Is there any issue with just putting a jumper across the VATS Starter relay so that it's always active? I assume this is just a pulsed signal that the car needs at startup? Mine has been flaky for years, and today it just flat died. I pulled it down in the middle of a parking lot and discovered that one of the sockets on the harness plug is messed up, and that's probably what's causing my problems. I jumped the harness plug with a paper clip to be able to start the car and get it home, and rather than deal with replacing the relay and the harness plug, can I just tie the two large wires together permanently, or is that going to cause the moon to spin out of orbit and crash into Earth?

Jumper on connect outer most wires large gauge green and yellow.

Thanks. That's what I did with the paperclip to get it home. I'm assuming that it's not going to cause issues, so I'm going to just permanently tie those wires together.

--Jim

I've had mine jumpered for a year with no problems, I figured it was ok because the circuit is only hot in Start. I used the same gauge wire as the ones I was jumping, and I secured it in place on the plug with 2 zipties so it can't be bumped.

I'm not 100% sure, but mostly sure there is no safety interlock on that relay to keep starter from engaging while engine is running, so bypassing it is no less safe than stock. The manual trans clutch interlock will still work. I don't know about the auto trans gear position interlock, I've never looked at that wiring.

The only reason that relay exists is to give the anti-theft module the ability to interrupt the starter crank if the resistor in the key doesn't match what's expected.

Yeah, that's a pretty heavy gauge wire... I'd guess 12AWG. Because mine had a bad contact in the connector, I just cut the two large wires and put them together with a butt connector.

Yeah, what surprises me is the size of the wire. They must be sending some serious current through that relay.

Thanks for the help all! I bypassed it and it's working good. Curiously, while I was under there, I also saw another 2 wire connector with a large gauge purple & green wires that was disconnected and jumpered. I've got to go through the schematics and figure out what the hell that is. I've owned this car since 2000 and never noticed it until now.

Jumpered those wires 2 years ago or so and no issues, just be sure to use good thick wire to do it.

Also bear in mind that unless the VATS flag is turned off in the programming jumping the start enable relay may not provide satisfactory results. The ECM needs to receive a square-wave input to enable injector pulses.

No need to go through the schematics, that connector was supposed to connect to your clutch pedal switch, so that the starter can't crank till the clutch is pushed in, look at the lower right hand side of this wiring diagram

Yeah, I've had VATS deactivated since I swapped the 350 from my IROC into the GTA. That's why I'm not worried about eliminating the relay entirely.
sweet. I just assumed that the clutch switch being backed off on the pedal was why it would crank with the clutch out. I should replace that switch and connect it back into the circuit.