I am trying to trouble shoot a "no start" condition on my 2.8v6 89 Camaro. First a little background...Last weekend, I changed my fuel injectors, and added a MSD Streetfire coil. The car started and ran better then it had in a long time. I drove the car to work on Tuesday, and again the car ran fine. I went to start the car after work, and when I turned the key, I got like half a turn over and heard a pop. When I opened the hood, I could smell and odd aroma. I noted immediately that I have power to my "Always Hot" acessories such as headlights, int lights, and radio clock, but have no power to any "Hot in Run" accessories such as the radio or blower. Immediately I thought ignition switch. I did a search here, and after reading several threads, this idea was pretty well cemented in my mind.

Today, I lowered the steering column, and began checking the ignition switch. What I found was that neither of the red wires that should have had hot had power. I checked the continuity at the switch. I have good continuity from the hot terminal to the terminal for the pink wire going to the ignition coil when in run and start, and good continuity from hot to the terminal for the yellow wire that goes to the starter relay in start.

From this I figure that the problem was not the switch, but with the wiring from the battery to the switch. I checked, and from the battery to the junction box on the radiator support I have 12.57 volts. There is a fusible link and then the red wire that eventually goes to the switch. On a hunch, I have changed the fusible link, and put it back together. I still don't have power to anything that is ignition controlled.

Does anyone have an idea where I should look next? I'm at a loss????

 

ok, so apparently it was not the switch at all. After changing the fusible link did nothing for me , I decided to run a new wire from the junction to the ignition switch. I used 14 ga wire, which turned out to be a couple sizes smaller then the factory wire. I spliced it in just befor the switch, and viola! my car started right up. Obviously the problem was an open circut somewehere between the junction and the steering column. As the new wire is run along the factory routing only until the pass side firewall, then takes a pass side route intothe car's interior, should I be ok leaving the factory harness as is, or should I still try to hunt down the bad wire section.

I suspect it is in the section of harness that runs behind the distributer, and over the top of the bell housing, as this seems to be where the circut splits for "run" and "acc," but that is rather inaccessible for testing. Let me know what ya'll think.

 

Good job troubleshooting.
However, you should have used a thicker wire because 14 gauge is not big enough for the load that's put on it.

So if it wasn't the fusible links, you could follow the red wire(s) in the harness to find the break. There should be no splices at all so if there's a break, it must be from physical damage (pinched or torn wire). It would be better to replace the original wire than running a bypass.

Lou