Given the pics below as an aid, can anyone describe how I would disconnect the connector from the actual starter cut relay/starter relay for a 1997 Honda Accord LX (wagon)? And is that an 8mm nut?

I have no experience with that sort of connector - the white part seems like a sort of outside lock with perhaps a brown spring-load on the other side. Should I pry the whites on both sides first. I have some troubles as I can only confortably fit one hand in that space.

I cannot get the nut off yet and I cannot get the whole relay to slide out - I've tried for hours. So I just want to take the connector off for some continuity checks so I don't have to use T pins.

Thanks.

 

Most smaller bolts use a 10mm head, 1/4 ratchet and deep socket would be ideal to get to the blind bolt head. Just to clarify the square nut is welded to the bracket, do not try to remove that.

In the #2 pic there is the locking tab for the connector, brown tab depress it and wiggle the connection free.

 

Thanks. When I look at that brown tab, it didn't make much sense to me although it looks like something you would squeeze or depress, but how, I still don't know. I am still worried that I will break the connector. I see a small brown stud inside something that looks springy. Do I push the large thing or the stud?

So the nut is welded on - so then, in theory you would take the screw out from the other side I would guess. Probably hard to do unless it's a little bolt that a ratchet or wrench would fit over.

I may have to go to a parts store or auto junkyard since I don't know how to push on that brown part. Lateral, down, squeeze - I don't yet know but I'll try a little this morning. But I don't want to break anything. I have never, ever seen a connector like that.

 

Looking at the tab again it appears to already be resting against the connector, lift it up towards the plastic cage to release then.

Honda is pretty good at ******* around with electrical connectors. Two almost exact connectors will have opposite ways of unlocking them. One will need to be have a tab depressed and the other will need to be lifted, usually in a blind/hard to reach area they do this. O2S sensor harness and AT transmission control connectors are like this.

Plastic used on 90's Hondas is very durable. This is not a 70-80s domestic wire harness that shatters if you break wind. Honda connectors are made of very pliable plastic, as long as it is not freezing out.

If you need more room remove that 3/4 yellowish plastic wire protector first. I can't recall seeing a connector that has 3 tabs, but maybe Honda make it extra special just for you.

 

The yellowish-plastic wire protector also has two little tablocks - one on each side. I will try to pull it out on one side as I only have one hand that can fit in there. I will try to get it off. Perhaps I can use a long screwdriver in the other hand to get both at once.

Then I assume you want me to pull/squeeze the brown post out towards the large brown cage - which is down in the picture not up (by "up" I think you mean away from the main part of the connector).

I will go out and try that now and perhaps use a little strength if need be since it's decent plastic as you say.

Update to my original post: Here is a link where I discuss the RIGHT way to take this connector off - my discussion after the link assumes that I've yanked the connector off and broken it. For that, it's reliable information though.

Here's the right way:
https://honda-tech.com/honda-accord-...rness-3277725/

 

I just pryed the far side of the white wire protector off but I was unable to simultaneously get the left-side to come off also so it springs back into place. I will need to get the wire protector off first. It's way too hard to understand the brown part until I get the white wire shroud off. I may eventually find a way to get the white one off - I am now able to sometimes use both hands to work. I tried two screwdrivers - one in each hand, just no success yet.

I need to rest - then try again. Perhaps the left-side is harder to get off - I doubt it. It's hard to get the opposite side of the white wire protector/shroud off. It's not very hard to get the right side (the far-side) off. But prying with a screwdriver at the top of it didn't help much to get the opposite side and pushing against the inside of the left-side also did not help much.

At least I comprehend how the white part is constructed.

 

If you don't have a set of picks, do yourself a favor and pickup a set. Makes life so much easier.

 

So that's GOOD plastic, eh, not cheap crap. Why didn't someone tell me before?

Well, I had an easy time getting the right-side of the white wire shroud off but it was impossible for some unknown reason (as of yet) to get the left-side off, so I thought why not just put a HUGE force on the left-side just to vent my frustrations - when, to my surprise, the entire connector came off!

I still don't yet know why but the white plastic is still firmly attached to the brown, but the connector is off the relay!

For the rest of the morning, I have to jack-hammer the rest of my driveway's concrete wall, make some strombolis so I have food next week ready to eat, and rake the dirt.

