Whats the black wire that comes off the steerring column and goes......? The one on my new column is cut and obviously not connected to/grounded to anything. What is this wire and could this wire being unconnected make my car not want to crank?

 

The main wires I know of are the VATS stuff and the cruise/turn signal/wiper signal. If it's the VATS, that'll certainly keep a car from not cranking. If you have one of those little black nuggets in your key, then you've got a vats system. I don't know much about the vats system, but I THINK that the vats cables are yellow... Someone back me up on that one.