Urgent - QP3 won't start - help needed

We got the tranny and new torque converter put back into the car, all hoses and connections made, and put the prop shaft back in and torqued everything down to spec. It went a lot smoother than I had anticipated and ended up being much simpler that I had feared. Filled it with 4l of ATF, pulled the cable from the coil to the distributor just to check that the neutral safety switch (NSS) was functioning correctly before actually starting the car, and hit a wall.

The car refused to start, regardless of the gear selector position. I've never seen anything like it. With the key in position 2, all warning lights come on along with the buzzer, the fuel pump runs, and all electrics in the car work fine (seats, windows, lights, etc). After a few seconds the lights go out and the buzzer stops, as usual. As soon as I move the key to position 3 (start engine), all the warning lights on the left side light up, and nothing more happens. The starter motor doesn't move at all, but seems to be wired correctly (thick cable on thick lug, thin cable on thin lug), and we get ground/continuity at all ground straps.

We measuerd the NSS while in the transmission in all shifter positions, and no position gave us continuity, so we suspected something there. After pulling and testing the plug, I can say that we get continuity betwen the two outer pins (of 3 in total) when the plastic middle section is depressed or when we short the center contact (ball bearing on a spring) with the threads/body of the switch. So it seems to be working correctly. We measured from the metal part of the plastic wiper attached to the rooster comb in the valve body to the chassis and got continuity, so that seems ok too. When we finally dropped the pan, we found that in P position, the metal on the rooster comb was not in contact with the NSS, only while in N. Still, the car would not start in N either, so I'm really at a loss to understand what the problem is.

I haven't changed the NSS, and the modifications to the valve body do not involve the rooster comb, wiper or anything else connected with the starting circuit. There was no washer around the NSS when I removed it, nor was there one in the rebuild kit, in case that matters (the threads would connect it electrically to the transmission casing in any event).

We tried grounding the center pin connection on the molex to the chassis to see if the car would start, but we got the same problem as before - all warning lights lit up, but the starter didn't turn over. My friend tried other connections on the same molex (3 leads coming off the NSS) and managed to blow a fuse when he hit one of the outer pins (I believe it was a pink wire on that contact). I'm not sure what fuse it is, it's the leftmost in the box under the passenger side. The service manual doesn't say anything about the electrics, but I'll have a look in the MIE Tech Binder and see if I can figure out what it's for. After the fuse blew, none of the warning lights or buzzer came on when I turned the key to position 2, so it might have something to do with the ignition system.

So at this point I'm out of ideas, and not sure what to do now to get the car to start and run. I'm on overtime at the garage I rented space in, they want me to finish up, and I had hoped today was my last day there. Tomorrow I'll have to try and find fuses that fit (the ones under the passenger foot well) and hope to have another go at getting the car to start.

I'm very grateful for any and all advice or suggestions you may be able to provide!! It all worked fine before I took it apart, and have only replaced the worn parts along with installing a shift kit (which doesn't affect the rooster comb or wiper, or NSS), so I don't really see what could have happened.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can provide!

Thor

 

Thanks so much to everyone who replied!

The problem turned out to be the starter motor. I replaced it with the spare that the PO had graciously provided (maybe he knew something I didn't? ;-) and she fired up instantly.

We went through it methodically and made sure that the neutral start switch was working correctly, then that the starter motor was getting approx 12v when I turned the key over, which implied that the relay was doing it's job correctly.

I can't describe how nice it was to get the car running again and drive her home. I'll post more about the transmission rebuild (along with problems it fixed - and several that remain) in the QP3 thread.

Thanks also to the PPO (Mike) who reminded me that the starter motors are always a problem on these cars, and to MIE who gave some important troubleshooting info while we were in the midst of it. I was so focused on the transmission and everything we'd done there I had completely forgotten that starters are consumables on these cars.

It's great to be part of such a great community.

Thor