Haha the irony, usually the threads are titled 'Car won't start' but I'm having the opposite problem.

This morning when I went to start the car, I put the key in and turned it to the accessory position but everything was completely dead. Normally I can hear the fuel pump kick in and a couple of lights come on but there was nothing.

I checked fuses, battery voltage, and did a quick wiring check but couldn't see anything wrong. I had nearly resigned myself to taking my other piece of **** car to work but thought I'd try turning the key to crank to see what happened.

As soon as I did this everything kicked in and the car started fine... anyway I was happy so I head off to work. I finally get to work, pull in to a parking space and turn the key off but the car keeps running!

I eventually just held the brake on and stalled the engine. Any ideas what could be causing this? It's obviously an electrical problem but I'm looking for somewhere to start...

 

Alternator ground. Oodest thing that's ever happend to me.

 

It's usually in the electrical portion of the ignition switch. Does it feel like it is releasing properly when you release the key?

 

The key feels like it's releasing fine. I actually put the key back in and tried turning it off a couple of times which still didn't work.

I'll have a look at the alternator grounds.

 

one thing with my mods of the first gens, when i put the second gen, i burnt one out(alternator) by not putting that fucken little 12guage wire from the back of the alt to the block. now that ive done that
the alt has lasted me more than 3 moths(so far):P, try that
if it doesnt have a screw, put one there

 

lasted 3 moths, eh? Time to debug

 

re-read that my friend, i specifically put: " it HAS lasted me more than 3 months" as to say "its stilll in the car working fine".

 

The electrical part of the switch is fastened to the back of the physical lock cylinder. This can go bad or sometimes over time it gets loose from the back of the lock or starts to separate and come apart. I would pull the whole mess out and clean, tighten, and lube things up and put it all back together and see how it does.

Worse case is you need to replace the electrical part (#6615 for 1980) which you can get at mazdatrix but its not cheap at $106.49.

http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.as...m=66-155A-BA24

 

I'll hafta give that a try. Sometimes when I turn off the key, the radio does not shut off. Simply turning the blower switch or wiper switch on, will cause the radio to shut off.
I was thinking a relay somewhere was sticking......

 

no, you said 3 moths - hence the debug remark

 

lol well theres always something else there it could be too much fuel that is if the switch work properly then my guess would be..lol **** my theroy wire a fuel cut off switch and call it a day