Hi, I need a little help please, my husband has a 1980 camaro that he use to be able to start up. I bought new rug and had my husband start the car pull it out of the garage. I started to remove the old rug while my husband was in the house. the car ignition switch had been bypassed and has a starter button that is used to now start the car. ok here is the issue, i removed the rug, my husband came out and i was in the car while in the car i hit the horn button, nothing happened I told him the horn don't work either add that to the list, well he hit the horn I noticed a clicking sound coming from the horn relay at the fuse box but the horn still did not work. My husband looked under the hood and found the horn was disconnected. He plugged it in and we hit the horn and well it worked. But now the car won't start. we replaced the horn relay, unpluged the horn again,replaced the starter button with a new one. still nothing. I was concerened is there a linkible fuse in this model that might had been blown from the horn? and also the starter button is connected by two wires one which is jumped of the electric fan and the other side has a wire that is not connected to anything. Should this be connected to something? I heard nothing when I go to start now no click, the fans are working fine still so I know they are getting power. I'm very worried I might had disconnected a wire that is needed to make contact to start the car.any advise???

 

WOW! I would guess your saying the starter is on the same relay as the fans. If the car has that kind of wiring it may be better to try and repair it. I would put the fan on its own relay and fix the push button starter issue. Is your open wire purple by any chance?

 

Well to be honest not reaaly sure if they are. This car has had a a lot of shady work done to by prior owners, engine has been upgraded and alot of OEM wires have been tampered with. we bought all new inteior items,dash,carpet,seats and center console. my husband removed the old center console and dash items for the new items to be installed and found we found alot of the OEM wire harneses been cut. ac and heating have been all removed, dash gauges have been disconnected and after market gauges connected in the center console. they added an after market electric fan to keep I guess engine tep. under control. the elecric fan is ran off a troggle switch they installed and right next to the fan troggle swicth is the starter button. the electric fan seems to work fine a wire from the electric fan troggle swicth runs to the starter button they installed, there is a wire connected to the other side of the starter button but it is not connected to anything could that be our issue? not sure if they run off the same relay, I do not see any way that either the electric fan or the starter button are connected to the fuse box. is there a starter relay on this car? Fusible link or in line fuse? also bought a new ignition swicth and keys do you think by replacing the ignition switch could we correct this problem?

 

There is a switch located on the column that may or may not be the reason they went to push button. The fan HAS to be on a relay. It cant be a wire from the batt or starter to a switch. If you Google fan wiring there are plenty of generic wiring diagrams to help you neaten the wiring up. The starter I would start looking for wires from the column that are cut (purple wire) and find where the other end is and splice it back together. Otherwise I couldnt tell you how someone Jerry rigged it without looking. Good luck.

 

Since you are using a push button to start the car, I assume the factory neutral safety switch was bypassed with a jumper wire. My guess is you accidentally pulled the home made jumper wire off of the factory neutral safety switch that was used to bypass the switch. It is at the bottom of the steering column.

 

Start with the basics. If you don't have a 12v. test lamp, now is a good time to get one! Use the test lamp to check for power at both sides of the start button, and then check power at the starter on the "S" terminal of the solenoid with the button pressed.
A test lamp is essential for every car person to work on their car, as it makes chasing open connections much simpler!

 

got a test light and plan on chasing wires today, thanks for the advise.

 

ok update got under the dash found wires that are disconnected and tested all of them all but one has power, chaed all wires none of these are leading to any purple wires. starter button has power, tested the starter power going in, tested wires going out when I pushed down on the wire the starter started to turn over. any suggestion?

 

So is there power coming out of the switch? If yes test the S terminal with the button pressed like Val said. If you have power there then you've got bigger issues. If you dont but have power coming from the switch, follow that wire to the S side of the solonoid. The factory wire for the S side is purple and runs to the NSS. This is probably the answer to you other question as well.