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Might have made a mistake, I’ll admit. I was fixing the horn today because it wouldn’t stop beeping when I turned the wheel to the left and after I put everything back together, the car wouldn’t start. It just shows “hot” and “generator” on the dash and there are no signs of the motor moving. I did hear a click, but that was it. I checked the battery with a multimeter and it read 12.2 volts. When I was testing the horn to see if the problem was fixed, the metal from the wheel made contact with the center of the column, causing a spark to happen and the horn to activate. Did I kill the starter or could it be something else?

At the base of the column just inside the firewall, you will find the reverse light/ neutral safety switch. The neutral safety switch will have two purple wires plugged into it. First check to see that they are still plugged in. If they are and the car still will not crank, use an ohm meter across the contacts to see if the switch is closed. If there is no connection between the two terminals, move the shift lever on the column up and down a bit while still checking with the meter to see if the switch is out of adjustment. Report back with your findings. The next step would be to check the voltage of the wire while cranking and then move out under the hood.

Thanks for the advice! It seems like the neutral safety switch is fine, as well as everything else, because the car turned on this morning! I guess the spark might have made some part of the car think that it was overheating so it prevented startup. This happened to me before when the car actually overheated on long trips. Seems like a cool safety feature, but how does that work?