Pinto Car Club of America

A previous owner of my Pinto bypassed the factory starting circuit and installed a cheesy pushbutton on the dash and wired it using speaker wire.  Needless to say the speaker wire is toast and the terminal was arcing on the starter relay post which cause the (+) cable terminal to corrode and break.

Anyway, I have already replaced the battery cable but I want to get rid of this stupid pushbutton.  At first I thought the neutral start switch might be bad, but then i found a wire under the hood taped up over by the coil that only got power when the key was in the start position.  This has given me hope that the neutral start switch might be okay.  But my reverse lights still don't work...

Anyway, the wire I found under the hood is green with a red tracer.  It is currently snipped and not hooked to anything.  My 71 factory service manual doesn't have a wiring diagram (wow?) so can anyone out there either scan and post a wiring diagram for a 71 Pinto or confirm for me what this wire is for?  Thanks.

OK, I was wrong.   :embarassed:  The wire is actually red with a green tracer.   I think it used to go to the (+) terminal on the coil.

So you see why I went to ign. on to reg.. The R-LTGR  is  +  on coil.  Fred    :)

Yeah.  It is weird.  Their is a green wire with a red tracer that is powering the coil, and then this red wire with a green tracer that only comes on when the key is in "start".

???

you should have two small posts on the starter relay, red/light green on the "I" (ignition) terminal, red/light blue on the "S" (start) terminal. 

Check!      I have both of those.  I think I just have a bad neutral start switch.

Quote from: Reed on September 17, 2008, 11:49:34 PM
Check!      I have both of those.  I think I just have a bad neutral start switch.

That can happen. You can test it by jumping the two wires.

Yes indeed, I have a bad neutral start switch.