[Bababooey]

Hey guys, need some help. I've got a 69 Firebird, that I thought had a bad ignition switch. It would start up and run fine, but wouldn't turn off, it's like the key hit a snag or something and would turn back the extra little bit to cut the car out. I bought a new one went to install it, and after I got down to the turning signal assembly under the steering wheel, I thought I'd give it a bump over just to see what happened and it started up and turned off just fine. So I re-installed the wheel, and tried it again it worked fine. I then started messing with the wiring under the hood, specifically the wires running to the distributor cap to try to get my tach to work again. I pulled one of the electrical wires off plugged it back on and tried to turn it over again to see it the tach would work and it hasn't started since. It won't even turn over. It has plenty of juice, and it will turn over by jumping the 2 studs on the solenoid on top of the starter, so that rules out the starter being engaged, and it turned over nice and fast, but won't turn by the key. What did I do??? Just by messing with the wires on the cap wouldn't affect the cars ability to turn over would it?? It is HEI, and being relatively new to older pontiacs I was wondering if it did matter?? Or did my iginition switch really take a dump this time?? The "gen" light comes on the dash in the on position, and the "temp" light comes on when I twist the key, but it won't even try to turn over. I did spray some WD-40 into the steering column when I had the wheel off to lube some of the moving mechanisms up a bit did that affect something??

Sorry it's such a long post I'm just at my wits end trying to figure this out. Some help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Brandon

[Bababooey]

Hey guys, need some help. I've got a 69 Firebird, that I thought had a bad ignition switch. It would start up and run fine, but wouldn't turn off, it's like the key hit a snag or something and would turn back the extra little bit to cut the car out. I bought a new one went to install it, and after I got down to the turning signal assembly under the steering wheel, I thought I'd give it a bump over just to see what happened and it started up and turned off just fine. So I re-installed the wheel, and tried it again it worked fine. I then started messing with the wiring under the hood, specifically the wires running to the distributor cap to try to get my tach to work again. I pulled one of the electrical wires off plugged it back on and tried to turn it over again to see it the tach would work and it hasn't started since. It won't even turn over. It has plenty of juice, and it will turn over by jumping the 2 studs on the solenoid on top of the starter, so that rules out the starter being engaged, and it turned over nice and fast, but won't turn by the key. What did I do??? Just by messing with the wires on the cap wouldn't affect the cars ability to turn over would it?? It is HEI, and being relatively new to older pontiacs I was wondering if it did matter?? Or did my iginition switch really take a dump this time?? The "gen" light comes on the dash in the on position, and the "temp" light comes on when I twist the key, but it won't even try to turn over. I did spray some WD-40 into the steering column when I had the wheel off to lube some of the moving mechanisms up a bit did that affect something??

Sorry it's such a long post I'm just at my wits end trying to figure this out. Some help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Brandon

[Bababooey]

Oh yeah, the neutral safety switch has never worked in this car either. Did I maybe jar something loose and make it work again??

Thanks

[RAJ7395]

Try pulling up on the transmission linkage where it connects to the steering column in the engine compartment. This linkage controls the neutral safety switch and the backup light.

[Bababooey]

Thanks for your help, I did get it figured out late last night. I didn't even mention that I was trying to figure out a way to mount the tach to the column. So I was moving stuff around, twisting stuff etc. I didn't figure it out till I dropped the column and started messing around I noticed the mid section moved. It has a floor shifter now, obviously it was a column shifter at one point. Anyhoo, if you twist the column piece tight counterclockwise she fires right up!!

Thanks, happy I got it figured out. It's always the simple things.

Brandon

[PLAY400]

You should have a rod that goes from your trans to the column. connects to the column in the engine compartment. Controls your neutral safety and backup lights on an at. when you shift gears you should notice the ring where the column shifter would normally be rotate.

Seems like alot of cars with headers are missing this piece. Some one should comeup with a cable assembly to perform this function or a kit to relocate the neutral safety/backup light switch back to the console. Alan

[einstein]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Bababooey:
It has a floor shifter now, obviously it was a column shifter at one point. Brandon <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
All 69 Firebirds have the neutral safety/backup switch on top of the column, whether floor or column shift. Even the stick-shift cars have the backup switch on the column (with a separate neutral switch at the clutch pedal).

There is a back-drive rod from the tranny to the column to actuate the upper barrel; this was the first year of this "anti-theft" system. Stick cars needed to be in "reverse" to lock the column, auto cars needed to be in "park".

Many owners removed the link on stick cars and tossed them away, leaving the backup lamps on all the time, or entirely disabled. A few bought the aftermarket Hurst switch to mount on the shifter.

Alan, if you want your neutral and backup switches on the console automatic shifter, just use a 68 shifter. But you lose the walnut knob design of the 69, and you lose the "Rally-Sports" feature of the 69 shifter, where you can slam the gears.