Trials and tribulations of a 91 zr1 street car ?please help

[Curtis]

First love the old girl and she is trying ?.last owners were ego guys and really gave her no love . By car fax first owner might have loved her more than me and lived her life in a box with no play time

This summer changed brake booster
New u joints all of them
New wheels bearings
Fixed and went completely through the ac system to have front compressor seal die in sept ?. Fix in the spring ?..no big whoop
New nitto?s
New nittos
Got antenna working
New emblems
New front lip
Lots of love and affection

And packed the old girl up with my daughter and dog and went back home to NC Mtns for the first week of august for almost 2000 miles of glorious roads ?..blue ridge parkway from Boone to Asheville, Lynn cove via duct, Elk Mtn parkway from Blue ridge to downtown Asheville , diamond back NC-80 to Marion, Mtn Mitchell state park, crafts fairs, Spruce Pine, Burnsville, Bakersville , linville falls , blowing rock, biltmore area of Asheville multiple times etc etc best drive I?ve done in a decade or better?.. my daughter got to where she would fall asleep and dog was shifting weight in the back like he?s side car at the Isle of Man TT. 😈

On the way back from NC about 70 miles from Nashville punked out a New F8 he only went past me once and was in 17th gear looking down at his radio?. 40 miles I tried to get him to hit it and finally slowed down to 45 mph and he stayed right behind me?.. before he turned on 840 towards Memphis ?. Guess he thought any one in a loaded zr1 brave enough to jump on a new red pony from the stable has something that may hurt his feelings ?.

Now where the title comes in get home and next day I need sweet tea so stopped to pick up wires and plugs then to McDonalds for tea as I started around the arch in drive through and clutch fell to the floor car leaped 8 feet and missed the Car in front by inches?limp home and down the driveway ?. Replace master and slave nope it?s an exploded throw out bearing?. Last owner installed a Amazon Chinese wuhan virus pod?Call up Mr Jerry but he?s on Vacation and gets back Sunday? stuff to do Monday and doctor stuff Tuesday ?. No big deal Vet having problems I?ll wait call back week later and he says can?t do it go ahead and order from big guys?. Mistake ?.summit says go out tomorrow yeah the little stuff and that they screwed up on got 6 flywheel bolts not 8?.5 weeks later get Ram 9.5 organic twin disk and aluminum flywheel?. If your on the fence do it it?s more awesome than a full set of 10 mm sockets ?. Talk my buddy that owns the transmission shop into the change and two weeks later rolling again but wasted the cool nights of last summer and sept and as we did the first start up battery was down from sitting two months had to jump box her but battery seemed to recover?. So few weeks go by and did wires and coils?. Week later did plugs didn?t want a bad plug giving me Grief ?.Had a set of electromotive coils in the shop so they went in?.. car lites off faster, runs better and cleaner at high rpms glorious?. Drove it a few times in town and to Nashville twice ?.. went and washed it off Saturday then drove for food Monday night ran great?.Wednesday plan was wash vacuum clay bar and wax because corvette veterns weekend is in BG at the museum figured I?d do Thursday, Friday by my buddies shop for my us battle flag for drivers side above emblem and pow Mia for passengers and Saturday for the parade been look forward to it since it first loaded to website?..

Oh no wasn?t to be ?..got in the car to run by my chiropractor and phone ran key was in switch and I didn?t tilt the wheel?. 6 times in 2 years of owning this beast I?ve not tilted wheel twice it?s been problematic?.. once I just walked away and it started and other time disconnected battery for a few minutes and was flooded and cleaned plugs and fired up?.
So I tried 6 or 7 times no joy , disconnected battery went up got adjusted came back same deal?tried other set of keys? nope ?.fabulous so said there?s tomorrow?. Next day tried again still nothing but battery is down about 1 went for another battery my buddy called across town and showed up at 3?. Connected it worst than original took it back tested bad, drove across town get replacement tested good and charged over night just incase ?. Reading 100 percent, pulled plugs that have less than 100 miles on it

Plugs are clean and white and a little smell of gas ?.. should be black ugh?
Can?t find fuel pressure gauge so went and bought a new one and attacked today?
Put in battery been inside so warm turned key to acc lights on dash lite up radio etc
Turn to run fuel pump relays click pump on buddy verifies 50 psi instantly
Crank no joy
Pull number one wire install one of last weeks plug ground to wire from battery no spark
Pull number 3 no spark
Ugh
Go to fuses all good even the hiding ones under glovebox especially the thief one good ( Chevy corporate bean counters keeping vette guys stranded since 86)
Pull lower panel drivers side?. Vat resistor I built still within range of key checked that box?.
Clutch switch clutch out starter will not turn check that box

Questions
Does zf have a neutral safety switch
Little braided ground on drivers side head trans shop may not have connected but have lots of extra grounds done it on every car I own since late 80?s

I did not get a screwdriver and stethoscope to injectors ?. I?ll do these things tomorrow?. Because vats cuts off starter and injectors but starter is spinning it?s butt off?

