...to start the car. I mean I have to "stab" it! Is there an adjustment somewhere to raise the engagement of the Neutral Safety Switch?
'86 Turbo Z
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...to start the car. I mean I have to "stab" it! Is there an adjustment somewhere to raise the engagement of the Neutral Safety Switch?
'86 Turbo Z
I don't think there was a neutral safety switch on them? None of my 86' cars have them, but one I converted and the others are L body cars. Why not just start it in neutral anyway to save the wear on the thrust surface of the crank?
Yeah no neutral safety on any of these cars. Sounds like you need to adjust the pedal.
Or a new clutch cable.
There isn't a neutral switch. There is a neutral safety wire that is grounded to the transmission casing, which means you can start the car any time you what.
Yeah, my wording wasn't correct, neutral safety switch isn't the right thing (been driving automatics for way too long).
The car will not crank if the clutch isn't pressed. Doesn't matter if it's neutral or in gear. During normal driving, the clutch engages near the top, not the bottom so I figure the cable's set right? Is there an adjustment somewhere under the dash just for starting? There's definitely something somewhere that tells the car the clutch is in and it's ok to start. If it's not pressed, the car isn't starting. Here's the weird part, if the parking brake is set, now matter how much stabbing is done, it won't crank. But, if I release the brake, a stab to the floor gets it done. My worry is, that at some point, stabbing isn't going to work and I'll have to roll start or be left sitting.
i would look into the wiring for open ciruit that closes when you flex the clutch pedal/ firewall area
^^^^ I was thinking that, pulling a ground into contact or something when full force is applied.
Well, like I expected "stabbing" doesn't work anymore. The car was a "brick" for the last few days until I could take a closer look. I've been ALL under the dash and there are no wires or switches anywhere close to the clutch pedal. After being stumped, I started trying things, here's where it gets weird...
While I was upside down in the drivers floor compartment (with the seat all the way back and the column all the way up (tilt column), I reached up to turn the key without anything pressed and the car started. It's the first time since I bought the car that the clutch didn't have to be pushed to the floor to start. I turned it off and started it again a few times and it fired every time. So, I climbed out of the floor board, put the seat back to where I could reach the pedals, pulled the column down, and......nothing. WTF! Well, I tried recreating the situation again since I was upright. The seat made 0 difference (as expected), but the column was the ticket (still not expected). Now, if I want to start the car, I have to have the column in the extreme "up" position and without the clutch pedal, it will start. I must have done this a dozen times with the same result. A couple times it didn't work, but pulling the column down, then going back up with it netted a start.
What is going on?
Pinched wire??
One of the ignition switch wires has to be getting pinched in the tilt.
Or it's a push-pull thing on the wires/contacts either end, at the back of the switch or in the dash...
I'm thinking it's a push/pull thing. After being under the dash, I'm still at a loss at how it went from the clutch having to be pressed down to jumping into the column. There is NO interference with any wires or anything else. I popped off the lower plastic and the rubber wire channel and haven't found anything as of yet. I'm going to drop the column and see how the big plastic collar comes off. Whatever it is, it's behind it at the bend.
Dropped the column. If I pulled forward on the ignition rod, the car started every time. I started to tweak the rod where it bends to make it "shorter", then I saw that the bright lights rod had adjustment slots and mounted right on top of the ignition box mount. I pulled the bright rod mount off finding that the ignition box mount also had forward/rear adjustment. Loosened the bolt & nut, slid the ign. box back about an 1/8", tightened every thing back up, and problem solved. Still have no idea why pushing the clutch in made it work for this long, but oh well.
Thanks for the help!
It probably didn't have anything to do with it honestly. It was probably just dumb luck. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Gtdhw
Might be that you were subconsciously bracing on the wheel and pulling up on it with your left hand as you tried to push the pedal down hard.
A buddy of mine back in the day had a car you could only start left handed... by reaching over the column... we tried putting various amounts of pressure in various directions with the right hand, but couldn't get it right... we only found out, coz when it started happening he reached in over the column from outside to try... odd. Anyway, he went a couple of months like that and then got the whole column and caboodle from a wrecker.
Or the fact that you just got mad at it and hit the steering wheel a few times. :D