Well it's finally happened to me...the car will not turn over. This is on my first try from dropping the rebuilt motor in. It ran fine at the dyno now nothing.

To clarify the car will not turn the starter over in start.

I can jump the starter at the relay, but it will not run. So I think I may hve multiple issues.

Here is what i have tested with a test light:

RELAY:

1. Yellow starter wire from IGN pulled off of relay terminal and lights when grounded so...signal from key into relay okay

2. With brown wire pulled off of relay and yellow wire reconnected the brown terminal lights when grounded so...signal through relay to tranny N/S switch okay

3. Jumper installed from positive battery stud to yellow terminal on relay and brown terminal grounded with test lamp to try and fire car only lights light. This may indicate a relay problem?

4. Same as above with brown N/S wire reconnected...no start.

Other tests:

In run the blue wire in Ballast resistor gave light when grounded.

In start the + terminal/brown wire on the coil lit when grounded

In run the light blue w/ yellow tracer wire in the 5 pin ECU plug lit when grounded.

When jumped the car will turn over, but not run which tells me that I may also not have spark too....

I checked grounds in the car and out and sanded a few down...the battery is a brand new die hard Gold Group 34 with over 700 CCA. I swapped to a JY relay I had laying around. I even swapped ECU's...no changes.

Before the motor was pulled tha car ran like crap, but it would start and run now I have NOTHING! To say I am frustrated is an understatement. It's probably a good thing none of you guys were driving around my house today because you proabbly would have gotten an outrageaous deal on a nice looking 71 FC7 Bee with a new motor and trans!

When you jumped it at the relay, you did have the ignition on, right. This guy I know forgot that... once...
I haven't looked at the wiring diagrams lately, but you should have voltage to two wires going to the ECU--the power to the ECU and the power coming through the coil. You say you have power to the coil +. It should feed through the coil to the - side and then to the ECU. The - side should flash when you crank it over.

Check the connector at the trans or ground the brown terminal directly temporarily. It sounds like a neutral safety switch problem.
Grounding the brown terminal using a test light won't allow enough current draw to energize the start relay. It needs a direct connection to ground.

I agree that this sounds like either a starter relay--you must ground the brown connection at the relay through a WIRE, not the light, to get it to work, then check the brown wire and down to the neutral safety.

Here's the thing that may be screwing you up for start----when you put the key in run, and manually jumper the starter relay to crank the engine, you are not receiving the coil resistor bypass for a hot spark in start--that's the job of the key, ign 2 contacts.

This means that you get a weak spark in this condition. One thing you can do is DURING CRANK, and remove soon after, Use a clip lead from the starter relay stud or other hot source---like the alternator stud--directly to the coil pos, or the coil side of the ballast.

Re-read above---when you jumper the relay with the key in "run" you don't get a hot spark--no resistor bybass.

ign. ballast resistor bypass runs off the starter relay.
ign. ballast resitor "run" feeds off the ign. switch.

Quote:

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During run I could get a light from the + side of te coil too, but it looked alot less bright. Could this indicate the stepped down voltage needed during run? I test lighted the negative side, but did not get the testor to light.

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The light should be less bright in run than start--that's the effect of the ballast resistor. The only time the - side of the coil shouldn't have voltage with the key in 'run' is when the ignition is firing. It's possible the distributor was sitting in that spot and that's normal. The other possibility is that the coil is bad. Bump the starter over and try it a few more times just to be sure. If you never get power on the - side, your coil is bad.

Okay I jumpered the Brown terminal to ground which bypasses the N/S switch and it now starts with the key...I guess this means I have gone through the 3rd N/S switch in my time

Now I have to adress why it runs and sounds like crap...basically won't hold an idle, sounds like it leaks through the exhaust, and runs very rough...so far i found a vacum leak at the power booster...plugged it and it runs sort of better. It almost feels like not all 8 cylinders are there...I swear to god this car is going to kill me!

Anyways thank you all for helping me...it's nice to have a sane voice when your about ready to throw a wrench!