My resistance checks can wait.

One thing good, I am getting better and better at squeezing my giant upper body under that dash - I can use two hands to some extent now.

I've had a slipped disk in my back for over 2 years now but the pain is NOT excruciating so I'm able to work pretty well.

Progress!

 

Hey, thanks, I have never seen those picks, I have all the little door panel stuff, but not connector stuff.

I'll pick those up next time I'm on ebay or out shopping.

 

HAH!

Not sure about the slipped disk part, but I have always been able to sit in the car seat upside down, knees over the shoulder bolsters, mid back on the edge of the thigh support and shoulders on the floor to look up and dig under the dash. Only thing that sucks is you will need to wear eye googles, all sorts of dust/deadbugs/junk snows down on ya when digging under the dash.

For reference I'm 6'-0/230lbs. Usually get out of the car feeling an inch taller after a few cracks and pops from my back while futzing under dash.

 

Must be hard to sit like that. Thankfully, I pulled ALL of the seats out of my car and all of the carpet and most of the side moldings right away so it's not that bad for me now.

I just looked at the resistance to the starter solenoid wire from connector C433's BLK/WHT (the starter-cut relay connector), and it's a perfect short as it should be. I also checked the other wires - one of them, the other skinny wire (just opposite the small black wire) is other than infinite to the car's body ground, but that might be perfectly normal.
Not that this is important, just curious. Hopefully, sending a small current into the circuitry is not damaging - probably not that sensitive in this case but in future I should refrain from this stupid analysis since there was no reason to suspect shorts to ground anyway.

But here's a problem: the thin black wire (not the starter solenoid wire) is damaged so I will need to remove the female spade lug from the 4P connector itself and resolder a repaired short to that spade lug or a new spade lug, then reinsert the spade lug in the connector. I don't really need a new 4P. Sometimes I would just pigtail 4 wires with spades onto a connector and just replace them all - probably not necessary here but whatever, I need to improve that connector somehow at that small black wire. It's damaged way beyond any sort of comfort level. I wish I had a huge box of parts - each time something gets damaged, I have little to work with handy by my side.

I may just order a new starter cut relay and possibly even a new PGM-FI anyway. So I need to check a few other connections tomorrow, then check the connections to the fuel sender area. If connections are ok, then I need to dig deeper, perhaps relays, fuses, shorts, whatever.

When I opened the siphon from Pennzoil that I bought from an auto parts place in Pennsylvania, it was already damaged. Someone used the siphon, then put it in the pack. Now I can't push it far enough into the gas tank. So I will probably just do what my Dad showed me years ago. What I need is a stronger siphon tube - one that doesn't crush when you insert it. I bought a piece of junk when I should just suck on a nice tube and spit out the gas in my mouth.

I should just open the drain plug to let gas out - it's less likely I will damage the fuel pump or something else. I'll look into that.

I then need to check the clutch interlock switch's electrical shortiness ability. A casual inspection shows a nice-looking mechanical system - plunger and all so I just need to make sure the switch works. I'll check the manual for how to test that.

 

I'm guessing that each of the 4 spade lug females have a little tiny springy tab on the back that I just need to push down and towards the rest of the clip while pulling the wire out or shaking it to spill it out or hold it upside down while pushing the little springy thing.

Shouldn't be too hard to fix that 4P relay connector up, then I'm good to go once I get a new relay. No sense worrying about that relay right now - I can always test the old relay if I feel like it some time. And if the relay's not ready to go, I could perhaps jumper to the wires somehow to see if a full voltage can pass to the solenoid wire. There may be a short, maybe not, not sure yet.

So next time I go out, perhaps I can hook up just some of the fuse box, enough to get the starter solenoid tickled and see if I can get it going without having to remote wire it. But I should ground the fuse box - not sure if my connectors will accomplish this. Perhaps I should put the fuse box back with the lower screw on it over the ground strap. I don't know how many connectors I would need to hook up - I need to be careful and analyze this first. Maybe I should just put them all back each time I mess with the starter system.

 

Today has been slow.

1) Relay issue:
I couldn't find the mirror I had taken out to work on my car 3 weeks ago, so I bought 2 new ones from Walgreen's. The 10x mirror managed to capture the relay part number (backwards) so I ordered some used relays:

Denso 056700-8570, 15A, Made in Japan.

