I have a 4 switch panel from painless that I’m trying to make work with the stock wiring stuff for ignition and starting. I am having an issue where the car will continue cranking even after the momentary is released sometimes will continue even after power is shut off. The power on switch has a ground, constant 12v and key on 12v. I have the constant connected to the red 10 gauge wire under the steering wheel area and the key on connected to the pink 12v. The brown 10 guage I had spliced in with the key on but removed it for now while I figure this out. The momentary has the constant red and the wire from the yellow 10 gauge for the start. Thanks in advance if anyone can help out.

 

Nice job so far. I think we can get this figured out but we'll need a little more information.

Can you tell us which switch does what (left to right)? Why would you need a ground wire in these circuits... do the switches have indicator lights?

 

Far left is a momentary. Next is on/off for the power to car. Next two are for accessories the panel came prewired with a hot and ground I have nothing hooked to those yet. Yes ground for lights.

 

Comparing your switches to the way the factory ignition switch works, I don't think you can make it work with those switches. The factory ignition switch consists of four individual switches, each with a different output (all use the same IGN fuse input on the red wire). One has output via the orange wire only in the RUN position. The next has output via the brown wire in the ACCY and RUN positions. The third is the momentary switch which outputs to the starter relay via the yellow wire. The final switch is bridged internally to output on the pink wire in the START and RUN positions.

Now you could implement those as four separate switches but you'd have to turn three of them on or off all at the same time - something the factory switch does mechanically by having them all physically connected together.

Here is how the four switches would need to be wired:
(all four will have power via the red wire on the center terminal)
- momentary switch: connect output to factory yellow wire... I highly recommend replacing your blue wire with a yellow one for consistency and future troubleshooting
- first on/off switch: connect output to factory pink wire
- second on/off switch: connect output to factory orange wire
- third on/off switch: connect output to factory brown wire

To use this, you have to turn on the first switch then press the momentary switch to start. The first switch (pink wire) provides power to most of the engine components such as ignition coils, fuel injectors, O2 sensors, and MAF sensor, so it has to be on for the engine to start. The other two switches will need to be turned on to enable things like turn signals, backup lights, HVAC, traction control, etc. (the orange wire switch); and accessories like wiper/washer, radio, seats, windows, and other BCM functions (the brown wire switch).

I would remove the ground wires - you really shouldn't need lights on these switches since you can easily see if they are in the on or off position and those extra grounds can have unwanted side effects such as keeping a circuit live (especially if a relay is involved) even when switched off.

There are other ways that they could be wired, but you would have to replace the switches you have. You could get a double pole switch to use in place of the two switches with the orange and brown wires - connect the red wire to the center terminal of both poles, the orange as output of one pole and the brown as output for the other pole. You can also get double pole, double throw switches which are bottom off and top momentary. Again, both poles would be powered by the red wire. One pole would have the pink wire connected to both the center position (ON) and the top momentary position (START). The other pole's top momentary position would be connected to the yellow wire. This allows the one switch to power both the engine electrical and the starter without the two circuits being cross connected. You then push the toggle all the way up to start the car and let go (so it returns to the center position) for normal running.

 

I already have it wired like you are saying I just don’t have the orange and brown hooked up for now. I’m mainly just trying to figure out why my starter won’t shut off.

 

First, unplug all of the black wires that are being used for the switch illumination. See if that solves the problem. It not then something is seriously cross connected somewhere.

Your blue wire which connects to the starter relay's yellow wire should have no other connection between your switch and the starter relay. Therefore, as soon as you release the momentary switch, there would be no power to the starter relay and no possibility that it could continue to power the starter motor (well... unless it's just a bad, sticking relay which doesn't release when the power stops - you can check that by swapping a different relay there).

I suppose that the momentary switch could be getting stuck - unlikely but possible. That's easy to check with a simple test light... ground the test light's clip and then touch the probe to the terminal with the blue wire. When you press the switch, the test light should turn on, and then it should turn off as soon as you release the switch. If not, your switch is bad.

 

To fix this issue I had to end up running the ignition wire straight from my starter straight to the switch panel completely bypassing the starter relay and everything in between.