I finally got all the wires hooked up and was expecting to get it fired up, but for some reason its not happening :( the only wires i didn't connect were the AC compressor, the digital speedo wire and the brake pedal switch. everything else is plugged in. It cranks just fine but its not getting any spark and when you turn the ignintion on the CE light doesn't come on for a bulb check so i'm wondering if the computer is gettin power. I soldered the 3 ignition power wires to the wire coming out of the switch and according to the multi meter with the IGN on its gettin a full 12 volts and drops to 10 while cranking. The power wire on the harness is connected straight to the battery and the ground is bolted to the intake manifold. I cant figure out WTF is wrong. Someone please give me some thing to check.

The only wires i had to attach with the new harness were:
Batt +
Batt -
3 ignition wires
1 to fuel pump
1 to tach
1 to battery light
1 to AC switch (not hooked up)
1 to speedo (not hooked up)
1 to brake switch (not hooked up)
its a 98 4.3 vortec with 96 electronics

Dallas

I'm no vortec guy. However, on several swaps I've done. I had the same problem. Every time I found that the ing. system was getting power when the key was on, but in the start it lost power. This was on Ford/Jeep swaps, so it was easy to fix, just had to run another wire to ing system for when you turned to key to start. Just one place to look.

already checked that, as i said before, it gets 12V while on and drops to 10 while starting from the load of the starter.

One more thing, Who knows what the small center plug on a 96 ECU does? when i got the computer there was a plug in in with a loop of wire, now its empty, is this whats killing me?

Dallas

PLEASE SOMEONE HELP ME!!!! I've Got less than 72 hours til i'm supposed to leave for moab and this is all thats holding me back!!! Please i'm begging you. If you know a guy who knows a guy who might have a brother who MIGHT know, please go track him down and beat it out of him for me. I'll owe you a ton of :beer:

Dallas

Dude sorry for what may be lame info to follow. Work it from the plugs back... Blown fuse? ( Happened on my Heep ) ... Neutral safety switch If Automatic switch on clutch pedal if man. ( Happened on my Heep ) Bare wire grounded to the chassis? ( happened on my Ford ) Follow the prcedure for a computer reset. ( Hapened on my chevy). Most likely something very simple and taken for granted/ easily overlooked. I hope something mentioned stirs up a thought process for ya, good luck man. :D

did the motor run when you got it?

Did you ever have the distributor out? Happened on my 98, and I thought I had it put back in right, but it was 180 degrees off. Next thought, do you have 12v to the distributor? My buddy just got done doing his 5.7 swap, and found that the Howell harness did not include the switched hot to the dist.