No start, no crank 70 Challenger

[Jayco]

Hello all, my name is Julian and i'm new here. I have a restored 1970 Challenger with a 383 and 727 trans. I had the car out a couple weeks ago and after parking and having lunch I went to get back in it and leave. Car started fine as usual and I rolled forward a little bit in neutral so the door wouldn't scape the curb before my passenger got in. As I rolled those 5 feet the car died and wouldn't so much as crank after. I had power to the light under the dash, but no headlights, tail lights, radio etc. I crawled under the car and saw the NSS pigtail off of the actual NSS and it had pretty much fallen apart (each female connector was a little frayed and I imagine they touched each other)
From my knowledge and some searching, I'm under the impression the NSS controls the back up lights and of course the cranking in N/P, but it will still start with a bad one. I have checked all fuses which are ok, I'm wondering what could have been fried if those three wires on the NSS pigtail touched each other. After searching the forums more, i'm thinking the starter relay is bad, but that wouldn't explain the no lights/radio issue either.
Any insight is much appreciated!

 

[Mopars & Missiles]

The two outside pins are for the back up lights, one is power IN to the NSS and the other is power OUT to the lights when the NSS makes contact when in reverse position. The NSS is a "switch", so it turns on the lights and then turns them off again.

The center pin is a "ground" supplied to the starter relay switch only when the transmission is in "Park" or "Neutral".

Anytime a "power" wire makes contact with a "ground" wire with no "load" in between, that is called a "direct short". That can be a bad thing. Possibly your "fuseable link" is toast. Also, the car WILL NOT crank from the key without that "ground" supplied by the NSS to the starter relay.

 

[Jayco]

Thank you for the insight on the issue at hand and quick reply. I did try to "jump" the brown wire from the starter relay to ground after some research but still no crank. There is power at the yellow wire though. Where is the fusible link located? I know they're typically pretty hard to locate

 

[Mopars & Missiles]

Thank you for the insight on the issue at hand and quick reply. I did try to "jump" the brown wire from the starter relay to ground after some research but still no crank. There is power at the yellow wire though. Where is the fusible link located? I know they're typically pretty hard to locate

Power at the "yellow" wire comes from the key switch and should ONLY be present when you turn the key all the way to the "crank" position. At the same time, you must have a "ground" on the brown wire from the NSS or a jumpered ground. They must BOTH be present at the same time, or the engine will NOT crank over.

I'm more of a '69 guy but I think the '70's are about the same on the fusible link. It should be a Dark Blue #16 gauge wire that is connected to the "Battery" terminal of the starter relay and then feeds into the bulkhead connector and on into the interior of the car. It will have a rectangular plastic "tab" on the wire before it enters the bulkhead connector. This is the main power feed to everything inside the car and many things outside as well. I'll try to remember to check my '70 Challenger tomorrow for exact location of the FL. BTW, very nice looking Challenger you have there!