Garren, funny you should mention that! I did buy an "ignition relay"at Autozone after the parts man suggested it.This is a 5 spade connector relay in a gray plastic box, which appears toclip to the frame of the vehicle somewhere and looks to be water tight.


I have searched high and low for it on the car and cannot find it. Do you know something I wish I did?

 

Not at all... On a Honda B16 it goes off to the right side but not directly attached to the starter itself...


I was reading through the thread and noticed it was brought up as a solution but not mentioned in your reply. Sorry I can't help further. Most of my advice comes whatever I've already broken. So I'm not going to have too much input on the Saturn side of the world since I'm new at it...

 

Wait a sec... The ignition relay is usually located in the engine chasis's fuse box... Check to make sure your Fuse and Relay box doesn't have an empty spot where that should go...

 

The place to start looking for the 'switched 12volts' is from the START terminal of the new ignition switch you just installed. During the replacement you had to have seen the wiring harness connecting the ignition switch assembly to the rest of the car wiring. Carefully connect one meter lead to frame ground and the other lead probe one terminal of the ignition switch at a time while turning the ignition key from ON to START. The terminal that displays 12v on your meter at the moment the ignition is in the START position is the 'switched 12v' starter wire that goes to the terminal of the starter solenoid. Find this wire from the ignition switch, identify the color code and just follow the wire. It should travel first to the clutch safety switch. The wire at the clutch safety switch should match in color to the 'switched 12v starter' wire. You should be able to see one side of the clutch safety switch measuring 12v also. Since you haven't ben able to measure this the loss of 12v is back at the ignition switch. Concentrate your efforts on finding the 'switched 12v starter' wire from the ignition switch.

 

Thought you might need some more info; http://www.saturnfans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97763

 

Okay for all who have been following this thread I have GOOD news and a possible cause for those experiencing an intermittent cranking problem. There is apparently aweakness in Saturn's wiring of the ignition circuitry.


At the ignition switch, the "switched 12V" should be measured at the heavy WHITE wire of the switch harness. Tracing this wire, you will find that it is factory spliced to two wires (a white and a green) which lead to a connector (presumably) fora computer analyser, located on the panel (under the dash), next to the driver's door. At this connector, there are 4 more wires a red & brown; which are chassis ground and a blue & black which lead back above the ignition harness and are factory spliced to a heavyYELLOW wire.


If you are experiencing a simular problem, try looking for the switched voltage at each of these points. I had it at the white wire (ignition harness); at the white, green, blue & black wires (on the analyser connector), but NOT at the splice to the YELLOW wire. However,aftergently pulling & tugging to trace each of these wires (ESPECIALLY THE YELLOW WIRE)... suddenly the voltage reappeared and the car started!


I am still looking, but I am beginning to beleive that the cause of the problem is that the yellow wire (above the ignition harness) may due to age, viberation, ect, become grounded to the chassis somewhere near or above where it passed through the dash


OR


Although I have not verified this yet I am sure that there is another factory slice somewhere above the dash, which connects this wire to a yellow/white stripped wire (the clutch position switch voltage) and a brown wire (the starter solenoid switch). If I am right, this splice may be weak.


I will post a final thread when I have found the cause of the problem!

 

Here it is... the source of the problem is the "analyzer" (presumably)connector itself. Upon reassembly of the car interior, I kept starting and stopping the engine. When I reattached the connector to the side panel, the "no crank" problem returned and disappeared again as soon as I unscrewed it from the panel. Again and again the symptom appeared and diappeared by screwing/unscrewingthe connector to the panel.On a whim, I put some foam insulation under it and reattached it with shorter screws... problem solved!


Special thanks to Ducky and Derf, without whom I'd have had the car towed to the crusher for scrap metal!

 

Glad to hear you are mobile once again!

 

Sounds as if the screw was either grounding something or possibly causing an arc... Weird...

 

One final note about this problem... and if you think I'm not blushing about to confess this... THINK AGAIN! I was telling one of the guys at work about the problem and it's location. He started laughing and described the "connector" perfectly. When I confirmed the description, he asked to see it (saying he knew what it was, but wanted to confirm it for himself... claiming he had installed at lot of these on a variety of other vehicles). Turns out the "connector" was the remenants of an oldcar alarm. The exact job of this particular "gem" was to disable the car's ignition... works great... and I feel REALLY stupid!