These are used a lot in Hondas over a long year-span, they are power relays.

But when I did that, I forgot to see if I can unscrew the relay off so I'll have to try the mirror again.

2) Spade plug:
For the spade re-plug, I took a little, old broken flathead to my bench grinder and fashioned what I think is a nice, little spade-lug remover tool. I then inserted it behind the flat part of the spade lug inside the connector, pushed it in far and put pressure back towards the slot part of the plug, but I could NOT get the spade lug to go up and out. I guess it goes up, not down, and I guess there's a little spring-clip latch that's just a piece of metal you can bend. Perhaps I should grind a few more thou off the tool, and try again? I don't know. I need to really solve this connector problem as I don't really want to wire directly to my starter - I'm a little afraid I'll knock my car in gear and crank with it in gear. So I need to really hit the spade lug issue REAL hard and tackle it somehow.

Recognizing that I haven't yet gotten the spade-lug problem fixed, I ordered a pigtail so if need be, I can just rewire the whole thing with a sound connector that doesn't have problems.

 

When I get the connector for the starter-cut relay repaired, and have a new relay, or perhaps even before if I can test the existing relay, I will hook my under-dash fuse box connectors back up and start looking for shorts in the manner of this video by Chris Fix:


I will need to hook most of my connectors back up since it's not just the Power from batter, Ignition and Starter-cut connectors that are needed. There is stuff with the ECU also. I could probably get away without the ICU connector since it's mostly warnings and stuff but I'll hook that one back anyway (if I've unhooked it).

So basically, I'll hook up a meter to measure current in series between the negative battery post and ground as shown in this pic from Chris Fix's video.

I've seen unwanted parasitic draw from doors and tail-lights in my own experience. In fact, my left rear tail-light was on after about the 5th day of troubleshooting even though I hadn't even turned it on! And door-switches after car accidents are a common cause - the door gets crumpled so much that the switch pops out making it seem like the door is open. This is a very slow drain on the battery but enough to eventually drain it below the ability to turn a starter.

So I guess I might use Chris's approach when I can get some good connections to my starter relay.

In his method, you notice a current (perhaps 5 or 10 amps which is a lot or perhaps smaller), and you remove one fuse at a time, until hopefully, the current suddenly drops. When this happens, you've got at least one of your shorts isolated to the circuit having that as it's fuse. And then repeat for each fuse.


I would also recommend Eric The Car Guy's video - it's embellishing a little bit on what Chris Fix does, particularly his method of keeping door switches closed to protect the meter when opening the door. He also explains (as Chris had already) why the meter is often hooked up in series with the negative terminal, not the positive.

Last but not least, my battery cables are not that hot. I kept going from store to store trying to find really high quality ones
years ago when I replaced them. It's best to have a real nice, snug connection there - they wear out awfully quickly and get to the point where I guess I would have to use some sort of washer if I can rig something up. I will need to make sure my battery is tight when I test - the voltmeter will help here - my battery is 12.565 volts or thereabouts so I should see this less some wire ohmage drop which shouldn't take me down much below 12.4 volts I would hope. I will learn when I check the voltages. Initially, some of my voltage checks will be open circuit where I would expect a voltage very close to the battery voltage.

 

Wow, I really dreaded the thought of reconnecting those connectors back onto the under-dash fuse box since I only left about a few inches or so to fit my left-hand in there. I haven't yet looked into taking the clutch or another bracket off to make it easier. I do plan to do this.

So here's how to do it - in the order I describe.
1) C405 into slot C912 - easy, a large horizontal 10P
2) C404 into slot C913 - this is the toughie, since the wires are high-current,
like 10 gauge, I would guess, and it's very stiff. So here's the trick. First push the fuse-box all the way back to it's original position as if you were going to put the two bolts back on. By original position, this probably means up several inches or more since the fuse box was probably hanging down. And if necessary, take a long pair or short pair of pliers and straighten it up a little first. Once it's lined up for the hole ahead of time, it goes in easily.
3) C403 into slot C915 - this is easy as I pre-marked it with a T for top. That way I wouldn't confuse it with C406 which unlike C403 is an 18P (perhaps this also saves us), while C403 is a 16P. I could not tell until I looked in the manual that the connectors differ by 2 pins. I do not know what the result would be if you tried to put C403 into C406's slot or vice-versa. I would like to get a used under-dash fuse box and some connectors and experiment some time.
4) C406 into slot C916. Another easy one (just below C403).
5) C402 into slot C914. Almost trivial since it's close to the outside edge. I actually don't even remember connecting this back up to be honest - ???

