new to the site, 68 country Squire Not starting!!

I've been googling online to find an electrical diagram when I found your site. Basically, I was driving in town in my daily driver, 68 Country wagon, and the ignition switch fell out of the dash and came apart in two pieces. I was able to all the pieces back together again and tape it up, and drove home. Well a few days later it just wouldn't work, I would turn the key over and get nothing. So I ordered a new switch, pulled the cylinder and installed the new switch. Nothing. No sounds. With the key in the on position I can't get my back window to work by using the toggle under the dash. Nor my wipers. I can raise and lower the back window by inserting the key. I've located the hot and ground in the switch and it's all intact. I've got power but still nothing. I get the oil light to turn on as well as the brake light to turn on within the dash when I turn the key all the way to start. I replaced a relay that is directly in front of the drivers fire wall above the brake master cylinder, it's a little square with 4 prongs along the rim with a middle prong. This one relay is part of the link to the back window working because one day it stopped working and when I looked under the hood I saw one wire that had come loose on this particular relay. I['m not a mechanic but I can figure some things out in need be, but I am stumped and it's been a week sitting there and I need wheels. any help would be great. Thank you, jason

 

Sounds like you still have a problem in the switch. Something is not clocked right. Your "on" position doesn't occur until you have it at your start position.
Either your cylinder is not in the switch right, or your plug in on the back isn't clocked right or you have the wrong switch. Are the wires all in one plug on the back of the switch or are there 2 or more plugs that plug in? has the plug been doctored in the past?

 

Check to see if a bad ground in there didn't kill the battery.
Also, check the starter solenoid.

 

Well, I've had a mechanic buddy drop by the other day to confirm with his meter that I"ve got power coming to the switch and we located the ground as well. There is only one way that the switch gets connected to the black plastic housing, all the wires are securely attached to the housing. The same with the cylinder, only one way to get it in all the way in. We both took turns taking it apart and putting it back together again in case one of us got it wrong. THe battery is strong as I can still operate the back window fine via the key, head lights work, horn works, emergency blinkers work. no wipers though. All the wires connect via the black housing, no loose wires to attach. The housing looks original, no apparent damage or alterations. The new switch is the correct one and matches identicle with the old one. I have not checked the starter solenoid. I thought it might be the neutral safety switch as there have been times when I stall out, I cant restart it in neutral consistantly, I have to go back to Park. Should I buy a new cylinder? How do I check to see if the starter solenoid is good/bad? I'm gonna take a photo of a mystery item under the hood and see if any of you know what it is. Some sort of relay, solenoid, switch.

 

There is a solinoid on the passenger side fenderwell. The battery positive cable attaches to one side, then a heavy cable goes from the post on the other side to the starter. There is either one or two small wires that go to small posts in the middle between the large posts. If you are getting power to the solinoid from the starter switch one of those small wires should be hot when you turn the starter switch to start.
I don't think it is the soliniod because your accessories are not getting power either. Have you tried to turn the key back one notch from off to see if your turn signals will work?
There is four positions on the switch. From left to right they are Accessory-Off-Run-Start
In the off position your head lights, and horn should work, and back window should work from the outside swtch.
In the accessory position everything electrical (blinkers, heater blower, radio, wipers,etc) should work except for the ignition system,(power to the points and to the coil) and the starter motor.
In the On position, everything that comes on on accessory position should work plus there will be power to the coil and points.
In the start position everything in accessory position will be turned off but power will go to the starter solinoid causing the magnetic switch to close and power goes through the solinoid from the battery to the starter. In the start position, the coil and points have power to them to so the car will start when it is turn over.
Try the different positions and tell me what works and what doesn't.
It still sounds like there is not a connection being made in the starter switch.

 

You said that you found the ground to the starter switch. There should be no ground. The power goes to the switch and the switch in different positions sends that power to the various items on the car. The accessory wire goes to the fuse block and the goes to each accessory from there and each accessory has it's own ground. The ignition wire from the switch goes to coil and then to the points which intermittantly grounds to cause the coil to spark at the right time. The starter wire goes from the the switch to the solinoid and grounds through the solinoid.
There should not be a wire going from the starter switch to the ground directly!

