hi,

My Bonneville has a complicated electrical issue going on. I'll try to keep it brief. I replaced the front valve cover gasket and passengers side front control arm, and then the engine wouldn't crank. All the interior lights come on, and the dash lights don't show anything unusual when attempting to start(security light does not stay on), nothing. We have ruled out the starter. I attempted a PCM relearn with the master key and it did nothing, so either PCM is bad or not the issue. I believe the fuel pump primes, I hear a whine when the key is turned to the 'on' position, but when starting the car, all I hear is the click of a few relays. Purple wire on the starter is getting no volts(not enough to register on a test bulb, anyway) but the bigger wire is getting 12 volts. I've checked for wires I could have snapped while changing the gasket, but could not find anything. Are there any grounds near the cover? If it comes to putting a multimeter to all the wires involved in the cranking process I will probably take the car to a mechanic, because I'm not comfortable messing with any of that. I've already tried asking on but have still not solved this. If someone'* got any ideas I'd love to hear them.
Link to original thread: http://.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=30309

Well, my tablet is not playing fair tonight. Actual link(hopefully): http://.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=30309

http://i1142.photobucket.com/albums/...bonnystart.gif

i would start by pulling the relay underhood and see what you have at those pins

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding this diagram. What is "fuse block IP"? And what do you mean by checking what I have at the pins? I'm sorry, I'm really bad at electrical stuff, I would just take the car to a shop but I don't have any money.

also, if it comes to that, how do I go about testing wires wrapped in harnesses, like wires coming out of the fuse blocks? I'm convinced I broke a wire somewhere, at least that is what people keep telling me.

hows this;


take out the starter relay, if you measure one lead to ground the other to the socket pins(where the relay was) two should have battery voltage, from the PCM fuse and STARTER fuse. one of the other ones goes to the starter small wire. you can measure continuity. the other is the ground control from the pcm, so when you first test it it may seem like there is 12v on it but if you have someone turn the key to start it should go low, or close to 0 volts. there is another fuse to check as well the "crank" fuse i think on the 2000+'* its under the back seat. if its good you should test it for 12v to ground when the key is in start.

you test wires by "backprobing" them. which is taking a sharp probe that pierces the insulation and can see what the wire has on it, you always want to save that for last resort though as it leaves holes in the insulation and is asking for corrosion to get in.

let me know what you find i can help you further.