Is there a way to bypass the ignition key?

Bmachine

Bmachine

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Last week I went and did a local rally. Much to my surprise, after a midway stop, my car would not start again. I would turn the key do usual way but absolutely nothing would happen when the starter was supposed to engage. I checked power to the starter and it was showing perfect 12 V. It’s as if the contact to activate the solenoid was not being made. I was finally able to start it by pushing it on a downhill and dropping the clutch in second. I tested it again a couple of days later and it started just fine.

After searching on the board several people mention the possibility of a bad switch at the end of the key tumbler.

Unfortunately I was working this week and did not have time to take It all apart to look into it.

I am doing another rally this morning and I was wondering if there is an emergency bypass I can make in case this happens again while I am away from home.

I realize that this is sort of like asking how to hot wire a coupe which may not be a good thing to put on a public forum. So if that is the case a private reply to me would be much appreciated.

Thank you
 
Im foggy on the colors but basiclly you will need to get steady power to the systems that need it , I think hooking the large red wire , and green wires ( there might be another that needs to be hot ) then you will need to make monetary contact to engage the starter , red wire and I think yellow I would use a toggle switch for the ones that need to stay hot to run and find a starter button for the starter circuit
 
Call me Bo- make sure you take a 6’ piece of wire with the connector that your car has at the starter at 6 o’clock and a 6” piece of wire with a male spade on one end and female spade on the other and a 6” double female spade connector wire.
 
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sfdon said:
Call me Bo- make sure you take a 6’ piece of wire with the connector that your car has at the starter at 6 o’clock and a 6” piece of wire with a male spade on one end and female spade on the other and a 6” double female spade connector wire.
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I think I'll go ahead and make this kit up and keep it in the spare tire well along with my backup fuel pump.
 
For the record- if your ignition switch has female spades going to the fuse box- pull the red wire and the green wire that go to the ignition switch off the back of the fuse box. Use the double female jumper on those connectors to bypass your ignition switch. Use the black wire to jump the starter.
 
And the “I don’t have anything except a piece of wire and tools in the tool kit “ solution.
Connect the stripped ends of the wire between the positive terminal of the battery and the positive terminal of the coil.
Touch the tip of the screwdriver to connect the 3:00 and 6:00 positions on the starter.
 
Tested solution taken over from the Seller ;-) (MY1975):

1672601648121.png

Free wire (looking up) is for cranking - just touch it to the rest for period of starting up the engine.
 
Thank you all for the excellent suggestions.

I was lucky that the problem did not re-occur this morning and the rally went great. (Especially considering today was the only sunny day after a whole week of rain and before we start on a whole other one tomorrow!).

Time now to think through all your suggestions and put together a little emergency kit in case it happens again until I can figure out exactly where this really annoying intermittent problem is.
 
Yes. I am sure you are right. I sure wish I had known / thought about this while I had the whole thing apart last spring... One never stops learning!
 
Bmachine said:
I checked power to the starter and it was showing a perfect 12 V. It’s as if the contact to activate the solenoid was not being made.
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Hi Bo:

You have me confused as to what the symptoms are. When you wrote "it was showing a perfect 12 V", where were you measuring that voltage? At the large, 8 mm stud, or at the 1/4" faston connector on the starter solenoid? The 8 mm stud will show 12 V as long as your battery is OK. The 1/4" faston should only be hot when the switch is in the "Start" position.

If the 1/4" faston shows 12 V with the switch at "Start", but the starter isn't spinning, then the problem is in the solenoid and not in the ignition switch.

Time now to think through all your suggestions and put together a little emergency kit in case it happens again
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If the problem is the ignition switch - and not the solenoid - then why not carry one of these remote starter things as an emergency kit? Harbor Freight sells them for $9.74 and every other automotive parts store carries some version. Luckily the starter is relatively accessible on an e9, so it shouldn't be too hard to clip one of these on by the side of the road.
image_17495.jpg


No exactly an elegant fix, but better than relying on a push start.
 
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Thank you Jay. Another “why didn’t I think of that?” brilliantly simple idea.

As for the 12v, it was at the big 8mm bolt indeed.
 
Since all of these connections (+12v, Starter Solenoid, and +Coil) are available at the orange-capped 9 pin connector on the driver side fender, couldn't I make up a device with a male 9 pin plug that I could plug into the port and accomplish this easily and cleanly without accessing the fuse box? Sort of like the device sold by a member of the 2002FAQ?
 
Stevehose said:
Since all of these connections (+12v, Starter Solenoid, and +Coil) are available at the orange-capped 9 pin connector on the driver side fender, couldn't I make up a device with a male 9 pin plug that I could plug into the port and accomplish this easily and cleanly without accessing the fuse box? Sort of like the device sold by a member of the 2002FAQ?
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Yes you can, I think it is described in the Blue Books as well.
 
Bmachine said:
As for the 12v, it was at the big 8mm bolt indeed.
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OK, so given that, I'm still not convinced that the starter solenoid - and not the ignition switch - isn't the cause of your problem. Since the problem only happened when the engine (and starter) was fully warmed up, I'd suspect the solenoid before the switch, since the ignition switch doesn't warm up.
 
Ok I've figured out the wiring for a "black box" to plug into the diagnostic port to start and drive the car in the event of an ignition switch failure (no key needed other than to unlock the steering wheel), this would have come in handy for @DWMBMW in Hilton head at LOTA instead of us tearing into his steering column in the parking lot. That scenario put doing this into my head ever since and the broken/failing switch topic seems to come up here pretty often. This weekend I will be assembling a small box with fuse, dash lights/ignition coil lighted power switch (with nuclear bomb safety cover), and push starter button, shall I post this or is it a security risk? My car has both a hidden kill switch and a 123 distributor with bluetooth disable but I understand if the Moderators don't want it out there because it makes "Gone in 60 seconds" slower by 45. I could always PM pics and parts sources to known members if they are interested in building their own. It's very simple and can also be used as an underhood starter while using the key as usual if so desired. It will be kept hidden in my car at all times for when I least expect to need it. Here's the part that plugs into the port in the engine compartment:

IMG_2554.jpg
 
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