ClassicCar

After a lot of head scratching, I tracked this place down and figured I'd ask for any ideas.



I've got a 1963 Bel Air that is in excellent condition, but it has been sitting for about a year, as the previous owner passed away. After replacing the battery and starter, we were able to get the car to start right up and drive beautifully. We got to the parking lot of a parts store, turned it off, and were unable to turn it back on after that.



Strangely, turning on the headlights from the dashboard doesn't work, and I get no power to my accessories when turning the key the ACC or ON. When turning the key to START, the starter doesn't budge.



We were able to run a wire from the positive post of my new battery to the positive post on the ignition coil, and short the posts on the starter with a screwdriver to get the car running. However, it ran really rough, mis-fired, and I had extremely dim headlights (as if it was running off of a drained battery instead of alternator power).



So as it stands right now, this sucker doesn't show any signs of life unless we short the starter and run that wire from the battery, which is pretty nasty. I don't get power to my panel/dashboard/interior lights, and I can't turn the car on like a normal person.



Does anyone have any idea what would be causing this? A friend seems to think the problem might be the ignition switch (i've already replaced the part that pops out with the key). But I figured the headlights would at least work regardless of the state of the key.