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Bought this thing for $200. One owner car, elderly lady owned it and lost the keys. Grandson took a drill and drilled out the lock cylinder enough to unlock the steering wheel so he could push it down behind her house. It's sat for about 15 years. Before I sink a bunch of money into a new lock cylinder and any needed steering column bits I'm wanting to see if I can get her to at least cough over. I drained the gas tank and added fresh fuel, and dropped the steering column to disconnect the ignition switch so I can manual cross wires to see if she'll fire off
Could use a little help
So far I've figured out:
Red (hot) to Yellow will engage the starter (and she turns over and sounds healthy which makes me excited)
Red (hot) to ????? will excite the ignition and let the plugs fire off?
Red (hot) to ????? will run the fuel pump?
Put it back together, remove the lock cylinder, turn the spud with needle nose pliers.
No need to get fancy. It'd take less time to pull the steering wheel and remove the lock plate to gain access to the torx screw that retains the lock cylinder than to drop the column and disconnect wires.
Put it back together, remove the lock cylinder, turn the spud with needle nose pliers.
No need to get fancy. It'd take less time to pull the steering wheel and remove the lock plate to gain access to the torx screw that retains the lock cylinder than to drop the column and disconnect wires.
Steering wheel puller won't be here for 4 more days, I'm stuck at home and bored which is why I'm asking how I can hotwire it. I have a new lock cylinder, steering wheel puller, lock plate tool, etc coming, I'm just itching to see if it'll fire over instead of staring at it in my yard for 4 days.
Trouble is you need to jump several wires that the ignition switch connects. People don't hotwire thirdgens, they break the column to force the rack the ignition lock turns.
I think this will work (it used to work in the old days) but it won't stay running. After sitting for 15 years, I doubt it'll run in it's current condition even if you had the key.
1. Plug in all the stuff you previously unplugged.
2. Remove the air ducting from the throttle body.
3. Run a jumper jumper wire from the positive battery terminal to where the pink wire plugs into the coil. You're feeding 12v to the coil primary winding, by-passing the ignition switch.
4. Make sure the transmission is in Park/Neutral.
5. Reach down to the starter and connect a remote starter switch or jumper the terminals with a screwdriver. This will crank the engine over.
6. While the engine cranks, have a helper shoot some starter fluid into the throttle body. If it's going to run, it should start and run as long as the shot of starting fluid lasts.
Last edited by paulo57509; Apr 21, 2020 at 04:17 AM.
I think this will work (it used to work in the old days) but it won't stay running. After sitting for 15 years, I doubt it'll run in it's current condition even if you had the key.
1. Plug in all the stuff you previously unplugged.
2. Remove the air ducting from the throttle body.
3. Run a jumper jumper wire from the positive battery terminal to where the pink wire plugs into the coil. You're feeding 12v to the coil primary winding, by-passing the ignition switch.
4. Make sure the transmission is in Park/Neutral.
5. Reach down to the starter and connect a remote starter switch or jumper the terminals with a screwdriver. This will crank the engine over.
6. While the engine cranks, have a helper shoot some starter fluid into the throttle body. If it's going to run, it should start and run as long as the shot of starting fluid lasts.
Awesome! Thank you so much for this! I'll set up my phone and record the result and post it here so you can get the satisfaction of knowing if it worked or not! I may add some power to the fuel pump switch too so that if the engine fires off of starting fluid, I can potentially get it to sit and idle under it's own power after the fuel lines prime. They're probably clogged with all sorts of 15 year old gas sludge, but you never know.
It's a fuel injected car. Without powering the computer, it's not going to run. That's why I suggested putting it back together and just turning the ignition lock like every tow yard and would-be car thief.
The fuel pump is going to be trashed. So if there's even a chance you will need to rig up a fuel can with a drop-in pump. The fuel tank isn't going to be any kind of good and the pump will be rotten. I've been through this twice with cars that have sat for 10+ years and in both cases they REQUIRED a replacement tank, pump, pickup, etc.
