Ok, yesterday after I spent all day working on the car bleeding the brakes, clutch, and oil change, I decided to fix some interior panels that were loose. The steering wheel column cover was missing a bolt underneath. Evertime I would turn the steering wheel it would move a little. So I grabbed 3/4" screw from my bucket of left over screws and began screwing it in. I had the radio playing while I was doing this. As the screw began to get tight I hear a spark and my radio shuts off. I turn the ignition switch off and check my fuses. All are fine and I take the screw off and turn the switch to see if the radio turns back on. It works along with all the other accessories. Then I try to start the car and all I hear is a click coming from the firewall (a relay). I check the fuses again and all are fine. I try to look under the hood but I couldn't locate any fuses in there.

I then removed the steering wheel along with the cover I was trying to tighten. I noticed the screw I was trying to screw in made contact with the starter switch and pieced a small hole through it and I guess grounded it causing a spark.

Did I kill my switch or did some fuse or fusable link break? I just ordered a haynes manual and hopefully that will help me out getting through the wiring. If someone would point me out on where to begin I would really appreciate it. Thanks in advance.

P.S. here are some pics.

 

Well id say first of all check to see if the starter is fine "cross the terminal between the selenoid post and the main power post". If the starter turns over then its the wire.

 

Does the starter have a fusible link going to it? I doubt it has anything to do with the starter.

 

bump

 

Just do a continuity check on the wire.

 

Assuming that cable works, what else could cause this?

 

Internal switch contacts burned from arcing.

 

So I would need a new swtich? But if the contacts are burned nothing should work right? Lights and accessories work, it just wont start. I hear a click but no power is getting sent to the starter.

 

It depends on which contacts are burnt specifically.
You can take the switch assembly out of the barrel and check it out visually. Be careful withdrawing the switch part from the barrel as the springs under the actual contact pieces like to fly out when they're not being held in place.

Since my initial post, it has occurred to me that another option is that somehow the shorting may have affected the starting relay.

Do you have a manual with a wiring diagram?

 

I've overtightned that same screw and it just makes the ignition locked so the key doesnt turn all the way. Fortunatly, backing the screw out some corrects the problem. I had similar sounding starting problems that I eventually tracked down to a bad alarm that I ended up pulling out. The FSM says to check the voltage at the starter. If its > 9v (i think thats the voltage...) then its the starter, if its <9v then its the wiring upstream. With my problem if I held the key in the START position for 10 seconds then turned it off, it would fire right up the next time.

 

UPDATE:
Thanks for the feedback guys. Looks like Wankleguy was right. The internal contacts seem like they either burned or the screw broke them. I found this out by taking a screwdriver and connecting power to the black cable w/white stripe. It starts right up but I still need the key to be on the start position in order for this to work.

Should I take it apart and see if I can rebuild it? Or should I just replace it?

 

Carefully take it apart and maybe it can be resoldered. If not, replace.