I've got to be missing something very obvious here but I can't seem to find it. I looked through all the recent starter threads I could find but nothing hits me yet.

My S wire has constant 12v when key is on. I've swapped switches and get the same results. I have two more switches that I'm gonna try but I'm not entirely convinced that's the issue. what am I not thinking of? Not all of my wiring is reconnected but all of the starter circuit should be. Thoughts?

 

Are you sure you have your solinoid wired correctly? Only one wire should be going to the S terminal and it should be dead until you turn the key all the way to start. i would trace that wire and make sure nobody connected something else to it. Start under the dash. Previous owners love to mess up wiring under the dash.

 

Is your "S" wire Red with blue tracer? It should only have 12V on the crank position of the starter switch. If you have an auto trans, it is fed thru the neutral safety switch. Maybe there is a contact hung up in the starter switch or a mis-wire somewhere?

 

I'm rewiring the whole truck, so that's my issue. lol

I know it's the s wire, and I hooked a test light to it to confirm it's getting constant juice. When I turn the key off, it shuts off, but is on during run and crank.

You may be the winner ron, this wiring is probably out of one of my auto trucks, so that could very well be part of the problem. But I would think if the NSS was not hooked up, I shouldn't get any juice. I'll check it out and come back.

 

What is the voltage at your "S wire" in start and in run?

 

12v, no change between the two

 

can someone tell me which wires/plug goes to the NSS? There are a bunch of extra plugs right now so I don't know which it is and I can't find my NSS to look at it.

 

ok, to further complicate things there are two wires at the solenoid with the push on connecter for the s/i prongs. the red wire has no juice ever, the brown one is the one that has constant 12v when key is on. Is the red one the actual "s" wire and if so, what is the brown one?

 

Yes, red/blue tracer is "S" terminal and the brown is "I" terminal on the starter relay. The reason you have 12v on the brown is that it is the full 12v bypass to the ignition coil that is fed from the starter relay during crank. It has 12v on it now because it is in parallel with the lead that feeds the coil thru the ballast wire and you are not running the engine. The full 12v comes thru the starter relay during crank only. Hope this isn't too confusing.

 

10 bucks says you have no voltage to S terminal due to no nss. If I remember right it's a flat rubber 3 prong plug a lot like an sae connector.

 

Sounds like others have you on the right track regarding the I and S wires being swapped - brown should be I and red/blue should be S, as ronspolv said. I'll second co425's suggestion of the NSS being the problem. Should be a 4-wire connector though: two red/blue (connected in park/neutral for starting), and two black (w/ a tracer color I can't recall, maybe red) ones for the reverse lights, when in reverse.

 

I can't find a plug that matches those descriptions, is the plug yellow?

 

I think I've ruled out NSS. I dug through my box of harness' till I found one with a NSS, the one in my truck doesn't have the plug for it so good to go there. Back to square one.

ORRRRR, maybe there is a difference between manual and auto NSS?? I'm running out of ideas.

 

Take a step back and start with the basics. Clearly you have 12V to the ignition switch, since you're getting power the coil & the brown "I" terminal wire. Do you have power to the red/blue start wire at the back of the switch? If so, trace that wire from there and see where it goes...

 

... How are you rewiring you old truck? Got a new harness kit? or pulled all the old and unwrapped the wires and now have a single ball of tangled wire? You Mention a Box of stuff, so guessing it's a new wiring kit, post details about it and photos

What year is this? I'm guessing '78 that's in the avatar...

There should be no voltage if the NSS switch isn't hooked up. Perhaps it's getting mixed up with the Backup Light circuit? Pull Fuse 11 and see if there is still voltage to the Red/Blue wire...

Check Connector C-1015 Which is what the NSS plugs into for autos. Here's a photo of my '78, which is a manual and has a jumper wire for the Starter Solenoid/Relay 'S' Terminal.



Hope this helps!