Ignition switch will not kill engine

[Steve D.]

I have a friend with a 63 convertible in whic the ignition switch will not kill the engine. Upon various people's advice he has changed out the ignition switch, voltage regulator and ballast resistor; all to know avail. Does this point to any known condition, or is he left with my advice to hook up a tattletale and look for current flow>

Steve

[Jim D.]

Re: Ignition switch will not kill engine

Does he have a MSD ignition box?

[Edward J.]

Re: Ignition switch will not kill engine

I have a friend with a 63 convertible in whic the ignition switch will not kill the engine. Upon various people's advice he has changed out the ignition switch, voltage regulator and ballast resistor; all to know avail. Does this point to any known condition, or is he left with my advice to hook up a tattletale and look for current flow>

Steve

Steve, there is voltage be feed to the ballast resistor from somewhere. folllow the pink w/blk( this wire comes from ing. switch) or pink wire tracer( contiunes off ballast to engine coil).Check for a wire that maybe melted that will feed power to that wire. sometimes the engine harness get hot and melts the wiring.

[Steve D.]

Re: Ignition switch will not kill engine

Not that I'm aware of.

[Steve D.]

Re: Ignition switch will not kill engine

Thanks, I'll pass it along.

[Philip P.]

Re: Ignition switch will not kill engine

On the earlier small blocks 12 volts is applied to the coil side of the ballast restistor on startup via the starter solinoid. It is postible that the contact inside (solinoid) is shorted.
I do not have a wire diagram for a 63 and this pertains to a 1960 so it may be wired different. If it is wired the same however, you should not have 12 volts on the coil side of the ballast with the key off.
Phil

[John H.]

Re: Ignition switch will not kill engine

63's had an 18-ga. pink wire from the starter "R" terminal to the coil (+) terminal for the bypass feature that Phil noted above. That wire can be shorted to the main power feed wire inside the engine harness between the starter and the firewall, which would make it "hot" all the time, keeping the engine running regardless of key position.