 

68Squire, the 1969 Mercury should be similar in wiring and I found a 17MB file with the wiring diagrams!

Halfway down the page:
http://www.wingedmessenger.net/Tech.htm

This is a direct link to the download if you don't want to go there, but its worth the clicks:
http://www.wingedmessenger.net/Brochures/69elect.pdf

Especially this pictorial of all the old Mercs from Canada!
http://www.wingedmessenger.net/Canada.htm

Here's the main page:
http://www.wingedmessenger.net/

 

Traditionally, those Fords had switch problems. However, the problem(s) were usually corrected by the installation of a new switch. Still...I'm with hotbob on this....it sure sounds like it is in the switch. Since you were able to tape things together and drive home after the switch fell out leads me to now believe you have a bad switch, incorrect installation or something was burned out during the problem phase.
By the way....to the wagon train.

 

Well, I've had a mechanic buddy drop by the other day to confirm with his meter that I"ve got power coming to the switch and we located the ground as well. There is only one way that the switch gets connected to the black plastic housing, all the wires are securely attached to the housing. The same with the cylinder, only one way to get it in all the way in. We both took turns taking it apart and putting it back together again in case one of us got it wrong. THe battery is strong as I can still operate the back window fine via the key, head lights work, horn works, emergency blinkers work. no wipers though. All the wires connect via the black housing, no loose wires to attach. The housing looks original, no apparent damage or alterations. The new switch is the correct one and matches identicle with the old one. I have not checked the starter solenoid. I thought it might be the neutral safety switch as there have been times when I stall out, I cant restart it in neutral consistantly, I have to go back to Park. Should I buy a new cylinder? How do I check to see if the starter solenoid is good/bad? I'm gonna take a photo of a mystery item under the hood and see if any of you know what it is. Some sort of relay, solenoid, switch.

 

I've been out all day for the kids soccer games etc, and will not be on the rest of the night. IT looks like I've gotten a lot of great feedback and hopefully I can get it up an running tomorrow. I'm going to print out what's been written so far and check the links as well. My buddy comes by tomorrow and I will hand him all of this to him and together it will be a success. I will post back with where we went wrong and hopefully it won't be a bad switch cause I had to order it an it took 5 days to get it. I don't remember if I disconnected the battery before I put the new on. could I have damaged it that way? When I turn the key in the new switch I get a weird crunching kinda feeling at the last part where it should turn over, not nearly as smooth as the old one. anyhoo, great response thanks for all the input.

 

wow, what great links. thanks a whole bunch, my fellow Canadian. I grew up in NS & NB.

 

A "crunchy feeling" in the switch?? Maybe something mechanical came apart in there to cause it to drop out in the first place. Or the switch is just a bad one.

 

a "crunchy feeling" from a brand new switch sounds bad. Now that someone found a wiring diagram, if you manually bridge the appropriate connections to duplicate "On" and "Start" conditions does everything work? This is essentially "hot-wiring" it to test whether there's a problem downstream of the switch. Your mechanic friend with the meter should be able to do this if you're not comfortable with it.

 

well...im kinda glad i got here late

seems Bob covered it tip to toe..(nice Bob)

so...until we find out more...ill just say...
and great choice in wagons

 

Well, I've had a mechanic buddy drop by the other day to confirm with his meter that I"ve got power coming to the switch and we located the ground as well. There is only one way that the switch gets connected to the black plastic housing, all the wires are securely attached to the housing. The same with the cylinder, only one way to get it in all the way in. We both took turns taking it apart and putting it back together again in case one of us got it wrong. THe battery is strong as I can still operate the back window fine via the key, head lights work, horn works, emergency blinkers work. no wipers though. All the wires connect via the black housing, no loose wires to attach. The housing looks original, no apparent damage or alterations. The new switch is the correct one and matches identicle with the old one. I have not checked the starter solenoid. I thought it might be the neutral safety switch as there have been times when I stall out, I cant restart it in neutral consistantly, I have to go back to Park. Should I buy a new cylinder? How do I check to see if the starter solenoid is good/bad? I'm gonna take a photo of a mystery item under the hood and see if any of you know what it is. Some sort of relay, solenoid, switch.