Converting to pushbutton start

[gatorman21218]

Lcam you are a gentleman and a scholar. Yes a wiring diagram would help a lot if you have it. Where did you get all your switches from? Ive been to every store in town but they dont seem to have the momentary toggles or DPDT switches.

Also how do you have yours mounted? I cant seem to find any good multihole mounts and space is at a premium in my cab between all the gauges under the dash, the brake controller on the side and the cb above the hvac controls. I was thinking of getting a piece of thin angle stock and drilling holes in it, mounting it where the cb is and moving the cb to the roof.

Switches are insulated right? so I can mount them all to a piece of metal and have no problems?

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Lol, I proudly cheated my way through college so no scholar, and I can think of at least one girl who would strongly disagree with the gentleman part (altho I do fix her truck for her whenever she decides to stop by and pay me a visit), lol

Anyways, I'll draw you a diagram in a bit, I got a Gears of War 2 bloodshed coming up in a few minutes but after that I'll get it done. The switches I've had laying around for good 5 years, they are made by Eaton and were purchased from McMaster-Carr IIRC. Yes they are insulated, you can bolt them up to a metal surface without any issues. I put mine in the dash, between the steering column, and the WIF/WTS lights - since you have a 5-spd truck you probably have a small pocket there, you can gut that and bolt a plate over the hole and use that for mounting the switches. Alternatively look at Alienturtle's setup, I ain't too crazy about losing a dash vent like he did but you may like it.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Here it is, in all its glory, lol. Notice the number codes, these are actually directly from the ignition switch - when you unplug the harness and look down in the switch where the connector goes, you'll notice that every terminal is numbered - so that should hopefully make your job a bit easier...

 

[gatorman21218]

Ok so I just ordered my switches. What size wire are you using to wire it all up? Will 14 gauge be enough? I need to go buy an assortment of colors to make the wiring a little easier.

Are you using fuses? I was thinking of using some inline fuses, or maybe a fuse block I dont know. 20 amp is probably what I need right?

I am going to use my coin pocket as the switch mount- a good idea btw.

I think I am just going to run a 10 gauge power wire from the battery into a fuse block, and run my four leads off of that to my switches (acc,fss,gps,starter) That way I know I will have more then enough power to run them.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

I just used the factory wires for battery feed, ACC1, ACC2, and start. FSS actually has a relay in the engine bay, but I think the wires for it are 14-awg. No fuses, that's what the factory fuse panel is for - I didn't entirely rewire my truck, just replaced one big switch with several separate smaller ones.

 

[gatorman21218]

Ok well I'm in the process of rewiring the whole dern thing. I found a nice fuse block at napa and I'm running wires now so all I have to do when the switches get here is plug em in.

Hmm I also need to go rob something of its sheetmetal. I'm thinking an old VCR housing would make a fine gauge panel.

 

[rhkcommander]

14s fine, not sure on the fuses though sorry

 

[pybyr]

If you are using a momentary toggle for the starter, go on e-bay and search

flip guard switch

and you can put one of those on it

 

[gatorman21218]

Well Ive made up a little diagram here to make sure I am cutting the right wires.

Numbers 4 and 7 are what I need to go to my switch right?
I am unsure about numbers 8 and 11.

And can I leave the connector off the steering column once I hack into it? Ive heard of trucks catching fire from this location.

 

[gatorman21218]

ok after further evaluation I came up with the following results jumping each pin with the number 1 pin

1. power
2.power
3. no wire
4. radios, wipers, turn signal, blower work
5. no result
6. no wire
7. no result
8. glow plugs. gauges, idiot lights come on
9. same result as 8
10. did not test
11. no result

So it seems to me I either have to run number 8 or 9 or both to the switch in order for my factory gauges to work.

HMM let me go check. One of these wires has to run the fuel selector valve right? I will be needing that to run off the switch too.

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Are there no numbers down by the pins of the factory ignition switch? The way you have them numbered yourself I have no clue which is which, I just don't know them by position like that... But based on your jumping tests I can tell you this:

#4 is your ACC1, factory labeled as "687" - blower motor and blinkers only work with that one, so it must be it
#7 is most likely your ACC2, factory labeled as "297" - this should power up the radio, and that's about it since you have no power windows (I just checked on my truck, no blower motor power with switch to ACC2).
#8 and #9 are the ignition and ignition bypass circuits, factory labeled as "16" and "262" - on IDI trucks they do the same thing, but if it was a gasser one of these would do something with the coil or TFI module or whatever (been a while, don't recall anymore) - those are the two you splice together on the output side of your FSS switch.
#5 and #11 are interesting, I have absolutely no idea what you mean by "all door trigger", but I'm thinking one of these is the gauges test circuit and the other is its ground - these two only serve for the gauges/lights check when you first start the truck, I've had both of them disconnected on my truck with no adverse effects.

Again, this is trying to connect your test results with my saved pinout info - I actually dissected the factory ignition switch to verify which wires get connected to which when the slider is in its different positions, I suggest you do the same

 

[gatorman21218]

Ok I took off the switch and looked at it and I think I have it all figured out.

I am going to do a manual glowplug switch, and it seems to me that the switch mod interrupts the ground, so the FSS switch will have to be on in order for the GP switch to run the glow plugs.

And also I will run a dedicated wire to the starter solenoid, therefore bypassing the Neutral Safety switch right?

 

[LCAM-01XA]

Ok I took off the switch and looked at it and I think I have it all figured out.

I am going to do a manual glowplug switch, and it seems to me that the switch mod interrupts the ground, so the FSS switch will have to be on in order for the GP switch to run the glow plugs.

And also I will run a dedicated wire to the starter solenoid, therefore bypassing the Neutral Safety switch right?

The glowplugs controller gets key-on power, likely through the IGN circuits, so yes, I'd say that it will only get power while the FSS switch is on. Which is what you want anyways. And yes, you still need to run the ground side through a separate switch, but that's the typical setup everyone does so nothing new there.

About the start wire, should be no need to run a separate one - just jump the NSS on the transmission (wherever that may be), and you should be good to go.

 

[gatorman21218]

Well I got everything wired up. I have half a mind to hot wire the wires to see if everything works as it should, as my switches are not coming til later this week.

 

[gatorman21218]

Well my switches got here saturday and I got everything hooked up and running. They work great! now all I need the key for is to unlock the steering wheel. Now everytime I start the truck I say "gentlemen, start your engines!!!" and start my truck like its a stock car. Very cool! thanks everyone especially LCAM for your help. If it wasnt raining Id go get a picture for you of it