LegacyPsycho

Problem update As i was in a slight rush to get some things done i went ahead and did the push button switch directly from the battery to the starter. By the time i got everything done the battery was fairly well drained. (cold weather, car has been sitting a couple weeks, and a few failed starts are to blame) the battery was checked at a parts store not long ago and it has always held charge when its used at least weekly. I had a neighbor come over and jump the car. we got everything hooked up all the dash lights came on and everything seemed fine. the car started right up on the first attempt but soon as i removed the jumper cables it died. We put the cables back on but now there are no dash lights. everything else appears to work fine (windows, alert chimes, seatbelts, headlights) but the car will just crank and crank without starting. I have more or less bypassed my ignition as far as the starter circuit is concerned, but i do still of course have the key in the ignition and turned to 'on' while trying to start. Does the ignition power the fuel pump? I'm wondering if the car was only burning what was in the lines and is now not getting fuel (doesn't explain the lack of dash lights now though), or does it control spark in any way (doesn't explain how it still started the first time) I'm once again lost. any ideas/solutions? Also, before doing the push button I set up the relay (per GD's instructions) with the stock ignition and got no positive results. I feel confident I had it hooked up correctly but it appears the starter solenoid wire is not even receiving a faint enough signal to allow the starter to get juice from the battery via the relay (i didn't even hear a click) one final observation. before we hooked up the car to jumper cables, when the keys were in the ignition, the alert chime was beeping at a different than usual pace. Usually it stays on for a few seconds and then goes quiet, or it goes "beep beep beep" at a reasonable quick pace til you take the key out or close the door. When it changed it would beep slightly longer than usual, and then sit quiet for 4-5 seconds before beeping again, and keep doing that til you took the key out. it would do this while the ignition was in any position.

Thanks again for all your help everyone that supplied info for me. Especially GD. If you haven't noticed already, please check your PMs GD as i need one last bit of help before i slap this wiring together, now that all the parts are in hand. really small problem in actuality but getting it done with makes me feel so accomplished. lol.

I love the confidence you have about solving my problem and i will go this route tomorrow when I can get to the parts store for some supplies. i edited this post cause i figured i would figure it out tomorrow, but thanks so much for the more detailed response i originally requested!

it will not start in neutral. the shifter will not come out of park by turning the key to on or start and pushing the shifter button and the brake pedal. i am pretty sure it wont even let me depress the shifter button til i push the black button at the base to manually release the locking bracket. after looking at that thread it would seem the solenoid underneath it isn't receiving a signal to disengage when i push my brake pedal like it usually would. This is not really a problem though because the car should still start in neutral then eh? I went threw about 20 pages of loosely defined search results on this site and came across the "push button relay" option. I haven't even looked deeply into it yet but it seems like it would be a surefire way around this problem, knowing that my battery and starter are both functioning. If my ignition switch is still operating normally in every other obvious aspect, would the car still operate normally doing something like this? Would the push switch also have to tap into your ignition system? doesn't seem like leaving it as its own circuit would be a security risk since you would still need the key to unlock the steering wheel and provide the car with the on signal it needs for everything else to power up.

So i just took apart both my center console and my steering wheel column. I was hoping something obvious would slap me in the face but it didn't. I did not find any obvious switch in the shifter assembly, just the mechanical contraption that locks the shifter in park. I was only able to look so closely though as i could not get the entire molded shifter off without cutting the wires that run up to the "manual" button. On the ignition switch, opposite side of where you put your key in, there is a harness that run to a circle plate with 5 or 6 wires soldered to it. All the connections were fine but the whole plate was very slightly loose. I could not jiggle it any looser and playing with it obviously help anything reconnect and allow my car to start. is this normal or is this likely my problem? i am not so familiar with the electronics but imagine its just an interface plate that holds wires in place to connect to other wires on the inside of the ignition. In that case being loose doesn't seem like it would be an issue. But if they are actually contacts or something else in there maybe it would be? I suppose im more or less blind without a voltmeter, but the work i did in the snow this morning will make life easier the when i get one and can start looking for where the power is getting cut out. Even when I get one though its where i start stumbling. mechanics ok, electrics not so much. Are there any free online manuals that cover this for my car specifically? or can someone walk me thru what i need to check to find the problem?

I have a 92 legacy 2.2 AT 4 door that has been giving me rare starting problems. It simply wont crank. I dont even hear the solenoid click when the key is turned, but all the other power seems to work fine. My wife and I share this car and I drive it to work at night and she uses it for work/errands during the day. I have never experienced the problem but the wife has a few times when she comes out after a short errand and the car is still warm. It won't crank over for her. This happens very infrequently, every few months. She usually calls me rather upset about the situation and since we only have the one car, and she knows absolutely nothing about them, so much that she can't accurately describe the problem, I was led to believe it was the battery. I had her find a friend to jump her... but before they got there the car would always end up starting (usually about 20 minutes after the problem was discovered, about an hour after the car was parked) Well the problem happened again while she was on the complete opposite side of town and we decided to wait it out since it usually worked after a while. a few hours later, still no start, we towed the car home and still no start. We tried starting it while it was being pulled, since i've read that having the car in gear at 40mph+ will be enough to 'push start' an AT. But nothing. Since then i have replaced the starter and the problem still exists. All the power in the car seems to work fine but there is simply no activity in the engine bay when the key is turned. Now the car doesn't like to come out of park unless the button near the base of the shifter is pushed (didn't even know what it was there for til i realized it released the stuck shifter when the problem developed to this point) It seems like the problem is either my ignition switch or some kinda park safety switch. I can source both parts cheaply at a local scrap yard but its kinda far and im using a bicycle/bus to get around. Id like to get both parts in 1 trip but cant even figure out where the park switch is. google has supplied answers that its in the tranny, or in the shifter console, or in a few other different areas. I imagine im screwed if its in the tranny. Maybe there is something im overlooking as well. So i am hoping this thread helps produce some answers. I am mechanically minded but broke as it gets and dont have a voltmeter. so hopefully someone has had this exact problem and can point me in the right direction. oh yeah. I have cleaned my battery terminals and all wires related to the starting system when i was doing the replacement. Thanks a ton for replies. And thanks for the great resource this site provides.