92 Vin E Auto car. Now LS/6speed. I connected the Yellow and Green wires to bypass the starter relay, as well as the Dark Green and Purple wires to bypass the gear selector switch. So now the ignition switch is basically hard wired straight to the purple wire going to the starter solenoid ie. no VATS

The car starts fine, however.. It will only crank over 3-4 times and stop when the key is set to crank, this is usually plenty but if I accidentally stall it out and flood it or something I might have to repeat this procedure 4-5 times before it will crank.

I have had the starter off the car and tested and it will continually spin when given power. The only thing I can think is the that the key switch is just a momentary "ON" signal which in coordination with the relay will keep it engaged until the key is just put back to run? Is this correct, do I need to wire the relay back up and ground the VATS wire?

Which yellow and green wires? There are two sets at the relay. Should be jumping the larger 12 gauge YEL wire to the 12 gauge DK GRN/WHT wire. The other two smaller 16 gauge yellow and green wires are left alone.

The key switch is just a mechanical switch that stays in whatever position you put it in. No special routine there. The actual electrical switch is on the steering column and is actuated by a rod that is thrown by the key switch. That electrical switch can wear or get out of adjustment. If it did, then I would expect intermittent cranking, not so much timed cranking.

Yes both the 12g wires are jumped to each other. I left the other two alone, they are still plugged into the relay I believe. I don't see how that could hurt as that is now bypassed, but maybe need to unplug the relay or ground the wire going to the VATS box??

No issues with intermittent cranking, but definitely getting a timed crank for some reason.


While I have your ear, any thoughts on the temp gauge being off? I'm running the 3 pin sensor with one pin going straight to the C100. Temp never shows over 165 on my gauge, though I'm sure it has to get hotter. Do I need to wire in a resistor or something?

Just ironing out the last few quirks.. hopefully

Edit - Looks like the other side of the relay goes to pin - R on the C207 which is not used, so even if it is passing ign power over it can't do anything.

You definitely hardwired around the start relay. I assume it is a really good joint you made?

I would unplug the start relay and measure voltage at the 12 gauge wire during the crank cycle until the starter drops out. If there is still voltage on that wire then you know the cranking circuit opened up somewhere downstream of the relay. If voltage goes low then you know the problem is upstream of the relay (probably the ignition switch on the column).

I have a clutch switch and am not familiar with auto trans neutral lockout so won't comment on that.

Are you saying the temp reading in the EFI software is always below 165F or are you only noticing the gauge in the dash reads low?

The gauge in the dash is not precise. It is just good enough to feel good/bad about what you see while driving. My gauge reads low too. The values in my EFI software read higher. My engine does run remarkably cool though even with a stock thermostat. Even the speed shop noticed because they told me it took a whole lot of dyno time to push temperature above 200F.

Yes everything is soldered good. I checked continuity on the solder joints already. The neutral lockout is basically the same, solder the two larger wires together.

I'll break out the multi-meter and start checking wires again


I haven't checked the computer, but I'm assuming mine is in the same boat as yours. Gauge reads low and computer reads accurate.

For instance if you use the 4th gen oil pressure switch it has the same resistance output but set up differently so if you use this with the stock gauge it reads low since the 4th gen oil gauge has a bigger range. I haven't been able to find the readings for resistance on the coolant temp switches, but probably the same. I'm guessing if I can plug in a thirdgen coolant switch in the other head for the gauge it will work correctly, but then that's more wires ect..