Booth

So I just bought a 1990 LS400 a few days ago and when I bought it the kid said it only needed a starter.. after trouble shooting for a while and manually operating the starter relay we found that the starter was fine.

With that not being the issue we moved on to other things such as anti-theft possibly being an issue as he didn't have the master key only the valet (security light not on), and then found in the front passenger fender the wiring harness had been terribly spliced back together after the last kid had his tire blow out... that will be getting re-wired tomorrow. I'm hoping this might fix it but I really doubt it.. (cant find any diagrams)
When I turn the key nothing happens. Only when we manually operating the starter relay it would crank but not start. (the key not doing anything) Ignition switch is fine.
We could smell the gas and found out its not a fuel issue. we think it's something electronic but after about 4-5 hours of trouble shooting we decided to call it a night as it was 12 am..
any clues as to what could be going on with it? I still have a fair amount of trouble shooting to do but if anyone has had a similar issue or knows a solution please let me know!! I want to get this baby out on the road and looking pretty!!!

Booth

So i fixed the wiring harness and that allowed me to get the car to start using the starter relay but still no crank on key turn...

timmy0tool

iTrader: (7)

start with the simple stuff first like making sure the shifter is in park. sometimes the neutral safety switch at the shifter goes bad so it disables the starter from engaging with the key turn. cycle from P to D then back to P.

the starter will not engage unless it's in P or N. try starting it in neutral as well as see if things improve (of course make sure the car doesn't roll away).