I just bought my 4th camaro this past week and it has lots of electrical issues! Please help! It's a 305 that was fuel injected and previous owner carbureted it. It has a hei, something is wrong with the key cylinder so they wired up a push start button. Problems are that none of the guages work, but the lights do. Turns signals don't work nor does the brake lights. Headlights work and parking lights work. For some reason they wired the fuel pump up to a toggle switch. Car runs great, I hate wiring! Please just any thoughts or ideas are much appreciated! I've checked all fuses, I think that the previous owner really didn't know what they was doing and just wired stuff up.

 

I have the dash harness out of my car right now and am currently working on taping it back up. I also have a 91 RS so we should have the same harness.

Does it look like they hacked anything up underneath the dash? Maybe cut some wires going in/out of the fuse block?

If you can find evidence of tampering anywhere in the dash harness i could try to send pictures of what it should look like to see if that helps you.

 

Thanks for the reply! Nothing really looks tampered with except what they have wired up ( push start button). But, there are three pugs under the dash that are not plugged up. I cant figure out where they go. I'll upload a few pics when I get home. I pulled the fuse box down and everything seems to be hooked up, no cut wires or anything. Thanks for the help! I'll upload pictures

 

I just rememberd something, I fell kinda dumb now. When I got the car I remember looking at the fuse box and seeing two wires coming from where a fuse is to another fuse, I pulled them out. But nothing worked with them there anyway? Idk.

 

When i got my car 8+ years ago i was in the same boat actually. They swapped the 305tbi for a carburetored engine. They pulled the original gauges and put a piece of sheet metal in its place with aftermarket gauges. They also put a push button start in the dash.

Our Speedometer and tach are electronic, so they may depend on the PCM(Someone else could probably confirm). Oil pressure and temperature are probably the same way. If that's the case the original gauges won't work if those sensors aren't there.

In my case the engine was swapped so none of the original sensors were probably used. If the tbi motor is converted to carb, but the sensors are left connected i wonder if the gauges could still work?

 

How you are supposed to do it with a carb swap

You always use the gauge sensors that go with the car ( dash ) not the sensors that go with the engine ( if the are different )

 

Shade tree quicky way of doing the carb swap
Many newbie owners on here intend doing the same until they are told the correct way

Maybe not.
Push button start is way cool ( Japanese car owner mod ) Many newbies on here inquiring how to do it
Start by checking the Ign switch mounted at the base of the steering column
PO may have just bypassed the starter circuit and run the wires to the push button so all you have to do
is remove the button and hook the wires up correctly

Are the sensors ( temp / OP ) installed in the engine?
Do they have wires connected to then ?
What happens if you disconnect a wire and ground it on the block? ( if gauge is working it should max out )

 

Tacho signal is direct from the coil
OP and temp direct from their individual sender units in the engine
Speedo signal is from the ECM only in 90 - 92 TPI cars

 

like i said im not the cool kid that wired up a push start button and the newbie that wired a toggle to the fuel pump! im just trying to figure out the previous owners mess, thanks.

here is the wires that i found unplugged and im not sure where the go. help is very appreciated!

 

and this one

 

They have the push start wired the the starter, battery, and then to the HEI. That's the reason I was thinking maybe there was something up with the key cylinder. Maybe since its like that, it's bypassing my gauges from working? Idk I'm not good with wiring and really can't tell what I'm looking at when I look at a wiring diagram. Besides that turn signals and brake lights don't work. Anything mechanical I'm fine but when it comes to wiring....... It's a different story

 

1st pic

Large 2 pin connector is IGN power to the coil and tach output to the gauge

Small 4 pin connector is to the IGN module in the distributor base

2nd pic

Power to aux components you car isnt equipped with. Unplugged from the factory

3rd pic

Fog light relay socket. Car not equipped with foglights, not relay provided

4th pic

VATS, bypass resistor attempted to be installed

 

Ok awesome. Thanks for the reply! I just have to figure out why when I turn the key I don't get power to anything, fuel pump doesn't even cut on so po has it wired to a toggle switch

 

I had a 92 camaro a few years back that the vats messed up in and wouldn't do anything at all except all lights worked. Maybe that's what happened to this one and the po bypassed it by putting in a push start and toggle to fuel pump???? Any other ideas or suggestions? But would that cause all the gauges to not work? Thanks for the help!

 

I don't know if this helps you. But my key is showing no resistance on the mult-meter. So I think the vatts resistor is bad or somthing. In my case all lights work, fuel pump comes on, and my dash lights aren't coming on. No cranking either

 

I would test the resistor on the key, also maybe the fuel pump is wired to a toggle to prevent the car from being stolen since it's push button. Also I see in the pic the other end of the resistor isin't plugged in. probly vats problem.... try reconnecting the resistor... and starting it... (Im not sure what that what do... so use caution)

 

Yeah I checked the resistor on the key and tried to bypass with new ones equal to the key, but it did nothing :/. I think the po tried to do the same thing and couldn't figure it out either. My 92 I had did the same thing that yours is doing! I ended up taking to a garage because I hate wiring. It costed me 300$ for them to fix it, he reflashed the computer and did something else. I'm just trying to figure out this one cause I don't have the money to take it to a garage, I no nothing about wiring so I'm learning I guess lol. Thanks for the reply!!

 

Me either man. I hear ya on this. I hope you find a solution that doesn't break the bank! np man. also have u tryed starting the car from the starter and seeing how long it runs..

 

Dang, I didn't think of trying from the starter. I was under it last night to make sure it was hooked up right. I'll give that a shot tomorrow night and let you know what happens. Thanks for the help!