonna start all to well.