I bought a shell and previous owner attempted to do wire tuck. I fixed wire tuck and put swap back in. Car fuel pump prime then just clicks at main relay. Won't crank. If I get a thick speaker wire and jump the starter straight from the battery the car starts and drives fine until I turn the car off then it just clicks. What is going on??

 

Check at the starter with a multimeter while turning the key to on to see if you have voltage with key at the start position. If you have voltage you will probably need to upgrade your wiring from battery to starter. If you have no voltage at the starter when you turn the key to start you'll have to move backwards and troubleshoot the starter relay and ignition switch.

 

I have power at the starter when I touch the wire with a bolt to it. So I have to get a better wire from battery to starter

 

Probably. I would clean up your ground from transmission to chassis too.

 

Ok I'll try and clean up the grounds. But it's weird. Will I see power coming to the starter were the engine harness connects when key is set to on because no power is their.

 

No you shouldn't have power at the starter in the 'ON' position, only when the key is turned to 'START'. Otherwise your starter would be engaged/spinning the whole time you're driving. It would be a very short life span for your starter.

 

I see. Should I have some one try to crank it while I have a tester their to see if it's getting power. Im sure it won't though. Does that mean I should check starter relay or ignition switch ?

 

Yes, you'll need a second set of hands to turn the key to start. I thought you already tested it like that. And yes if the starter isn't receiving power with the key in the start position you probably have an issue with the starter relay, ignition switch, or wiring.

 

Naw I haven't tested this way. What I did was take a thick speaker wire and put one end to the positive side of the battery and the other end of the wire to the starter were the engine harness connects to it and it started right up. I just can't get it to start with the key. It just clicks?!

 

Also my engine harness is from an automatic does that matter?

 

It could... Instead of having a clutch interlock switch, the harness would be looking for the shift lever. Check out some wiring schematics for the car. I have no pictures for you, but this kind of describes it:

On the shifter for the auto transmission, you will see a 14-wire plug. Cut the plug from the auto shifter assembly,
and leave about 5 inches of wire. Looking at the plug, the positions are
(left to right) (top row) 14,13,12,11,10,9,8 and (bottom row) 7,6,5,4,3,2,1.

Starter and Key removal: Connect wires 10,11,12 together (2 thick black wires and grenn/white)

Cruise Control: Connect wires 7 and 13 together (small pink and small black)

Reverse lights: connect wires 4,5 to your reverse light clip on the tranny (yellow and green/black)

 

The car is 5 speed so the dash harness is 5 speed as well. Their is not a plug for an automatic tranny because the car didn't come with one. Would this till effect it.

 

As long as it's a dash harness from a manual, it shouldn't, but I would start looking for the interlock switch then. On my da, my wiring was wrecked and it's only a track car, so I disabled the switch by grounding on of the wires to the starter relay. Not sure where this is on a dc. Might be worth a poke around the helms service manual to get you going in the right direction.

Good luck!

 

Thanks! Your advice is greatly appreciated. I won't get to see the car til Saturday so I'll try all the above and return with an update.

 

I FIGURED IT OUT!

Turns out the clutch interlock button is missing on the clutch pedal. I jumped the interlock switch and the car started right up. YAY! Just need to put the sensor back or leave it jumped. Now to figure out why my cluster instrument light is not working. Will probably start another thread on that if I cant find anything helpful. Thanks for all the advice guys!