Ok this is what has been going on. I swapped out motors in my 89, from 305tbi to 350tbi. I get it all put in and everything hooked up to the way it was before and turn the key and nothing at all. do it again and i can hear the starter spinning but not catching the flexplate(auto trans obv.) after trying a couple times i couldnt hear it spinning anymore. the old 305 is a 1980 2 piece rear main. this is a 1990 1 piece rear main so it had to have a different flexplate than the other.

So I pulled the starter and took it to have it tested since it wasnt doing anything anymore. To my surprise it was still working. but i had to put a shim on it. well i put it back on there and still ntn.

So i did some research and traced wires, all the fusible links leaving the starter still read 12.5v. which is what the battery is, traced the purple wire to the gear selector switch. wasnt sure if the switch was bad so i pull the purple and green with white stripe wires off and link them together to eliminate that possibility that the gear selector switch(neutral safety switch ) might be bad.

After doing so i turned the key again and what do you no, ntn again. did it again and the battery gauge dropped and the light inside the car dimmed. Then I started hearing a buzzing clicking sound that I thought was coming from under the hood.

A lil more research I found the source of the noise. The starter enable relay(anti theft relay or theft deterrent relay) Found that it has quite a few names for itself. pulled it apart and put the voltage meter to the yellow wires in it, no power was shown from either of them with key off or on or turned to start. the lil green wire however had like 3 or 4 volts in it. Put it back together and pulled the top off to see the little copper coil. then noticed a little piece of metal that looked like it was suppose to contact on something.

So I turned the key again and saw that it wouldn't contact but it would spark like a **** and get REALLY hot. And make the purple wire hot as well.

Well I have ordered another one and it should be here today or tomorrow hopefully.

What I did that I probably shouldnt have done was after I put the purple and Green with white stripe wire together I took the constant wire from the radio(which is hooked directly to the battery) and turned the key over to start and touched that wire to purple and green wire. The purple and green wire got hot as soon as it did but the starter didnt even kick. But the first time i took the purple wire and touched it the blue wire which is for reverse lights the starter kick and then blew a fuse for it. put a new fuse in and tried it again and ntn this time. I touched the constant wire to the purple and green wire AFTER the reverse lights wire.

Question is, what could I have messed up by touching those wires? Why did the starter enable relay get so dang hot and just spark but not contact? could this be my only problem is that relay? Is my starter actually bad now? can putting 12v directly to the purple wire f-up the starter solenoid? And also the starter enable relay? What about my Ignition Starter Switch which the starter relay yellow wires go to? How do I test that to see if its working? and lastly, can I leave the purple and green wire connected directly together to be able to start the car or do i absolutely have to have the neutral safety switch there?

All feed back is greatly appreciated and answers to my questions are rewarded with emoticons.

Last thing. Keep in mind My vats is bypassed with resistors.

 

possibe bad resistor in the vats, but with the wires getting hot like that I would suspect a ground issue or broken wire try ohm'ing them out and see if its a bad wire one thing thats overlooked a lot of motor swaps is did you make sure to reinstall the block ground to the firewall?

 

Yes all the grounds are installed correctly, I just double checked them. block to the battery, passenger head to the firewall and driver head to the wires coming out of the harness.

vats is fine, no security light blinking or anything. tried it again and the wires still got hot but i saw a spark come out of the green white wire coming out of the starter enable relay. where the wire goes into the connector is where i saw it spark.

How do i check the wires for resistance? I have and ohm meter on my multimeter but not sure how to check for ohms. Where does the little green wire go to that is coming out of the connector for the starter enable relay? Is it a ground or does it go to the computer?

Also how might i bypass the starter enable relay to see if I can get the starter to crank? Would it not be ok to bypass that because the wires are getting so hot or is it because of the relay that they are getting hot because I dont want to get this knew relay in and it get messed up to.

