professor229

When I bought the car, it was "hard starting" and had been in storage for 15 years.... the guy I bought it from was at least the second owner and had no idea why. It took me a month but finally, with the help of a retired Datsun parts man, I finally found out that the switch in the car is the wrong one. I don't want to spend a lot of money to find a brand new assembly, and I know what needs to be done, but I thought I would ask to see if someone could verify if this will work or not... First, the facts: it was manufactured in August 1971.... it runs down the road on a nine volt circuit using a ballast resistor... it is supposed to "start" using a 12 volt circuit that by passes the ballast resistor. It took a month, but after discovering the problem, I figured out there were five terminals on the switch... the fourth terminal is the "run" circuit on the key... in other words, it shoots 12 volts to the ballast resistor which drops it to 9 volts.... The fifth terminal is the "start" circuit on the key switch and sends a pure 12 volts to the starter....

I tried to run a wire from the solenoid to the positive side of the coil so when I turned the key to "start" 12 volts would be sent to the starter... and.. I hoped, the coil.... and then on to the points... It didn't quite work out that way, so I need to go to plan B....

Plan B: What I would like to do, is to splice in a wire to the fifth terminal so when I turn the key to start, the fifth terminal gets 12 volts that go to the starter... and hopefully the spliced new wire to the positive side of the coil, 12 pure volts and when the car starts, let to to "run" on the switch and the nine volt system takes over.... the 12 volt system ends when the key is released... the starter stops, and the 12 volts to the coil also stops....

So... can anybody see a reason why it won't work? I had one guy tell me that running the wire from the starter solenoid to the coil caused a grounding problem... ?????? I am not sure about that.... but.... it didn't work...

PS... to start the car right now, I turn the key to the run catch on the switch and just a hair more to engage the starter... and then back off to run... the starter activates for a short period of time, and the points get juice from the "run" 9 volt system.... it starts remarkably well... and is more less an antitheft device because I am the only one who knows this!!

Advice welcome and appreciated..... Thanks....