You can hotwire the glowplugs, but if held for more than a few seconds they will melt (about 8seconds should do it). You can try to get them working by cleaning ALL the connections, or installing all new plugs, which may or may not work. Or you can install 12 volt plugs from dieselglowplugs.com, they are all steel I have ben using them for a few years and they work great. The company is in Italy, the PO# is GJ28IS. They never heard of a chevette so use Isuzu I-Mark or the engine code 4fb1. They cost about $95 to the POBox. If you go the 12volt rout then you get to remove all the relays, the controller, and all the stuff that doesn't work. And then you can stop 'messin' with them. Hope this helps, the older glow plugs system is a very large pain to get working.