Front-side
1) C602 to C905 - very easy
2) Ignition switch to C906. This was a tiny bit harder in my case as I had
to reach a little further but not as hard as the back-side connections. Ignition switch = C412

Then, I did something smart - I pushed the under-dash fuse box all the way back to the front of the car and lined it up with the bottom hole and sat it there. It sits nice and comfy right where we want it (luckily).

Testing stuff. I rehooked up the battery.

Today, I just decided to test all of my lights and all of the ICU functions that I could think of.

So basically, I put the key in the ignition and you hear all kinds of chimes and beep-beep-beep, and I hooked up the flashers to test all the rear (and front) lights and turn signals. Everything works perfectly, including ebrake on/off light, door's open lights, etc.. I haven't found anything that does not work - it's kind of fun hearing all the sounds the car makes to remind you of stuff like, "ok, you forgot your keys, stupid" in chimese.

So today, I got up on the wrong side of the bed, but I made 4 juicy, tasty calzones, ate 2/3 of one, and suddenly I had the motivation to work on my car even though I just plain didn't feel up to it.

So Monday, I'll probably get my parts, but I can test some things before they arrive - biggest thing is - do I get a voltage on that starter relay connector. Perhaps tomorrow, I 'll check that out.

I thought today would be impossible but I had the fuse box connectors back on in less than 45 minutes, perhaps less than a half hour. The only tough one was the 3P that carries all the current, C404.

The car almost sounds like it wants to go for a ride but not quite there yet.

The cats are even getting ready - for a trip, one of them decided to jump in. He probably thought I was going somewhere.

 

Now that my ignition is reasonable and likewise the ICU, I have some further investigation/testing.

1) Put bottom bolt on under-dash fuse box/hook up battery. Test for Parasitic draws - ok to do now.
2) ECM/PCM - There are 4 bolts to take the cover off. I do not know if there is room for animals to get in there. If not, then there is not much to worry about. This step might logically be done before 1) above.
3) Fix seat connector, noise filter connection, and fuel sender unit wiring. These should not be very big jobs, just easy.
4) Short out the Service check connector and count any diagnostic code flashes on the dashboard driver console after putting ignition key to on (II)
5) Hook up at least an OBD II scan tool (I need to buy one) and check the codes that way possibly. The method in 4) might be sufficient.
6) Inspect the gas tank harnesses to the fuel pump if possible.
7) ASAP, install new pigtail/relay for starter cut.

 

Not a bad today, although I Steve-Harveyed it at one point and misread which hole my meter probe was plugged into and almost thought there was no voltage on the WHT/RED of the connector C433 when actually there was.

Another important point: in the below voltage checks I did NOT tighten my battery cables onto the battery posts, I just laid them over the posts so next time I should do this, otherwise I may drop some 10's of millivolts or worse from connection resistance. So my dropping down from 12.565v at the battery to 12.49 at BAT on the fuse box could be partly blamed on loose battery cables, although since there is not much load on the system, it is possible that the looseness is NOT to blame.

I managed to get 1 or 2 of the tasks on my llist done today and added tasks numbers 8, 9, and 10 and performed them, and I also did a parasitic draw - there are no significant parasitic draws:

8) Remove connector C412 from under-dash fuse box slot C906 and be extra certain that BAT voltage gets to that pin of the connector. See page 23-74 in the Honda Service manual. If we were to find that BAT was NOT present then we would logically also check for BAT on C404's slot which is C913. We check it first on the front of the fuse box since it's easier - C404 is the toughie to pull off and particularly to put back on.

9) Diagnose voltages at connector C433 - this is already unhooked since I unhooked it for testing while waiting for a new relay to come in the mail.

10) On same connector as used in 9), verify clutch interlock switch is working.

So for 8), hooked up the circuit shown in the first pic below. I am holding a mirror so I can make sure that the clip lead (attached to BAT, see page 23-74) from Radio Shack does NOT have a chance to short out to another pin on slot C906. I found that 12.49 volts was present on BAT.

