Pontiac Repair: 1984 Fiero wont Turn Over, clutch pedal, purple wire

Question
Hi, hope you can help me. I have 4 cyl '84 Fiero with 160K.  It was running excellent until today.  While waiting for my emission test, the car's idle dropped and it stalled out.  Tried to re-start it, and NOTHING. Not even a "click" at the starter.  I have all power (lights, radio, etc.) and I can hear the fuel pump "prime" itself up. I turn the key, all the way, and nothing.  At first I thought it was the starter.  I replaced that.  Then several "on-line" sites, suggested that the "coil" might be the problem, so I replaced that too.

It's got me baffled, because it doesn't even crank. The solnoid doesn't even engage.  I tried to jump it, still nothing.

Again, it was running fine up until this incident.
(PS. - I'm originally from Upstate NY too (Albany))

thanks in advance

Answer
Hey Joe:

I'm a bit puzzled I'm not sure why the car stalled and then would not crank. I'm thinking a power or ground issue off the top of my head. Is this a manual or an auto transmission? first off with that many miles on a car ther are TONS of things it could be. in order for the car to crank it needs the crank signal from the ignition switch. it starts out as a yellow wire from the switch it should have power when you turn the key to crank. from ther it goes to wither the clutch pedal switch on a manual and changes color to a purple wire then down to the starter. if it's an auto the wire goes to the switch on the top of the transmission where shifter select cable is and changes from yellow to purple ther and goes to the starter. you may be loosing the power there. If you don't have nay power out of the switch make sure you have it going into the switch. Typically the battery power into the switch is red and ther is usually 2 or more constant power to the switch. If you do not have power in then you have to trace it backwards to the battery. You could have a fuseable link that burnt up either at or near the battery ot at the starter. If you had a fuaable lik go bad that would expalin why the car died as well. Hope that helps you out some. Good luck :)

P.S. I live in a small town called Lancaster it's just outside of Buffalo about 15 minutes to the south east.