Ok I put the battery in backwards...or hooked it up backwards awhile ago and finally got around to fixing it. Or trying too. I fried the starter solenoid and burned a wire in half. So I bought a new solenoid and fixed the wire and rehooked everything up right...I think and turned the key and got nothing. Thought the battery might be dead so I jumped it with another vehicle and still nothing. The solenoid doesn't seem to click either? This is off an 84 2.5 by the way. I think I have all the wires hooked up right. Three red wires and the positive battery on the hot side, on the top there is a yellow and a green. The yellow goes on first, closest to the grill, followed by the green. On the bottom is the netraul safty switch and on the other side of the solenoid is the starter wire. We tried to hot wire it acrosed the solenoid but still nothing. So could I have screwed up my starter with this stupid goof? Anything else you guys can think of that could be wrong. Also does the solenoid sound like it's bad?? I just bought it new from checker so it shouldn't be. Thanks...I need to get this running so I can sell it.

are the rest of the aqccessories in the vehicle getting power? i would make sure you didn't burn up any grounds or fusibile links. other than that, i dunno. jump the solenoid wire and see of you can get it running, and just go form there, checking stuff. you might have fucked the alternator so bad that it's grounding shit out too.

We tired jumpin the solenoid but still nothing. The fusable links all look ok. I guess my main question is can you ruin the starter doing this?? It won't even turn over.

A few questions,
Do you have any accessory power or is it totally dead?
(IE headlights Dash Lights and so forth)
If you have accessory power see question 2.
If not then you have a main accessory wire or link burned up that goes to key power. You said you jumped the solenoid so I will assume you have accessory power.

If you do then do these accessory items go dim or off when you turn the key?
If they do then you’re drawing a large load when trying to start it. With no solenoid click or it not working when you jump it, and dimming of accessory lights you either have a dead battery or starter drawing mass amps. After crossing the terminals you could have burned up the starter. So I would guess it is the starter.

One last question:
Did you push the clutch in? Or if it's a slush box is it in park/neutral?

Answers:

1: Yes, The dash lights, headlights, clock, and interior lights work. But the Radio does not work.

2: Yes they do dim when holding the key in the start position.

3: It is an Auto with the park nuetral safty switch.

I was thinking later that the netrual safty switch could have fried as well. Does anyone know where it is located?

I will bet money it is the starter.
Another thing to try is hit the starter several times hard with a hammer. When it was hooked up wrong an Arc may have welded the starter windings so hitting it solidly may free it up. Not a real fix but worth a try for troubleshooting sake.

May as well pull the starter, and take it down to have it tested.
Good luck

Might also want to check the coil and ignition system... not sure how they'd handle having the voltage reversed.

Does it have a fuseable link?

Yep the starter was shot. Aparently it has two sets of "wires". One set pushes the gear out then the second set kicks in to help spin it up. Well the set that push the gear out is gone but the second set works. Looks like it's off to Hanser's (wreaking yard) to get a new one. The solenoid was all so bad so took it back to Checker and they gave us another new one, but this one works. The NSS switch seems to be fine and everything else seems to work ok. Havn't checked the ignition yet but will do that if this stuff doesn't work.

Also get this....I was cleaning off the old starter I just pulled and guess what is stamped in the cover of it. FORD???? WTF?? I guess it worked for a few years but is that the right part? I was thinking it would be an AMC something.

Yeah there are three fusable links but the one wire that burned out did it before the link?? The links all seem to be intact though.

I actually did the same thing last summer. I friend my battery, alt, and starter. I was then still having a charging problem, it ended up it was a fusiable link that got fried to. Everything now is fine, but my heater still doesnt work!!!!!:mad:

Originally posted by Weasel


Also get this....I was cleaning off the old starter I just pulled and guess what is stamped in the cover of it. FORD???? WTF?? I guess it worked for a few years but is that the right part? I was thinking it would be an AMC something.


sounds like the starter's been replaced at least once in its lifetime. AMC uses the same style starter as ford with a different nose cone. When they rebuild them they use whatever they got and put the right cone and gear on it. I've had some that say AMC others say ford and even a delco or two (I been through a lot of starters)