For 9), I hooked up a circuit as shown in the last pic. I grounded the broken wire on connector C433 (the ground wire) to the car's frame. I found that voltage does get to the WHT/RED wire which carries power to the relay. I then verified that BLK/GRN gets the clutch interlock voltage when I push in the clutch, and does not have it when the clutch goes out. So when I actualy have the new relay installed, the clutch interlock voltage should cause the relay to close and connect the WHT/RED power wire to the BLK/WHT solenoid wire.

Now, the test in 8) was not really necessary but I'm glad a I did it since I find that the voltages at the starter relay connector are a tiny bit lower than I might have hoped - around 12.2 or so, maybe 12.3 volts. I may have to do a more rigorous test.

So tomorrow I may repeat some of this and I may even order a new clutch interlock switch just to make sure it's not a little worn.

I will also put the starter relay circuit under load and try to drive the solenoid of the starter, after first checking for voltage with an open circuit. So perhaps things will get better, no way to tell until I try to crank.

I should also fix that noise condenser connector. I fixed the seat-belt connector.

 

Since yesterday I uncovered some potential grounding issues (which will not be a problem as long as I ground the starter relay, but nevertheless could be a symptom of damage), I checked the black wire's resistance to ground and it's infinite as I thought. Yet I thought that it should be grounded at G403, which is supposedly under the right-front kick panel.

To make a long story short, I pulled the right front kick panel, it has no bolts, just needs to be pulled off with your hand (3 locking tabs hold it in), and I took the 4 bolts off the cover of the ECM/PCM and pulled the plate off. Only some minor infestation by animals and they did NOT chew on the wires. So this is a huge bit of good news. I was really worried. And I did NOT find any ground bolts or anything as I thought I might.

Then I started unwrapping the bad ground on the left-side harness where the condenser N-1691 250-0.47 gets bolted on as this will need to be spliced and repaired due to something gnawing it through. I then noticed a few inches or so of polypropylene gone from the split loom and a white wire with green stripe WHT/GRN almost chewed through but barely hanging on electrically - this will have to be spliced. So I only uncovered 2 splice jobs today - not at all a bad day in this business of animal infestation recovery. From the Service manual and Haynes manual, I believe the WHT/GRN wire is to tell us whether are brake-lights are working or not (safety indicator for parking lights, as opposed to safety indicator for fluid/float level).

So tomorrow will be an easy day of splicing.

Relays need to be grounded to work so I don't know why the ground supplied isn't grounded. Perhaps they internally wired to the case of the relay? I don't know and I'm not all that worried. It will get ironed out somehow, even if I have to supply the ground. But at some point I need to completely trace that black wire to it's origin (I had though it just came from the under-dash fuse box but I must double-check this). Epilogue: I eventually found that this relay was not grounded due to a break it's ground at G403, which is a large grounding strap above the right front kick panel. So the Haynes manual and service manual are correct as one would expect. I just didn't realize that animals had chewed through it yet since I hadn't looked at that part of the car much yet.

So the big task tomorrow is just double-check that black wire's origin to explain why I needed to ground it when testing the starter relay.

And splice some wires. I will go on the assumption that for now, I do NOT need to backplane the ECM/PCM. If so, I will need to buy a tool or two for that purpose. The ECM-PCM removal procedure is on page 11-34

 

I would guess that the ground that was bitten through is the ignition ground - to keep engine distributor and other noise down. Perhaps it is also the "starter" system ground. I don't know but if so, I should have looked for a short between the starter relay black wire on connector C433 and that ground wire that needs a splice. I would guess that most or all of my starter problems will go away once I fix the starter relay harness, put a new relay in and fix that ground.


Update 1:
I've now fixed the wires I had discussed - the noise condenser and the WHT/GRN.

