I have an 87 with a carbed 454. I'm at that point of the swap where you turn the key and see what happens and well...nothing happens. The wire to the small post on the starter that excites it isn't getting any power when the key turns. I know being an 87 there's not VATS system. My main question would be does the ecu physically need to be present in order to crank? I bought this car as a shell, never had the ecu. I read a couple threads where people seemed to be suggesting it didn't need to be connected. If it does, I can acquire one, if not, where do I start?

 

U need to find a mechanic who can wire the car old school. U do not need an ecm for an old engine like that.

 

There should be a 10 gauge purple wire coming from the interior of the car to the starter. It has to go through a neutral safety switch 9on the shifter) also unless that has been bypassed. If it was a 5 speed car then there was a clutch pedal switch instead.
Look under the dash at the ignition switch on top of the column for that purple wire and start tracing.
Yeah, lots of fun upside down under a dash, I know!

 

Look at the lower right hand side of this wiring diagram. You will see that your ignition switch has two fat red wires going to it, fed by the fusible link labeled "rust". Start by checking those two wires for +12V. If it's there, turn the key to the start position and see if you've got power on the fat yellow wire. If it's good there, go to the neutral safety switch (automatic) or clutch pedal switch (manual) and check again, if it's got power at the yellow(with the key in the start position, of course). If yes, check the fat purple wire coming from the safety switch, if it's good there you've got a connection problem between there and the starter's "S" terminal. The purple goes through the "C100" connector on the firewall, your issue could be there. The voltage checks at the places I described will steer you to where the power is, and isn't. Last comment, as per the wiring diagram your starter circuit is in no way involved with the (now removed) ECM, so this should be fairly easy to diagnose.......

 

Hi Michael, not to pic nits here, but he will never find the purple wire connected to the ignition switch, because the crank power leaves the ignition switch on a Yellow wire, the wire isn't purple until after the neutral switch (auto) or clutch pedal switch (manual) as per the wiring diagram I have enclosed in my post above ......

 

Well pretty silly solution. But as it turns out the Neutral switch wire harness was not completely pushed in...

 

Thank you PDXSwap for posting your resolution to the problem, SO many people get the answer they need and never post their findings, it's nice to know where your problem was (your info may help some future reader of this thread)....

 

Of course! I've read far too many threads where people don't. I'm always sure to leave my solutions on any site