this is really starting to **** me off.. everything on my alarm works except the remote start stuff, cause i cant find the wires to connect.. im looking for the ignition wire and the starter wire.. is there somewhere i can pick them up without having to drop the steering column? thanks

 

i installed a black widow remote start into my 85 Iroc before i totaled it you have to take one wire down and hook it onto the starter silinoid, and then under the dash, you have to tap into the ignition wire, i am going out to the storage where my car is, i will try and take a peek and tell you which color the ignition wire is i remember that i had to take out my hush panel, but that i didnt have to drop my steering column, hope this helps

 

hey i didnt get a chance to get out to my car today, i am shooting for tomorrow around noon, or friday morning, i will let you know ASAP!

 

Hi, I installed a Python Alarm and Remote starter in my IROC, and I'm also an MECP certified electronics installer(installed 2 R/S's and 1 AL/RS today), and I think I can make things easier for you. Almost every wire you need is in the ignition harness, and you really shouldn't have to drop the column to access it. I made all my connections at the section that you can see to left of the column and to the right of the fuse panel. You should have constant wires (red), one starer wire (yellow), one ignition (pink), and two accessories (orange for the heater and A/C, and brown for the radio). You only need to use the orange wire, but I connected both so the stereo would play when it was running on R/S. If you can get 3M scotch lok connectors, they will save you a lot of grief. You don't even have to go into the engine bay for tach. Just run a wire across to the ECM and grab it there. HTH

 

unless your RS has the smart tach sense, then u dont even have to run a wire to the tach! Good luck, guess i dont need to look when i go out to my car tomorrow

 

all i see are a bunch of 18 gauge or so wires in the location you mentioned.. nothing substantial enough to be the good stuff i found an ignition wire somehow, all by itself, and i got that hooked up, so my locks lock with ignition and unlock when its off.. but.. i still can't get the remote start working.. i found a purple wire in the engine bay that gets +12v on crank, and unless i understand incorrectly, thats what the remote start is looking for?? but.. remote start doesnt even click or turn over when i activate it from the remote.. argh.. any more ideas?

 

What year is your car? If you have VATS,you have to bypass that also in order for the remote start to start the car. Also,what kind of remote start is it? Some systems have a toggle switch that needs to be grounded in order for the remote system to operate. If you feel that you have all the connections correct,then go back and double check you have power at the plug that goes into the remote unit. Take a test light and check for constant where the connector goes into the brain.Then try the remote start and use the test light to see if you have output from the ignition wire and starter wire.

 

its an 85 so i dont have to worry about vats.. its grounded through the neutral safety switch, which i have tested.. its properly hooked up.. i get power going into the unit, but i dont measure any output power to the starter from the unit's relay bank.. im not really sure what to do anymore.. this is turning in to a huge headache.. the only reasons i can find that the remote start wont work are a) the shifter isn't in park/neutral (the wire isnt grounded) or b) the hood is open (wire not grounded).. now i have tested the neutral safety, it is grounded.. and the hood switch, thats not grounded.. so everything seems to be hooked up right.. but nothin, doesnt even crank or click the starter relay.. im at a loss..

 

Does the remote or the brain need to be programmed? Some models do. Try taking all the safety inhibit input wires(neutral safety,hood,etc.) and ground them straight to ground just to test. What about the wire that goes to the brake switch? That should not have any voltage to it at all unless the pedal is depressed.Could you have accidentally hooked it to the hot(constant 12v) side if the brake switch? Check these out. That is all I can think of at the moment.Hope something works.

 

i also tried to tie into that purple wire, but it wouldnt work, i had to take an actual 12AUG wire down to the solenoid and hook it onto there, to get it to work, when your down looking @ the solenoid, there are two posts, one where the battery hooks up, and the other where the ignition wire hooks into, you want to hook it to the same post as the ignoition wire, not the battery one.

 

as for not finding the wires between the column, and the kick panel, its because they are all bundled together and wrapped in some black stuff, you have to peel this away, and it will give you access to all the wires BIGL350 told you to look for

 

i did try going to the starter, but the wire going to it right now was too close and i couldnt get aynthing around to unbolt it.. hmm.. i will spend day 4 trying to find this blasted bundle of wire tomorrow.. sigh.. really getting on my nerves tho thanks a bunch for all the tips guys.. ill see what i can figure out tomorrow.. if i dont get it done by sunset tomorrow, i cant do anything on it for like 2 months so.. hopefully this works out.. thanks again for the pointers!

 

oh, and rspeed, i have double checked the brake wire.. hot when depressed, nothing otherwise.. ill try hooking up a dummy load to the ignition output of the relay, see if i get 12v on the output that way.. then i guess i try to find the starter wire..

