Ugh, no crank, need fixed

[BGKYK5]

Out of nowhere my truck stopped starting - not even cranking. I went through the troubleshooting steps in the GM wiring manual. Less than 1 volt at purple wire on starter solenoid with key in "start". Full 12V at both red wires to ignition switch with key at "off". The manual says to replace the ignition switch, so I did. I had to pull the column half way out to get to it, and managed to lock my keys in the truck when I closed it up to go get the switch (in my other car). No change. My guess is that one or both of the red wires (I presume they are fusible links) needs replacing. They are not fully open, but might not carry enough current for the starter solenoid. I doubt the solenoid is the problem, but won't rule it out. Any tips? I need to get this fixed tomorrow - I'm supposed to go wheeling New Year's Eve. It's the '91 in my sig with a tilt column from an '89.

 

[black dawg]

did you check the start wire at the ignition switch?

 

[diesel4me]

The purple wire activates the solenoid--it runs from the ignition switch,to the neutral safety switch,then passes thru the fuse box,out into the engine compartent and to the solenoid...if you apply a 12V hot wire to the purple wire,it should crank over if the wire is intact and the neutral safety is good (and its IN neutral or park!)...if it dont crank by jumping that purple wire,its not the ignition switch...could be the wire is bad,shorted,cut,etc,or the neutral safety is interupting the current to the starter solenoid..you can jump it right at the solenoid too,but its a bear to get at...

 

[BGKYK5]

Update:

No voltage at purple wire of ignition switch with key in "start". Also no voltage at red wires at ignition switch or at distribution block on firewall with key in "start". Pretty much means its a fusible link right?

Broke one of the ignition switch bolts off in the column and had to pull the whole thing to extract it. Not gonna make the wheeling trip.

 

[diesel4me]

Sounds like a fusible link fried to me,yes...you could jerry rig a push button starter switch,but if your getting no voltage to the red wires at the switch you wont have spark or charging ,so it'd be best to find out what fried the fuse link and then replace it...I had quite a few on my 70's GM trucks fry the red wires and fuse links where they passed theu a conduit tube near the tranny dipstick--its very close to the hot exhaust manifold..why GM routed them that way I dont know,but I wired mine back to how they did it in the pre-72 trucks,I ran the red wires right to the battery instead of piggybacking them under the positive cable at the solenoid...I consider some factory things to be blunders,not "improvements"..

 

[BGKYK5]

That is exactly what it was - insulation burned off the red fusible link in the tube and bare wires (covered with electrical tape) heavily corroded. Ran a new wire and it cranks and starts fine. I hate voltage but no current issues like that. It's my bad for taping up the wire years ago and not fixing it right.

However, now it runs like crap. Something must have been knocked loose.