Expert: Brad Sears - 6/1/2008

Question
I have a 73' Duster 340 V8. Auto. I am and have been having problems with the fender mounted starter relay's constantly not working properly thus making it impossible to start the car with the iginition key.My question is I have already bypassed this relay alltogether by connecting the field wires and to start the car I turn the key on to power up the electrical system and have to open the hood to touch these two leads(Battery and Field) together and the car starts, however I was wondering if there was any way to connect up a button inside the car to just press this button to start the car instead of popping the hood to touch these wires together. If this is possible how would I connect these wires, I am assuming that I would just need a button and wiring to run from the engine bay to the dash mounted button??? Please any suggestions would help. I have replaced the starter so I know the problem is NOT starter related. I have also gone through the wiring harness several times and cannot find any broken wires.however I did need to splice the field terminals to bypass the fender mounted starter relay.

Answer
Before making changes in the wiring I would check the connector where the wiring harness goes through the fire wall on the left (drivers) side. There have been a lot of problems with this connector over the years. Water runs down in that area and causes the connections to corrode. Let me know what you find
Brad