 

ok cool... thanks a bunch to all of you guys so far, i was able to finally find that yellow starter wire under the dash.. hooked it up, and the engine begins to crank when i try to remote start it! however, it shuts down immediately, and when i run the shutdown diagnostics, it comes back with "(-) Neutral Safety Shutdown" ... i have checked, rechecked and checked again the neutral safety input.. it shows ground in park and neutral.. here is an excerpt from the install guide:

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H3/6 BLACK/WHITE neutral safety switch input

Connect this wire to the provided toggle (override) switch as shown in figure A. Connect the other wire from the toggle switch to the PARK/NEUTRAL switch in the vehicle. This wire will test with ground with the gear selector either in PARK or NEUTRAL. This will prevent the vehicle from accidentally being started while in a drive gear. This input MUST rest at ground in order for the remote start system to operate. Connected properly, the vehicle will only start while in PARK or NEUTRAL.
-----

Unless im reading that wrong, it's supposed to be grounded in park and neutral--which it is. I have even tried hooking the input wire directly up to the ground, and i still get the neutral safety switch shutdown diagnostic.. sorry about the length, but.. *any ideas* as to whats up? thanks

 

mmkay, apparently the neutral safety switch is *not* grounded during crank.. and my alarm doesnt like that.. so it wouldn't start the engine.. so i chopped off all that wiring, and just wired it straight to ground (its an automatic, i *always* leave it in park).. now it seems to be getting past the neutral safety.. but.. im still stuck, because it just cranks and cranks.. but it never fires up.. any ideas?

EDIT: it starts up just fine with the key, but the remote start just cranks and cranks.......

 

my best guess right now is that the fuel pump isnt getting energized by the remote start.. any way i can check this? how does the pump normally get power? i thought merely putting 12v to the starter solenoid was enough to start the engine.. is that incorrect?

 

is this a TPI or TBI car? ah shouldnt matter, it was easy on mine 305 TPI because of the high pressure fule pump, i could here it kick on all you have to do is get that ignition wire, because once the ignition gets juice, then it should tell the pump to turn on! There may be another wire for your pump, you could hook it up to the accesory wire from your remote start, and then when you try and start it, it would kick the pump on too

 

thats kinda what i was thinking, use the second ignition to juice up the pump? hmm.. might as well try it, got nothing better to do

 

btw, also a 305 tpi

 

hmm, and the remote starts it right up with the key in run.. back to check the ignition wire again i guess?

 

connected the fuel pump to the second ignition output.. now the pump whirrs, and the engine cranks.. but still doesnt start! wtf.. im out of ideas

 

No tach signal will also cause it to crank but not turn over. Hook up tach input to the white wire from the coil.You can also find it under the dash in the harness going to the gauge cluster.

 

i did hook it up to what appears to be a white wire coming from the distrib, but.. i dont think its the right one heh.. when i try to "learn" the tach on the alarm, it.. doesnt work now i set the remote start to completely ignore the tach reading, and it still doesn't start.. does it stlil need to be hooked up for it to work?

 

hmm, shutdown diagnostics says "Low or no RPM" so.. i guess ill try to hunt down the tach wire.. again.. how do i check to make sure i got the right one? the one i'm tapped into right now shows ac voltage (around 2.0 if i remmeber correctly), but if i measure a battery or something on ac mode, it still registers voltage.. so.. not sure exactly how to test it? oh well.. ill try to find it tomorrow.. thanks a bunch for the help guys.. hopefully it finally works

 

althouhg.. that doesnt make much sense to me.. i hav ea constant +12v input to the starter solenoid.. shouldnt that start the engine?? i could see the alamr shutting it off with no tach signal, but.. it doesnt even fire up?? i dunno im so confused... i just want this to work

 

I dont know how far you have gotten on your problem, but the neutral safety switch has 12V during crank mode. It connects to that purple wire you found going to the starter.

When not in crank mode, it will have a ground from the starter.

And I cant speak for EVERY remote system out there, but on most of them, it's IMPERATIVE that you run the wire to the tach. How else does the remote start know that the car has started? On some systems, if the engine hits too high of an RPM, it shuts down. On others, it has a "2nd attempt to start if 1st attempt failed" mode. That is what this tach sensor is for.

 

mine actually has two options: you can use either the tach or a voltage sensor.. since the voltage jumps up 1 or 2 volts once the alternator kicks in, it knows its started.. now i set it to voltage because i think my tach wire is messed up, but either way.. ive got to be missing something.. because the engine cranks, and even with fuel.. its not starting up.. which leaves what, spark? what causes the engine to spark.. is it electrically controlled? any ideas?

 

If it's cranking but not starting, and you have it set on voltage sense (which is a BS substitute for doing it right and connecting the tach wire), your car has a VATS system and you havn't wired up an interface, or you aren't powering up the ignition system. Just because a wire tests like an ignition wire, it doesn't mean it's the right one. You need the heavy pink wire in the ignition harness. It will test in the on position and while cranking. Don't run anything out into the engine compartment. Every wire is in the same harness. If you have the little resistor in your key, it's not that difficult to wire up a relay and resistor to get around it. If you're sure you have the right ignition wire, check your connection. How are you making your connections? If you are stripping and taping, you have to strip the wire you are tapping onto, make a hole in the middle of the strands and thread the stripped end through it and wrap the rest around it, the tape over everything, and put a small zip tie over the connection and the connection will never fail. Let us know if you have vats or not, too. Stay cool and don't get frustrated, and definitely don't run anything for the remote starter into the engine bay.

 

looks like one of the very first conections i made (which worked with the alarm just fine.. didnt think to re-check it with the remote start) was the culprit.. so i took care of that, and 5 minutes later i was remote-starting.. of course, i was so excited that i cranked my battery to empty, so i hadda recharge it.. used a battery charger that plugs in to ac to charge it fully up, went outside a couple minutes ago to put my car in the garage for the night.. put the key in, turn it.. fuel pump whirrs.. no cranking what a pain.. all the wiring is good, nothing got pinched or disconnected or anything.. i have all the outputs im supposed to from the relay bank.. this sucks hopefully its not the starter that i somehow fried.. oh well.. least it was working fer a bit!