Now I?d say it?s first owner but car has old school alarm under dash ( black box with round corners no label) has 4 inline fuses, relay and main power red fat wire doesn?t have a fuse installed but in the summer while doing brake booster unplugged to get it out of the way because it?s a rats nest and would not start until I pulled power from battery and unplugged and replugged 4 or 5 times?.so unit has current passing through it and car ran great and shut off fine no strangeness only thing that happened it went from summer to winter overnight and car was sitting in driveway?.

Plan for tomorrow bs old school alarm is coming out has six or 8 wires and a ground that just plug into quick splices on drivers side as well as one small ground to dash framework then the installer ran one blue wire over to beside radio and it disappears then two sets of two wire speaker wire 22?gauge that run over under passenger side kick panel?.. I?m thinking they cut wires over there and one is in and one is out in two sets so will have to repair those?..

Question
Is there a diagrams for us proud owners to remove the vats control box cut and splice wires together and save 2 ounces of weight and 100 hours of stress and headaches for the rest of our lives?

Question
Has anyone else ever had or seen some one with a broken wire in a vette tilt column there?s about 20 wires going into it?. If it was easy to ohm out I would have already done it but no easy way without totally tearing the column apart rebuild ?. If I?m doing that I?ll get another complete column ? but want a new non airbag momo sparco nardi wheel and shaft does have play from someone pulling on to it get out and up ?.Really not bad around here on flat straight roads but Mtn roads of my youth it was kind of unsettling while at 60 in a 15mph corner and wheel shifts any while your hanging on

Thank you for any help you can offer at this point even trolling dirty looks smart comments are welcome because it might bring up an idea?.

My idea if I had about 4K square feet and a lift
427 ported heads, custom cams, CNC cut intake manifold, 18?s new paint and most of all would be driving to bowling green to pick up a Holley Dominator with the big screen so I can strip every piece of copper wire out of this car and start over?. While I?m at it call precision for a pair of mirror image turbos something in the 66 to 72mm range should do work and look fabulous from the rear?

Guys I?ve been doing this for a living since I left home, wrenched on apaches for the army then civ aircraft then got my engineering degrees knocked out and started building custom parts for people restoring stuff etc disabled vet so have to do something but hate chasing sparks especially stuff like this. work all day to be left with a screwed up back for two weeks and no further than I was when I started?.


Thanks guys much appreciated
Curtis

[Mikey]

Curtis I admittedly didn't have the attention span for all of that post but yes of course there is a neutral safety switch and on our 1991's the contacts can char up over the years. Later models routed the starter relay power thru a separate relay that was activated by the NSS.

Few threads on this that explain how to solve. Hope your issue is that simple. You can try a push start and pop the clutch to verify if it is indeed just the starter circuit.

[Mikey]

Disregard, NSS is the clutch pedal switch but I see your starter is spinning anyway so not your problem.

Service manuals have the wiring diagrams you need if you want to undo aftermarket splices.

[Curtis]

Thanks brother and sorry for the long post?. So day one of this when key was on acc lights and radio came on
Same as day two
Talked to a tech friend in Florida today and he told be gm vats can be timed out ?. So I put the battery back in from the charger and was going to turn switch to acc and leave for 15 minutes as he told me to and that?s when the demon was intermittently playing ?.. on acc the dash nor the radio didn?t come up so either tumbler / ignition switch above column or a bad wire so getting parts tomorrow and fixing this and then after it starts the aftermarket alarm will find a new circular file home?.

[Corvette95]

Since it seems you are a relative new ZR-1 owner. recommend reading all the tech-tips on your Z. Guessing and throwing parts at it will make a much harder to verify the root cause of the issue. I would forget removing alarm (unless it is an approved GM part). I recommend getting a factory service manual and a good Tech1A from Ebay when they show up. You bought a 30 year old supercar. When it doesn't start do the headlamps dim (try cranking at night or dark garage). Put an amp multi-meter on the starter. Sounds like you are suffering a low battery or NSS or worn starter. It is very normal to have multiple dash lights on after jumper car with low battery. Gotta pay to play. Just the way it is. Follow service manual to the letter when testing with Tech1A.

[Curtis]

Gentleman verdict is in
ignition switch
Bolts were loose and switch was sliding probably .030 .040 thousandths not sure if switch was bad as of yet ? but some one had been in there before because ground wire wasn?t in proper spot?.but new switch is in and popped over instantly?.

[Mikey]

Awesome! Glad it was relatively easy fix!