Automotive Wiring Diagram.Com Forum

crazyhorse357 · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 2:07 pm Post subject: Ghost in the machine

Hi Guys,
I suppose that I am the newbie and I come to ya'll heavly burdened.
I recently bought a 94 town car with the intentions of making some light repairs and reselling it and pocketing some change, a nice looking car but not without problems,air suspension system trash, interior nasty, needed windshield, and so on, nothing that I could not handle.
Well the gearshift was kinda loose so I found out what to do to tighten it and set out to do so.
Had to get under dash and tighten two torx screws, kind hard to get to, but finally got 'er done.
Afterwards I cranked the car and went from park to reverse and the car died, tried to restart would not crank, engine would turn over but would say a word/hit a lick.
I got very flustered andwent inside for approxmately 10 minutes or so, came back and appempted to restart and the car cranked.
I pulled the gear shift from park into reverse, car died again, I tried to restart, and nothing, engine would turn over but would not start, so I waited another 10 or so minutes, tried to start and it cranked, so this time I pulled it real fast into drive and it stayed cranked, I let it run for a few minutes then placed it in reverse, it died again.
It dies when it sees reverse, and then won't crank for a few minutes afterwards, this kinda sounds lie a circuit breaker tripping to me, but what would tightening two screws cause a c/b to trip.
I am going back under the dash and inspect to be sure that I didn't pinch a wire when I tightened the two torx screws.
Is there any way to check a circuit breaker while it is tripped as to determine which circuit is to blame.

I am looking for some input, any and all suggestions will be appreciated.

Many thanks,
Frank aka crazyhorse357

wiremonkey · Joined: 17 Mar 2006 Posts: 10

Hello crazyhorse,

You have some sort of problem there. I'm not much of an under the hood kind of guy but I hope someone can help you out here!

Guest · Posted: Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:12 pm Post subject:

Hi crazyhorse357,

It doesn't sound like a circuit breaker to me, more like you've caught the reversing light feed when you tightened up the two torx screws.

I would look definitely at any wiring that references the reversing lights as these can take a feed via the electronic fuel injection in some cases.

Also you could start the car in neutral and go straight to drive. But park too close to a wall Wink

Mikki French · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 15

Guest · Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 8:03 pm Post subject:

It definately sounds like you have some sort of electrical problem. I don't know a whole lot about the town car but I do know that there are certain electrical connections attached to the shifter that prevent you from starting the car in gear. There is a good chance that one of these may have been pulled loose while you were up under everything. Check to make sure that there are no wires caught up in anything or pulled out of thier connections.

MicahHall · Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 29