 

Figured out the ohms thing. I have resistance threw the yellow wires, and the green wire with the white stripe. But cant figure out where the little solid green wire goes. its not light green. Did some research on it someone said pin a3 on the ecm. But the wire is green with a yellow stripe, checked the resistance anyway and nothing. Could that wire be a ground that be what is bad? Also idk if my fuel is turning on or not, normally I can hear it but I dont think I am now. Any ideas? What the heck did I do to mess up my car?!?!?!?

 

yeah sorry had to run some errands, short old school way is to turn the key to run get under the car with a long insulated screwdriver and arc the terminals on the starter to force it to turn. if you know the pinout of the relay (it should have it printed on it) you can bypass the relay with a jumper wire if it dosent look for a diagram that shows where the wires go and find your constant hot or switched 12v leading to the relay then jump it to the wire that runs to the starter on the conector that will bypass the relay. you can do the same for the fuel pump to ensure its working. If you jump the ALDL terminals to put it in diqanostic mode you should hear the relay cycle when you turn the key if everything is working. you said you had the starter tested and it was good. Did you have the battery load tested it could have a bad cell and it will read 12v but when you put a load on it, it will drop to only a few volts if you have one hook up a battery charger and see if anything changes.

almost forgot if the resistance was high on the wires you tested that indicates a break in the wire or possible grounding issue.

 

Starter is still good and so is the battery. Its pretty new. Starter enable relay isnt connecting. Im trying to figure out where the lil green wire on it goes before i tear everything apart. Ive looked through ever wiring diagram i can find for this car and there not showing the relay in it.

 

yeah Ive had that problem before too without knowing the pinout of the relay an easy way to check is to find the hot wire then use the ground probe to find the relay grounds then using care use a jumper wire to to probe the other leads to find the right one done this a few times and never hurt anything worst that happens is you pop a fuse. if you have a known good relay like the heater motor or AC you can try swaping them. I'll see if I can find a diagram for you just might take a little bit

 

Ok I will give that a shot. I think the sm green wire might be the ground so ill check that out to because there is another post where someone said that. I have class in a few so I'll have to do that as soon as i get out and ill put it up here.

 

lower right hand corner should be all you need

 

Ah I see. Where is the Pass key decoder module at?

 

lower right corner
jumping from the yellow wire to the purple on the neutral safty switch should bypass all that it should crank but might not run without the signal going to the computer atleast you will know the problem is somewhere in between and then you can go from there

 

Ok I will check all that put an update on here asap. I appreciate your help.

 

Would all this really go bad out of the blue like this? and just happen to be a coincidence that it happened right after motor swap? I havent even got to hear this thing run lol

 

yeah electrical parts go out at the strangest times it could be the neutral safty switch but if you bypass all that and it still dosent crank then is between the starter and the safety switch it will just help you look in the right direction.

 

Ok well here is what i did. Turned key on and the green wire got .8v. yellow wires both got 12v when key in start position. So I jumped the yellow to the green with white. And guess what, The wire i used to jump it burnt up just as fast as i could flip the key. WTH! Now what? Did i hook something up wrong? I have checked and double checked the grounds. its all connected just like it was before I took it apart. What else could it be if that part isnt the problem? my ignition switch is working obviously or I wouldnt get power to the starter enable relay.

 

Just thought of something else. The main wire going from the starter to the battery was touching the dipstick a few months back, and it burnt up just that wire and lil on the dipstick. I taped it all up when i put the new engine it, I never had the chance to tape it up before, just kind of let it sit there and it was fine after i moved it off the dipstick. (not the wisest decision I know) but after I pulled out the old engine and put in the new one I went ahead and took some electrical tape and taped up that wire real good where nothing was exposed. Could that be causing all this hell and making all the wires get burnt up really bad?

 

Problem solved. Car is running.

 

cool sorry apartment flooded over the weekend so wasnt able to get on what did it turn out to be?

 

The connector for the purple wire attached to the starter was touching the dipstick just barely and there was a small slit in a wire going to the ignition coil that was touching the firewall. Taped it all up and moved it and it started no problem.