Update 2:
I checked the continuity to C433's black wire and there is none. So I rechecked the Haynes manual and they DO say clearly on a diagram that G403 is the ground for the starter relay and it says clearly in the Honda Service manual that it is in the right-front kick panel. So I went out and focussed my attention on the right-front of the car. Actually, the ground is somewhat ABOVE the right-front kick panel where there are some wire bundles and a connector and a bolt holding the wire bundles on at a connector. Inside there, there are at least 3 bitten-through wires, one of which is black and is probably the ground I am looking for. I have now removed the bracket behind the glove box (take 2 bolts off, and lift up to allow some tabs/clasp to escape the car's frame)
and then disconnect the radiator fan timer and another connector. This SHOULD make just enough room for me to get at least one hand in there - I can pigtail my way outwards and hopefully reestablish the connections. One of the 3 may have to wait. It may be something unimportant. This will be hard work as I'm trying to do the job without taking out a huge number of large parts that are in the way. So I might have just enough room once I cut away a tiny bit of electrical tape and drop the wires a little - kind of like dropping them back a split-loom.

So the morning soldering/splicing went well and I've now found out why connector C433 never had a ground - it's completely bitten through!

 

In order to get at the wires enough to pigtail, I had to remove one of the Beige, Nylon, Auto Umbrella Wing Push Mount Cable Ties holding a bundle of wires from the car body hole where it was inserted and then cut back electrical tape from where the wires need repairing. After a tedious time, I got enough wire to work with and I am soldering now. So this job should be done by today although one of the 4 jobs is a bugger.

I tried each black wire metered to C433 (starter relay) until the 2nd one read a short on the meter. So I've now found right-side portion of the starter relay ground wire from the left-side of the car at C433. As all of the wires on that connector are ground, it doesn't matter which one of the pigtails on the connector I hook it up to other than perhaps for future maintenance.

 

It was difficult getting the broken wires, cut, stripped and spliced with new sections, and in the case of the whitish wire with red stripe (a gauge 20 wire so not carrying much current), I had to pull most of the push-mount umbrella connectors out for the harnesses involved. It was a nice sight to realize that the small broken (non-ground) wire could be brought to the front. I had to cut and unwrap electrical tape, and I had to sit all the way to the front of the passenger side, in front of the ledge where it's a tight squeeze. But the trick is pulling the push-mounts to give ourselves plenty of play - like 8" or more.

And since the harness for the broken black wires is a "ground" harness at G403, it makes no difference how I hook the black wires back up. They all go to the grounding strap attached to the harness (where the bolt will attach the strap to the frame of the car). So I didn't worry which wire went to which on the connector.

I found it a tough day to complete these tasks - if I had to do it again, I could probably do it a tiny bit faster, but not by much.

So my next task is to rewind some electrical tape I had to take off, and eventually, put new push-mounts in or reuse old push-mounts, while pushing the harnesses back where they belong out of the way, and reinstall the bracket and connectors I removed.

My push-mounts arrived today from Hong Kong and they look nice.

 

This job just needs tape and push-mounts to complete.

 

This morning I had to finish up the job of yesterday where I spliced 3 wires in the area above the right-front kick panel where grounded harness G403 is. This has at least 5 or 6 grounds on it. So now it's time to reattach the ground bolt. But before doing this, I needed to repair all the hanging tape I had to unwrap and/or cut to get at the 3 wires.

Pulling push-mounts helps a lot in allowing the wires to come forwards to work on them, but I also found it easier to just use hose tape which is stiffer than electrical tape. I used long pieces that I could first start by looping around the back of the wire bundle (about 3 bundles in this case). Then I would get one turn around by holding the wire in one hand while wrapping with the other. Then gradually I took the white backing tape as I went along - this way, the hose tape wouldn't stick too much ahead of where I wanted it to stick. So gradually I wrapped around and around and worked my way up and down each harness. I pretty much failed with the electrical tape and so in the interests of speed, I switched to the self-stick hose tape (which is kind of fun to use as it's cushiony and sticks to itself nicely). And it has other nice temperature and electrical properties.

So now it's time to return to getting the relay off - for this, I created a procedure that I describe in another thread. So now I must turn to getting that spade lug off the connector so I can insert a something-or-other lug to ground that relay. Once I do that, I can just push the connector on the relay I took off (now that I have the relay sitting outside the car).

Starter relay take-off procedure (1997 Honda Accord LX Wagon):
https://honda-tech.com/honda-accord-.../#post50689983

Once I do that, it's time to hook the fuel pump, and start the car. Almost there!

 

Today I got my starter to crank for the first time in perhaps as much as two months. I took my time to fix any broken wires in the car so the car will have all it's functions, and I left the starter until last.

