Hey, need a bit of a hand with this one.

First the main problem~

Car wont start

After going straight for the nackered starter motor I tested it and it didn't work, so a brand new one was sourced from Midway in ludlow.

Fitted it (and tested it) and the starter motor worked fine....

NOW:

It still wouldn't start with a key turn... puzzled even more (as I thought I had found the problem)

I got the multi-meter out and started testing. And I found that the ignition cable on the starter had 0 power going to it when the key was turned into "start" position.

I followed the cable further up and found that it had no power going to it half way (theres a split about half way by the battery for testing and emergency ignition)

and then I lost the cable behind the bulkhead but I believed that there must be a problem with the Relay / switch inside the car at this stage.

I've found the relay box... tested the relay... and that works just fine...

So now I'm stuck. what else could it be? any clues?

 

I had a similar problem years agin on my escort gti and it was the cable from the battery to starter had a break in it and I would get an intermittent fault used to have to wiggle the cable and it would start.

 

nah I tested that one :/ constant 12v. Theres no power in the battery - switch - relay - solenoid cable.

 

Whats the PATS (immobiliser) LED doing when you put the key in crank position?

Have you put power down the red/black wire on the connector nr battery to see if starter operates?

Have you checked on the back of the ignition switch to see if power on cranking?

(should be red/black wire also)

Also don't rule out fusebox issues on '92 Orions!!

 

if your getting power to the relay on the 3rd click of key, its a continuity issue somewhere, try disconnect starter relay and power the wire from solenoid end and check its getting to the fuseboard, or else its ignition switch on steering column,
the plastic bit with red and black wires, (that plugs into the main loom)
or a dreaded alarm fault !

 

I had the same problem once on my GTi, even though I tried jump starting off of a full battery and it still didn't work, a new battery fixed the issue, I also had an intermittent Clifford immobiliser problem.