Battery Hooked Up - no smoke - but..., Starter doesn't turn Options

[lsintampa]

75 914/4 2.0

I worked up enough courage to hook power up to the thing.

The instrument cluster is out, as is the dash top, and most of the wiring is just hanging down.

Before I attached the battery, I did a once over to make sure I didn't see any shorts.

Here's what works.... with the ignition on.

Lights pop up and light, highbeams work, hazzards work, blinkers work, some annoying buzzer works (assume it is for the seat belts?), brake lights work, wipers work.... so it seems most things work.

With ignition on - I don't hear the Fuel Pump come on, I assume it should run with ignition on (no tank in the car, yet - getting it sealed again).

When I turn the key to start, I'm expecting the starter to engage, but it doesn't.

Worth mentioning that the car basically is still very disassembled. The FI is not wired up - so I don't know if that effects the starter or not - I wouldn't think so.

There were four red leads all that connect to the positive side of the battery, the long positive cable goes to the starter, and feeds another red wire that goes to the alternator / relay board.

The voltage regulator is new.

I'm not sure why the starter isn't engaging - it's new also, as is the alternator.

Onward through the fog as they say.

Len

[Tom]

You aren't the first one to have an issue with the ignition harness due to the AAR shorting. The fuse that "protects" that circuit as well as the heater blower, fuel pump relay, and rear window defrost circuit is a 25 amp. The wire for the AAR is 0.5mm or about 20 ga. which is rated for about 8 amps. So when it shorts and draws excess current, it melts before that 25 amp fuse will blow. When you reinstall the power to the AAR, include an inline fuse rated at no more than 5 amps.
Your tach wire probably melted because as the AAR wire melted, it melted the tach wire also and shorted it to ground along with the AAR wire. Now the power from the positive side of the coil is feeding thru the coil continuously and damages the tach wire more also. As to why your condenser wire fried, I don't know, unless your points were damaged by the surge in current when the AAR shorted.
Tom