Having Wiring Problems With my 1970 Ford Ranchero

My grandfather recently gave me his 1970 Ranchero with a 302 and an Auto column shift trans. I have been having issues getting the car started from the key. It has been sitting for around a year and a half after my grandfather had a stroke and he reversed the polarity on the battery. To get it running from jumping the solenoid I had to replace the electric ignition conversion kit because it was fried and giving me no spark. I have also replaced the ignition switch in it as well and my grandfather had it replaced a while back too.

But I noticed that the switch seemed to be from a 71 because the actual plug for the switch was gone and the wires were very poorly spliced together. I could not find a switch for a 70 other than one on ebay for around 300 bucks and it seemed that the only difference was the plug which I do not even have the car side for the plug after it had already been replaced once.

Before I cut the fried ignition switch out it was all wired correctly other than having a red wire with a green tracer spliced into a red wire with a yellow tracer on the car side. The red with yellow tracer on the switch side was going to nothing. Also there was a violet wire spliced into the big black wire with green tracer which it seemed to go to the printed circuit connecter which goes to the cluster.

So that's the background knowledge for the most part and now I will continue what has happened and what I have done to the car now it will be kind of out of order just to make more sense of what caused what.

So since apparently it has been slipping into reverse for as long as my grandfather has had it, I did some research and discovered that back in the 60s and 70s that was a big issue for Fords and the culprit was usually the gear shift linkage inside of the column going bad. So I tested this and without pulling the gear selector towards you to get it out of park it will go through what seems to be all the gears: R N D 1 2.

What's interesting is this past Monday me not knowing that I decided to check the linkage located on the trans itself and I loosened and put the trans in neutral and had my buddy in the car make sure the key was on and he didn't know that the key was on and then it started cranking which it didn't before. I also got turn signals then which I didn't have before. I also have never had lights, horn and backup and break lights.

But continuing what happened on that Monday I was testing to see the ignition switch wiring to see if the red and yellow and the red and green wire would do anything different if connected to the car side red and yellow. And when the red and yellow was connected to the red and yellow you would crank the car and it would run but only when the key was in the crank position with the starter still going so I immediately stopped that. But when the red and green wire was connected to red and yellow (how the previous switch was wired) it would start up and run like a normal car.

However still didn't have lights and other things all I had was turn signals. So i went for a test drive after putting the steering column back tight and the cluster back in the car. I had left the violet wire that was spliced into the black and green wire and the red and yellow wire on the switch side both not spliced.

I noticed mid drive I had lost my turn signals working and when I got back I turned the car off and then a few minutes later I went back to It and tried to turn it on and it would not even crank and a white box with a black top with vacuum lines which I think is something to do with the distributor and to retard timing for emissions with the part number D0AF-9E718 is clicking when trying to crank the car and also when I pull the hazard light switch. Also when I started it and tried to go for a drive it slipped into reverse.

So I am thinking the reason for it not starting from the key is dealing with the car slipping into gear and the linkage inside the column being bad and the neutral safety switch effecting that. Another thing is that my grandfather had told me and my father was whenever the car would not start he would jiggle the signal switch connector which connects the wires coming from that into the rest of the harness.

Looking at the wiring diagram I found almost every accessory or part that didn't work leads back to that connecter: my lights, horn, signals etc. The connector does not seem to sit right and connect to the other side very well, and the column side connector is black and the main harness side is white and I do not know if that is correct I'm assuming its not.

I know this is a lot and if I forgot something I will add more and if I discover anything new with the car. But it would be great if anyone could give me some insight on any of this and I am working on the car in my schools auto shop class so I would hope to have the car at least running and driving with everything working enough before the summer.