I have been restoring my car for 5 years and am ready to start it, but no luck. I remember taking off an alarm system but can't find any cut wires. I took a photo of the switches on the steering column with the wires as installed. There is one spare terminal on the switch closest to the firewall. I have power and the radio, etc all work, just the purple wire to the starter gets no juice when I try to start it.
On a side, or related note, the purple wire loose in the photo is from the horn relay, but not sure where it goes? The horns work and the "buzzer" comes on when door is open. The other photo is an orange and pink wire that I am not sure where it hooks up.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance, Joe

 

I suggest that for initial start purposes you take command of the ign and start circuits, bypassing all the car's interior wiring. Get that ironed out later.

Hotwire the ign with your own wire/ fancy switch box, and grab that violet wire to the starter and apply 12V to that when you want the starter to work.

If Auto Trans, your Neutral Safety Switch must be working and hooked up. MT cars sometimes have a clutch actuated safety switch.

 

Got it - thanks. Any idea on a permanent fix or area to check would be greatly appreciated. It start and ran fine prior to the resto. I am sure I have a missing wire or something - just not sure where.

 

I'm afraid that the permanent fix requires you to study the wiring diagram in the Chassis Service Manual and start tracing the wires in the starter circuit until you find the problem. The starter circuit isn't particularly complex. Power comes to the ignition switch from the red wire from the horn relay power stud. With the key in the START position, this 12v is applied to the purple wire coming out of the ignition switch. That wire runs to the NSS, and from there to the S terminal of the starter. That's it. If the battery is in good shape and the two battery cables are in good shape and connected properly, and the starter is in good shape, the car will start. You can check for power on the red wire to the ignition switch, the purple wire to the NSS, and the purple wire at the starter.

By the way, what year and model? Is the NSS backdrive linkage properly connected?

 

Really? I've never had any trouble getting mine to do it.





It's getting it to turn back that's the problem!

 

Will try that tonight. Thank you!!

 

Problem solved. Cleaned the dust out of the NSS from the body shop and rotated column while holding the key to get NSS in the right spot. On a side not- forgot that the 18436572 firing order is counter clockwise in an olds. Thanks to oldsmob455 on youtube for making the comment on his video. Thanks for all the advice!!

 

Glad you found your problem.

 

I'm guessing this was the real problem. Has this car been converted from column shift to floor shift? Did the backdrive linkage get lost in the translation?

 

That is now an anti-theft feature.
If you don't manipulate the column collar it won't start.
:-)