Electrical 03 Won’t Crank

[TheCyborgSlayer]

I will try to condense this down as best I can.

I bought this car 3-4 months ago with a blown up engine. It has sat with no power until the last week. The new engine is in now. New Battery.

First attempt to start, everything powers up as it should, turn the key and nothing. Looked around and found an aftermarket alarm installed. Prestige branded. Found the model online, pulled the instructions on it and put it in valet mode since I don’t have any fobs.

Second attempt to start, everything powers up fine, turn the key and car turns over and got it to fire up and run. Idled high around 2k, but engine sounded great otherwise.

Now knowing the car starts and fires up, I chose to remove the alarm today given I have no fobs and want to start getting the car back to stock form. All but one of the connections on the alarm were just T-tapped. So I unplugged all of those connections. There was a starter disconnect relay spliced into the ground signal coming from the clutch switch. I cut the relay out and resoldered the clutch switch wire back together. At this point, the alarm is out.

I tried to start the car, everything powers up, turn the key and I’m back to no crank.

I used my multimeter to test that the clutch switch was good. It is. I checked the connection at the ignition plug under the dash and verified ground there so that rules out my solder repair being bad. I also checked constant and switched ignition voltage at the ignition switch and both are good.

I verified the starter still works by pulling the relay and jumping 30/87 pins. I also changed the starter relay. Still no crank.

I don’t know where to go from here. It’s not pats since the car started a few days ago and pats doesn’t disable the starter.

 

[90sickfox]

When you turn the key to crank you should get 12v at the clutch switch. You need to check the pins at the relay for signal. If no signal you need to go back under the dash and trace it. Most alarms have you cut the starter wire ( usually yellow on alarm system side ). The starter wire will have to be reconnected back together. This is a prime opportunity to install a hidden kill switch.

 

[TheCyborgSlayer]

I only had a few minutes to mess with the car today, I was able to check for 12v at the back of the ignition switch and can confirm 12v when turning the key to start. So that rules out the ignition switch.

Do you know if that white/pink wire that runs to the #6 (starter relay) fuse? Is that fuse always supposed to be hot or only when cranking? I checked all the fuses and that’s the only one with no power.

 

[TheCyborgSlayer]

Problem ended up being the ignition switch. Seems coincidental it went out the same time the alarm was moved, but nonetheless, car starts with the key now.

On to the next problem. Hard to start/high idle. I’m leaning towards IAC on this. I can unplug it at nothing happens. The car just stays running around 2000-2200 rpms.