[manley]

Okay...this is a 69 Mach 1 351W/ 4 speed.

The car will start with the key in the "On" position if I jump the terminals on the solenoid, but I can't get it to do anything with by turning the key all the way.

When I first got the car, I had a wire under the hood pulled out where it runs into the fuse box on the other side of the firewall. I fixed that and the car started and ran and it was great! I don't know what happened, but when I put the car all back together to take it for it's first ride in 10 years...it didn't work again.

The wire that I fixed is hot on both sides of the fire wall. The wires on the ignition switch are hot when they are supposed to be. When I turn the key to "On", both coil terminals are hot(are BOTH supposed to be?). All fuses are good. I have a new battery, alternator, starter, solenoid, voltage regulator...

Anyone have any clues? My first guess is that the ignition switch is bad. Could a bad solenoid cause this problem?

Anything else I should check?

Thanks!

 

[manley]

I finally solved the problem after tearing my dash apart and tracing every wire...lots of thinking...lots of searching for bad wires.

The problem was created from my own ignorance, but let me tell you that I came away with another bit of knowledge.

I had the car running and I was cleaning up a few things under the hood that I didn't like. Well, my reverse light harness ends about halfway to the reverse switch and I didn't like having those wires just hanging there. Soooooo, I unplugged it from the connector at the firewall. I noticed the other wire that came out of plug and looped directly right back into the same plug, but didn't think much of it.

Guess what? That loop is apprently how you bypass the neutral safety switch when you use a manual shift car.

I was reading through past post and read about how Ford did it from the factory and a light bulb nearly exploded in my head.

I ran out and plugged the reverse light harness back in and fired the car up!

Thanks for the help guys! I don't know what I would do without the VMF!!!!!