I made an analog to digital dash swap in my 89 GTA with an 88 digital harness, my car was originally VATS enabled and this harness doesn't have any VATS options so I used resistors on the steering column wire bypass and had a prom burned with the VATS taken out. But when I try to turn the key the dashboard dies and only the parking light indicator stays on. I took a video of it here . Note this is a T5 car but I looked at the neutral safety switch (the one for automatic trans) that plugs into the shifter plate and jumped the yellow and purple cable it started to crank, here is a video any help would be greatly appreciated

 

I can't seem to load the video but if the dash goes out when the key is turned it sounds like its loosing power to the dash in the crank position. Do you have a schematic ?

 

I don't have any schematics, It doesn't seem to lose complete power because the park light indicator stays on for some reason

 

I didnt turn up my volume if I wake up my wife I'm dead meat lol. The dash is going out so it seems like its not getting accessory power. If its not cranking that's a separate issue with the starter enable relay needing to be jumpered.

 

Haha good call. In the second video it is cranking but only with that wire jumping the yellow and purple wire on the auto trans safety switch thing. Oddly there is no starter enable relay on this harness at all, I've looked on the harness itself and behind the tape on the kick panel but no luck

 

If the new harness is from a non VATS car then unlikely it will have a "starter enable relay" which is part of and operated by VATS?

 

You're right, it doesn't have a starter enable relay

 

double post

 

If you are using a non VATS harness what are the resistors going to do?

Usually indicates either a low battery , dirty/ bad/ loose battery cable connections or a massive current drain ( dodgy starter ) sucking up all the power.

Once again a obvious need to complete the starter circuit

 

I thought this was because the ignition coil was separate and needed to pick up the resistance, I guess it's one less thing to eliminate while trying to figure this out.

I thought that too so I charged my battery overnight but it seems to be getting a good amount of voltage, and it now cranks now that I've jumped that switch. Are you able to view the videos I posted? they'd give you a better look at what happens when I turn the key

 

Nothing to do with the coil; VATS takes out starter and fuel injectors
Read
https://www.thirdgen.org/vats_passkey_system
When the VATS module sees the correct key resistance, it closes the starter relay and sends a signal to the computer to fire the injectors .PERIOD
If you have VATS deleted on the chip then anything else VATS related is redundant ; so long as you bypass the starter relay ( which you no longer have anyway)

Nope
If you put resistors on your steering column wiring then they would be connected to nothing and your new non VATS harness would not have a connection to your original VATS module

Batt can be 100% but that does not mean full juice is getting to the starter
Jumper the starter solenoid terminal direct to batt Pos+ and see if anything changes.
If it cranks faster then problem is with wiring from Ign switch.
If it doesn't consider bad starter

 

Do you know where your starter enable relay is located? It's behind the kick panel where the latch to pop your hood is. Did you check? You don't need to do anything else after that is VATS is deleted in the chip.

 

sounds like the chip needs to be returned if you cannot use it , The other choices would be solder in a d2 from moates.net or use a g1 adapter from moates.

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/dfi-...move-chip.html

 

For some reason there is no starter enable relay on this harness. I could be wrong but I believe they cam with 89+ harnesses and this is an 88

 

your right the 88 harness would not have the enable relay, I think you have 2 issues vats cutting injector pulse and vetteoz hit the nail on the head.

 

I think I might just play it safe and order a vats bypass module

 

Got it running! turns out the chips legs wasn't touching all of the terminals on the memcal so I soldered them all and fired right up. The only issues now is that when the ignition is turned halfway, the radiator fan is constantly running

 

Not sure on the key being turned half way why the fans would run , but if they are running in the accessory position the programing fan select switch is incorrect.

 

where would that switch be located?

 

I was referring to the a/c pressure fan switch if you are using the vats bypassed eeprom.The switch is located on the high side a/c line. on 89 f body it is normally open and connects to d11 of the ecm.

 

In the tune

 

Assuming stock fan wiring , if the fan runs ,key on ;
it is usually a indication of a memcal or tune problem.
The ECM is in "Limp Home" mode because it can't read the tune on the memcal correctly
May be a physical problem, ie, the memcal not sitting right or a problem with the tune itself

https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/elec...imary-fan.html

 

I think you're right but the weird thing was it didn't happen before I soldered the chip. Does it matter which way the chip is facing on the memcal?

 

It does matter on the chip there is a little notch that notch faces the outside so away from the small chips. If your check engine light is rapidly blinking you are in limp home mode.

 

Okay I found out it's definitely the memcal/chip. I turned they key and put pressure on various parts of the chip and the fan would sometimes turn off. I do have the notch facing outwards and there is no blinking check engine light so I think I just have to check my solder points and readjust