66 Strato Chief no go

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

66 Strato Chief no go

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

You had two switches on the original column, right?

If so, did one have two green wires to it? If so, that is back up lites as I recall.

If so, did the other one have the purple wires? If so, that is neutral safety as I recall.

You have put a jumper on the purple ones?

This is all from memory, I haven't looked in the manual yet.

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

Yes Carl, I did join the purple wires together, and when the column was out the car wound turn over.. I installed the other column, and now it is totally dead at ign.. If I turn ign on the signals will blink... Is there a wire in the column harness that would be different ,in a 4 speed column, versus auto shift column? I will look in electrical diagram thanks so much

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

So you have no battery power to the ignition switch?

Or do you have no power leaving the ignition switch for the starter when you turn the key to crank?

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

I have power at switch, to activate signals.. but no power to starter.. yes

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

So if you can light a test light at the ignition switch (battery power i mean, key is off) and no terminal lights up when you hit crank, to me that means the switch is not working. Or is my thinking on this flawed???

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

sounds better, than my no idea at all I will try test light on switch tomorrow...The gas guage had turned upside down, while column was out,and went back to normal, while I was trying to start it ,and had held the ign switch on Thanks

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Looking at a wiring manual for a 65 Impala (I suspect it's the same) it looks simple. Purple wire out of the ignition switch goes through the neutral safety switch to the starter. I would test at the safety switch for power in and out when hitting crank, assuming that you know the red into the ignition is live. If nothing at the safety switch, then check for power on the purple coming out of the ignition when hitting crank on the key. Should be pretty simple to nail down.

Oh, and if there is power leaving the safety switch but not making it to the starter, it looks like the only connection is the bulkhead connector at the firewall.

And of course if you have power live at the starter on the purple when you hit crank, then there is solenoid/starter trouble.

2drpost · Uber Guru

i wonder if the bulkhead connection is ify, would explain the no headlites also...
get your testlight out carl2.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

My Acadian had bulkhead issues when I drove it regularly in the 90's. My brother taught me years ago that those connections get "green" on the terminals in those connectors.

2drpost · Uber Guru

it's called 'ford green' biggrin

my 2nd car, a '62 impala would quit the odd time turning a corner. wiggle the connector would get it going again.

Canadian Poncho · A Poncho Legend!

"Ford Green". I like that! I'll have to use that next time as a substitute for "Green Death"!
Todd

69 belair wrote:

it's called 'ford green'
my 2nd car, a '62 impala would quit the odd time turning a corner. wiggle the connector would get it going again.

Zsled · Member

On a Chevy, the two wires to the starter are not terminal specific. On my '66 Grande the wires ARE terminal specific. Try swapping the position of the two.

427carl · A Poncho Legend!

ok

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Zsled wrote:

On a Chevy, the two wires to the starter are not terminal specific. On my '66 Grande the wires ARE terminal specific. Try swapping the position of the two.

Do you mean the two smaller wires going to the solenoid on either side of the positive cable from the battery?

Zsled · Member

Carl Stevenson wrote:

Zsled wrote:

On a Chevy, the two wires to the starter are not terminal specific. On my '66 Grande the wires ARE terminal specific. Try swapping the position of the two.

Do you mean the two smaller wires going to the solenoid on either side of the positive cable from the battery?

Yes. On my '66 Impala it doesn't seem to make any difference but on my '66 Grande Parisienne it does. It stumped me for a long time because I had the Chevy for many, many years before I got the Pontiac and just assumed the circuits were the same on both cars. There are a lot of other small wiring changes between the two Canadian GM divisions. For example, Pontiac does not seem to have a lot of ground wires, they rely on common chassis ground for a lot of stuff that Chevy has a specific ground wire attached to the body for that component. Radio speaker connections springs to mind...

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

That doesn't make sense to me if I understand the circuits correctly.

One wire should be purple and I believe a 12 gauge wire. It should go to the inside terminal on the solenoid closest to the engine. It is live when the key is in crank. It makes the magnet pull in the solenoid that pulls the drive to the flywheel, and also makes a 12 volt connection for...............

The other one (forget the color) goes to the outside terminal and only gets power once the solenoid is engaged. It's sole purpose is to feed a full 12 volts to the coil during cranking. As soon as the key is released from crank, this wire goes dead and the coil gets 9 volts from a resistance wire.

For that reason, I think there is a problem if either wire works on either stud. Sounds like someone has done some rewiring.

And with that said, as always, I willingly stand correction if I am wrong on any of the above.

Zsled · Member

Carl Stevenson wrote:

That doesn't make sense to me if I understand the circuits correctly.

One wire should be purple and I believe a 12 gauge wire. It should go to the inside terminal on the solenoid closest to the engine. It is live when the key is in crank. It makes the magnet pull in the solenoid that pulls the drive to the flywheel, and also makes a 12 volt connection for...............

The other one (forget the color) goes to the outside terminal and only gets power once the solenoid is engaged. It's sole purpose is to feed a full 12 volts to the coil during cranking. As soon as the key is released from crank, this wire goes dead and the coil gets 9 volts from a resistance wire.

For that reason, I think there is a problem if either wire works on either stud. Sounds like someone has done some rewiring.

And with that said, as always, I willingly stand correction if I am wrong on any of the above.

Logically you are right. I'm just relating my personal observations from working on the two different cars. I'm just sayin' that the Chevy will run with any configuration but the Pontiac won't. Then again, that's probably why I kept frying starters in them old daze...

macsleuth · Guru

hmmm, I swapped a 6 cyl out for the current 327 in my 66.
And at some point grabbed a better harness from a donar car (had V8).
Sometime after I realized, I had 3 small wires that went to the starter????
Sometimes the starter doesn't crank, have to jump the big terminal to the inside small terminal with a screw driver, starts and runs. Been while, have to look at it again.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Usually an intermittent is solenoid time.

Are you saying you had a 6 cylinder Grande Parisienne? I thought they were all V8's.

macsleuth · Guru

When my buddy got the car, it was a 6cyl, I'll have to check the VIN, back then I'm sure you could order it any way you wanted it, but I'm also sure they were all v8s.
I got the 68 327 from the same buddy, out of his uncle 68 Pontiac wagon, it's a small journaled 327.When i was having it rebuilt, the guy wanted to know where I got it from, they don't see many small journaled 327. I think it might have been just 68 for that.
Of course, since I had that motor rebuilt, it's changed a bit, found some 1.94 heads off another 68 wagon with the factory 4bbl and dist and heads, we took all those parts, sunk about $1800 into the heads (about 20 years ago).
Hmmm, now it sounds like time to freshen that motor up....LOL
Maybe I should get the car started first.
Gary

macsleuth · Guru

Oh, my original thought was, solenoid has been replaced a few times, also replace the ignition switch twice looking for the problem.
But it's a new century since the last time I worked on it, maybe this time I'll figure it out.
Hmm, posting here will help to didn't have the internet when I was working on it before, this should be easier.
Just need to keep a laptop and camera in the garage when i'm working now.
Gary

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Years ago my Acadian did an intermittent no start. I finally figured out it was low voltage at the solenoid crank wire but could never cure it using the factory harness. I mounted a remote solenoid down low on the inner fender near the starter and it worked flawlessly after that.

It must be either the old wire or a bad connection that makes it do that.