Hi again, 1981 242DL B21F with the ever expanding weirdness....
I'm losing my sanity.
Short version: Ignition switch spring broke, solenoid burned till i got the battery cable off, replaced the switch, coil, starter and solenoid, fuel relay (i think it was unrelated) (been iffy fuel issues lately)... through this all, every time i try to start it the starter will NOT disengage. Yesterday i dropped the starter again, benched it (fine), checked all the wires (all connected well, no obvious shorts), greased it probably excessively, and it STILL wont disengage. If i turn the key to the RUN position (not the START) it starts turning over.
Are all the ignition switches the same? Is it possible i was given two wrong switches (first one was used, and turned out to have a crap spring also, but it too failed to disengage) (second one was new)? Is there an easy mistake on switches around the 1981 cars that may have gotten me the wrong switch? Both the original switch and the first replacement are labeled 8281, the new one is not visibly labeled that i can see without pulling it again (just went out and looked) but it looks like the others.
The wire from the control unit to the coil looks ok, i dielectric greased it again, could the control unit be at fault here?
I'm about to go out and trace all my wires and check for shorts...
HELP!?!
Delphine