Been a long time since I wired a Ford with a start button and a toggle switch to kill the ignition, can't remeber what wires are needed on the duraspark system. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

 

The starter wire runs through the push button. The ignition one wire runs through the rocker switch and ignition two runs through a relay that is activated by the rocker switch.

 

What year truck are you working on? Most of the later trucks have ignition switches with multiple contacts. If you use a single pole switch and tie all the hot wires together, you will get feed back through some of the circuits, and the engine may not shut off among other things.

Using a multiple pole switch or a relay or two like SPL Tech said, will work, depending on what year and what you are doing(custom wiring harness?)

 

It's an 80 econloine, the van will just shut off driving down the road. Tried to adjust the wire connector with the rod in it from the key(don't know what it is really called). This worked for awhile but now its getting worse. If it shuts off while I'm driving I can wiggle the key and get it started again. Tired of messing around with it, I need a cheap fix or it goes to the salvage yard. Thanks again.

 

Well hot wiring a vehicle will not automatically make it work. For example... I have hot wired my Jeep before. All I had to do is connect ignition to the 12V constant wire and touch the starter wire to it until it starts. However I can’t drive it because the shift lock will not disengage because there is no key in the cylinder. I know how to get past it but it’s not worth it because I was just playing around. Also the steering wheel will lock because the key is not in the master cylinder and there is nothing you can do electrically to bypass that because it’s a mechanical function not a electrical function. However you can break the locking mechanism.

If your vehicle is a 1980 vehicle it does not have a second ignition. You will only need the 12-volt constant wire, the ignition wire, and the starter wire.

 

Have you tried replacing the ignition switch?

 

Tried the switch with a used one and it didn't seem to help, they are both a little loose, the one that is in there gets extremely hard to turn in cold weather like most do but this one is hard. What I would like to do to avoid the problem with the steering wheel lock is leave the key and cylinder in but have seperate switches to start and run it. I have done this before with a derby car but that was 15 or so years ago and I had help doing it then. The only problem with this is that I'm not sure if I will be able to have electical at the accesories like turn signals and the heater motor.

My biggest question is the ignition box, with all those wires to it can I run that with a 12v wire on a toggle switch. Do they need constamt voltage to operate and then once the voltage is removed, like with a toggle switch will this kill the engine. The starter is not a problem for me to hook up to a button, its the ignition that I'm not real familiar with. Don't want to go cutting wires and then not have it work, I'm sure it can be done but I don't know how or where to start.

Thanks again for all your help.

 

That vehicle should only have four main wires.

12V constant
Starter
ACC
Ignition

ACC is not required to run the vehicle. However your blower and turn signals may be tied into it so you may want to hook it up. All you do is hook the 12v constant wire on one side of the switch and Ignition on the other side. You will want to use a relay to hook ACC up to it also. IF you dont want to use a relay you could just hook ACC up with ignition but then you cant listen to the radio and what not with the ignition off.

Then you hook ignition to one side of the push button switch and the starter wire to the other side.

Ignition needs to be on constantly for the vehicle to run. If the ignition circuit does not see 12v the engine will shut off. ACC is not required for the vehicle to run.

 

The diagram I am looking at is for a 82 truck. I do not know if they are the same as a van or not, but if you have the same colors wires, I would be confident they do the same thing. It has;

two yellow 12 volt supply wires-these are parallel conductors to handle the current demand

grey/yellow-hot in run, this feeds the exterior lighting/turnsignals and the airconditioner/blower motor.

red/lightgreen hot in run for a throttle actuator
red/lightgreen hot in run to feed the coil resistor, fuel tank selector, alt light, alt,regulator

brown/pink hot in start to feed 12 volts to the coil to bypass the resistor

white/lightblue hot in run to feed the ignition module

red/lightblue hot in start to feed the soleniod

black/lightgreen hot in run and acc to feed all the rest of the power to the truck(windshield wipers, radio, power windows, etc.)

pink/white hot in start bulb test for the brake warning bulb.

It would be tempting to hook the brown/pink to the red/lightblue and hook them both to a simple single pole start pushbutton. But that will not work because when it started, the power from the coil would back feed and keep the starter motor engaged. You will need a double pole switch for the start pushbutton. If you leave the brown/pink disconnected, it will be hard to start in cold weather.

 

Thanks guys it looks like I have the same color wires so I'll check them all out with the volt meter and see what happens with the key in different locations just to make sure they do what they are supposed to. The way that SPL Tech is describing sounds like the way I did my derby car(did'nt need a blower on that) I think I will give this a try. Thanks alot.