I took a look at the Del Sol relay and harness and made up some mappings for how to do the splicing, but I then had an idea to cut away the plastic on the harness around the ground spade lug and simply removed it out the side of the connector. Then I could make up a new spade lug, and simply install the ground first, then install the 3/4 left-over connector on the relay.

The first spade I did I goofed and didn't put a male in to keep solder from flowing into the lug part of the connector, but the 2nd one I made I DID do this, and it came out really nice. I tried using my new Radio Shack desoldering tool, but it did NOT work. I then looked for my solder braid and could not find it. Solder braid always works at least.

So to make the 3/4 connector, I used an Xacto knife to score lines on the plastic, then used sawing motion to make the scores deeper, then I took a wood chisel and chiseled away plastic until I had the spade lug out, then continued until the vacant lug spot was nice and clean. Then I simply put the new lug on the ground pin of the relay, then I put the 3/4 connector back on and voila - the starter relay is all wired up. Right now the 3/4 connector is not all the way clicked on but the spade lugs are quite tight on the relay so it's a good electrical connection. Tomorrow I will need to finish soldering the ground wire after I first shorten it so it does not hang down so much.

So I then hooked up the battery and first I listened to the relay click on and off when I hit start with the clutch depressed with my left hand, then I did NOT hear the relay click when I did not push the clutch. There is also another relay or switch that you hear when you hit the ignition, so if I push the clutch down I hear two clicks, and only 1 if I don't push the clutch.

Then I unhooked my Autozone remote starter and hooked up the original solenoid pin that I'd removed many weeks ago when I started this diagnosing situation. The solenoid pin is vertical on my starter which helped me - it took me about 60 seconds to get it on - I kept missing.

So then I went inside the car and the car cranks.

So then I cleaned all of the tools and materials out of the car to prepare to hook the fuel pump back up and drive the car tomorrow (after I finish by soldering today's twisted ground) - I guess this is my Christmas present to myself.

 

Although it's Christmas Day, I got up early and started working on the car.

- Finished or almost finished taping harnesses in the rear and snapping them back in their places.
- Hooked antenna back up and cut a notch in the ceiling loft area to make sure the antenna would not hit something but it's not long enough anyway.
- Taped a slight insulation problem with the emergency brake switch wire.
- Put the bracket back in the right front that I took off to repair wires.
- Put the center outer console back (the big plastic one that has like 6 or 7 screws). I managed to find some screws that will fit - they are just ordinary wood screws 3/4" long. They work great!
- Put the stereo back in.

I will publish a smooth procedure for all this as it went very smoothly.

- Vacuumed the empty submarine-like car for a while.
- Then I started putting the seats back in when I realized that I could not find any of the bolts. I put them somewhere but I don't yet know where.
- So then I hooked up the fuel pump for the first time in 6 weeks or so.
- Then I put the driver's front seat in, slid it back on it's track to make room for me, and balanced on it while turning the key to on - at this point, I could hear a clearly audible fuel pump on for a couple seconds. It's much easier to hear than I thought it would be - it sounds like an airplane's landing gear to me.
- Then I tightened (properly this time) the battery terminals (I forgot to measure the voltage). I learned something today - I need to push the positive terminal down all the way to the bottom where it's flush with the bottom of the terminal - then it will tighten properly. My negative terminal is like 7/16" and my positive terminal is like 10mm.
- So then I opened up the garage doors and got in and cranked the engine. Perhaps due to rainy weather, my spark plug wires, or perhaps distributor cap had moisture and the car was reluctant at first to start. But each time I cranked I got more and more spark and combustion, until finally varoom! I started the car and ran it for a couple minutes until
I saw some smoke. Then I shut it off and fully opened the doors to prepare to run it for a long time.
- I then started the car again and ran it for like 15 or 20 minutes.

Things I forgot today:
1) I cannot find the seat bolts - they are there somewhere.
2) I forgot to finish my starter relay wiring - it's just hanging there ugly-like.
3) One little tiny light in the dash appears to have fallen back or something so I need to check this - I may have to pull the center console and redo it. I'm not sure yet. I'm getting good at doing it so no problem if I have to do it again.

So tomorrow I need to go through all of my boxes and find those bolts!

I took a video of the car running under the hood and everything looks fine.

I will upload some info to help others who have this job to do as my reassembly job (what I've done so far) went very smoothly.

Still a lot of work to do!