99 MONTE CARLO

MY 99 MONTE CARLO WILL NOT START:NO JUICE TO SMALL SOLENOID TREMINAL.I CAN JUMP ACROSS AND IT STARTS.IS THERE A RELAY OR JUST A NEUTRAL SAFETY SWITCH?AND WHERE IS THE NEUTRAL SAFETY SWITCH?
THANKS,MARK.

saftey switch is in the gear shift

Does it start in neutral?? If so then it is more than likely the neutral safety switch or now called a manual lever position sensor (MLPS).

For the neutral switch, look on top back of trans. Should be bolted over the shaft for the shifter.

In 99 some models went to an internal mode switch, that`s a whole nother story. Thats on the bottom side of the shaft inside the case. Requires pulling the trans to replace it. The original IMS was an internal bolt on affair that could be replaced by just pulling the side cover of the trans. The new superceded version requires replacing the whole shaft, which means pretty much gutting the trans to get it in...

The bummer is that the old style bolt on sensor virtually never failed on a GM. The internal mode switch is another story..

You should be able to put the vehicle on a scan tool (not a code reader) and watch the data. That should tell you if the computer is seeing park or not..

sounds like the ign. switch is bad very common from what I have heard If you can deal with a push button put it in and forget the switch

The biggest pain ever ,,is when someone brings a car in for repairs , and they have attempted to fix it with some sort of toggle switch , bypassing such and such ,,rewiring this or that . Then they expect the shop to fix it correctly, and wonder why it costs so much ? The worst are usually engineers , not knocking those on here , but omg ,,some of the stuff I've seen them do in an attempt to save a buck or "Fix it their way ".
Todays cars and trucks are complex, lot of sytems interact with eachother. bypassing something sometimes screws something else up. Fix it right , or have it fixed right . If you cobble it , fine, just remember the next person that will have to work on it .

BROKENWRENCH:NO,IT DOES NOT START IN NEUTRAL OR PARK OR ANY GEAR POSITION.I HAD THE TRANS REPLACED A LITTLE OVER A YEAR AGO.I AM HOME SICK TODAY AND NOT NEAR A SCAN TOOL.ALSO IS THE IGNITION SWITCH PRONE TO FAILURE?IT IS ON LOWER PART OF STEERING COLUMN,CORRECT?
THANKS,MARK

I agree with Bryan. Worst of it is when they won't tell you what they've done, or how the problem started.

A year or so ago, I was called on to work on a full sized Chevy conversion van. Something kept draining the battery and I could show a couple of amps draw by putting an ammeter in series with the battery. It took me a while to figure it out.

What had happened, was a part had broken in the horn button in the steering wheel causing the horns to stick. The owner remedied it by unplugging the original wires from the horns and wiring in a separate button for the horns. This left the original horn relay activated, causing the current draw. It was surprising the relay survived several months of being energized.

The fix was to replace a $2.00 part in the steering wheel and tear out the extra button and all the wiring for the horns except the original.

The owner was my brother-in-law, and he claimed it had been wired that way when he bought the van. Only he had owned the van for a year before the battery started going dead. He paid the full price for the repair. My wife's brothers, their families, and I have an agreement. Kinship is kinship and business is business, and the two don't intermix.

Mark do you have the ignition key witha resistor in it? Try another key. No go, check across resitor on key see if it is open. If not you have to add resistor inside shield around steering column. Very tiny wires, whit e I think. This would be caused by contact in ignition switch failing to touch both side of resistor in key. Gotta be able to read ohmeter and color coded resistors or it will be a long day. Good auto electric has to know about this. Another thing if you leave your car running after jumping, will it stay running. This key thing usually will shut down fuel pump, too. This is on internet but I can't remember where.

Mark do you have the ignition key witha resistor in it? Try another key. No go, check across resitor on key see if it is open. If not you have to add resistor inside shield around steering column. Very tiny wires, whit e I think. This would be caused by contact in ignition switch failing to touch both side of resistor in key. Gotta be able to read ohmeter and color coded resistors or it will be a long day. Good auto electric has to know about this. Another thing if you leave your car running after jumping, will it stay running. This key thing usually will shut down fuel pump, too.