hot wiring my 64 chevy truck

[willg54]

My ignition switch is bad (I thought)...so for now, I need to hot wire my truck till the ordered part comes in. I twisted the wires together for the battery and ignition, then touched that connection to the "sol" wire...the truck turned over and fired, but as soon as I let loose of the "sol" connection, the truck quit running, even though the battery and ignition wires were still twisted together...any ideas why it won't keep running after engaging the starter? Thanks in advance.

[88fivespd]

I'm not sure how you rigged your hot wire. The way I run a hot wire is to connect an insulated wire say 16 guage or larger from the positive post of the battery to the small post of the ignition coil, not the small post that has the wire going to the distributor, the other one. Keep in mind you will have to disconnect this wire to shut the engine off. If you have a manual transmission you can just kill the engine to shut it off, but you don't want to leave that HOT wire hooked up for any length of time with the engine off as it may cause other ignition problems as well as eventually run the battery down. Also don't let the loose end of that wire touch anything else metal while hooked to the positive battery terminal.

[bradrhale]

be very careful in doing this. i try not to endorse such things as most people look this up to be able to steal vehicles. in your instance, i have done something similiar only to get me to the nearest parts store. located on the soleniod there, you should have two small posts. one is labeled with an R and the other with an I, i believe. they have to be wired up right to get one to stay running as once you kill the starter circuit, you have to provide voltage to the ignition circuit otherwise it kills the truck. hook it up wrong and the starter will not disengage and you will mess it up too.

[willg54]

Thanks for both responses. I think I accidentally fixed the problem. First, I have an HEI distributor...no external coil to hook a wire to. Second, I understand your hesitation to endorse hot wiring, but I assure you, I am not stealing the truck from myself...lol. Anywho, I got underneath the dash and started fumbling with wires and wiggling all of them. Then I tried to start the truck again...it started. I think that there must be a loose connection under there, somewhere, and now I just have to figure out where it is, so I don't take my truck out and get stranded somewhere again. Thanks again for both of your suggestions.