Hello all!
First off wanted to say hello and what a great BB this! Been lurking for a few days and now its time to jump in as I need some assistance.
I have a '87 Pathfinder V6 engine with 101K on it. Auto transmission. Totally out of the blue she would not start. I have a new battery, holds great charges. There is full power to everything when rotating the key to start position (horn,wipers, indicators,headlights,cig lighter, well you get the point). When going to start position i hear nothing but a relay down near my left knee (fuse panel area), no starter soleniod clicking nada. Well i crawl underneath thinking its the starter soleniod acting up and give her a gentle tap with hammer, vroooom she starts right up. So i order and replace the starter and soleniod. Guess what, the same exact problem happens again stranding me.
Grrrrr. After 2 days of troubleshooting with the Haynes manual i *think* i have it narrowed down to the inhibit system. Currently i have the inhibit system bypassed by providing 12 volts to the S terminal on the starter soleniod allwing me to at least drive it (being careful to ensure that i am in P or nuetral when starting it!)
I do not know where to go from here. There is a inhibit relay under the hood, right side in a bank of 5 other relays, it is grey in color. Could this be faulty? Or is it within the inhibit switches used to keep the truck from starting in D,1,2,3,R gears?
Hope i have included enough info to confuse you all. Please help me! Oh I am stationed in Iceland and the parts are soooo expensive that i would like to do what I can before taking off base to a dealer!
Thank you for hanging in there if you made it this far. I need help solving this problem.
John
'87 Pathfinder starting problems
as far as you posting it was a 96 you must of posted it during the day dream..lol
Anyhow poke your head under the dash and look for where the ignition switch harness comes out and has a large white connector. you should see that the harness coming off that connector loops around and has another identical connector most of the wires go to that connector from the other one and a few go some where else. Unplug that sub harness at both ends and plug the other 2 connectors at either end together and see if she will start. If it does you have a problem with your alarm control unit under your drivers seat.
If you dont know what in the hell I am talking about [ which doesnt seem to be all that uncommon around here] remove the small panel under your steering coloum near your knees and use a digital cam to snap a shot of the wiring there and post it in members rides [ link down the left side of this page under the adds] and link it to this thread I will copy it and modify it to identify what harness I am talking about.
Anyhow poke your head under the dash and look for where the ignition switch harness comes out and has a large white connector. you should see that the harness coming off that connector loops around and has another identical connector most of the wires go to that connector from the other one and a few go some where else. Unplug that sub harness at both ends and plug the other 2 connectors at either end together and see if she will start. If it does you have a problem with your alarm control unit under your drivers seat.
If you dont know what in the hell I am talking about [ which doesnt seem to be all that uncommon around here] remove the small panel under your steering coloum near your knees and use a digital cam to snap a shot of the wiring there and post it in members rides [ link down the left side of this page under the adds] and link it to this thread I will copy it and modify it to identify what harness I am talking about.