Hey guys. I've got a toggle switch rigged up for my ignition. It was like that when I bought it. My problem that I'm having is my truck will start but when I move the toggle to off, it does not shut off. Everything electrical shuts off like normal, but the engine is still running.

I've bought a new switch because they are only like $4 but I noticed that on the old 3 prong switch, 2 wires were on one ring terminal on one side of the switch and on the top middle of the switch was a single wire. The wires that were two on one ring terminal were badly marred up so I pulled the ringlet off and tried to clean them up and put them back on the ringlet. However I have bent the ring too badly to put the wires back on it. I cannot find ANYWHERE in town that sells ring terminals like that only circular ones. So I've put the two wires into two separate terminals and placed them on the left side of the switch just like the old one.

It still will not shut off. Any ideas or suggestions? I'm really not great with the wiring part I'm a lot better with the mechanical side. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Oh and meant to add...... I've replaced the 40amp AM1 fuse as that blew and caused my windows and fuel pump to stop working. After I replaced that fuse and started it up, thats when I ran into it not shutting down. Never had that problem before.

 

Here is a picture of what I am talking about.

The new switch only has 2 posts while the old one had three but the wires with the blue connectors used to be on one single ringlet terminal.

 

Oh, man. Wired with lamp cord?

The ignition switch should be powered with two separate 12v feeds (AM1 and AM2), so I'm guessing the genius who hacked up that switch is trying to run everything off AM1. The output of that switch goes to two different groups of loads (IG1, IG2), so somewhere south of your switch something must be all bunged together.

My guess is that you have yet another wire floating around there which provides CONSTANT 12v to some set up loads, and one of your wires shorted into that set so that it is always powered. But that's only a guess; your picture tells me nothing about how your truck is wired.

I'd try tracing those wires (there's probably a table lamp jammed under your dash somewhere) to try to figure out what the wiring was before you got the short.

Good luck!

 

I can totally drive this back and forth to work for the time being. I really would like to put an actual ignition assembly back in it.

Ok so only two of those wires are needed to start the truck correct? Somewhere down the line of wires there is a short that is causing it to not shut off. Did I understand that correctly? Sorry I am waaaay better at mechanical than I am with electrical and wiring. I really appreciate your help and response though. Thank you.

 

My guess is one wire is connected to constant 12v (probably the AM1 fuse), the other two wires continue downstream to where they connect to a whole bunch of other wires (or, maybe, a bus bar in a fuse box, to power a string of fuses).

Obviously, step one is to get out your multimeter and figure out how to use it. This will tell you (probably) that the single wire is 12v all the time. Then check the other two one at a time; I'll bet one of them is ALSO 12v all the time. That's the direction of your short.

Maybe. You don't have any documentation on HOW your truck was re-wired. If someone is willing to use lamp cord, they're willing to do just about anything.

 

Here is a better look at where the wires go.




With the switch set up the way I currently have it, when I unplug this connector, everything shuts down. Could the short possibly be in some of the rigged wiring to this black connector?

 

The plug in your hand looks like I-10. Here's a picture of the plug, with notes for the wire colors and function. YOU can trace your wires and draw a picture, no one else can do that with just your photos.



By the way, I see what is probably a push-button in the background. Do you know what it's for?

 

The push button is for the actual starter. I flipped the toggle to on and then push the black button to start it.

 

Trying to trace out a circuit would be intimidating for me. What I would be tempted to do is to go to the bone yard and get an un hacked harness off of the steering column, ignition section and replace it. Is that the only section hacked up? Then start trying to trouble shoot with what should be how the factory had it set up.

Trying to fix someone else's hack job can be a night mare if you don't have a strong back ground in electric. From that plug up to the Ignition, it is easily replaced. You will need to rent a steering wheel puller for free from most local part stores to replace that part of the harness.