VegasInvasion

Thank you for your time, I hate reading long threads just as much as you do.

I should preface with some background, I'm an electrical engineer and have made & diagnosed custom harnesses for race cars, so wring isn't foreign to me. I'm hoping someone might spark an idea I haven't thought of yet.

I was dynoing a customer and his coil burned out, he replaced it and it burned out again, so I took it in and found his distributor power wire (yel/blk) has full continuity to ground. No ground at the injector/iacv block though.

I eliminated the engine harness and traced the problem to the chassis side. While trying to isolate the short, I found the ignition switch wire (blue) and fuel pump wire (blk/red) at the main relay are also grounded. The main relay was fried, replaced it.

At the under-dash fuse box there are 6 fuses grounded. I pulled off all fuse box plugs and reinstalled them individually to a new fuse box (just in case); each circuit seems to have its own short.
There is no continuity to ground anywhere in the under-hood fuse box (also replaced), so I ruled out main leads, fans and alternator.

The starter signal connector housing was broken off and shorting on the starter housing, but it never popped the ignition fuse so I'm hoping he didn't melt all the wires together in the main harness.

I'd like to hear of some other things you might check before I have to dissemble his entire car and replace the chassis harness.

VegasInvasion

Gonna bump this, cause I'm pretty sure there's at least one guy in here that can help.

halfakneegrow

what type of car is it if you don't mind me asking

VegasInvasion

sorry I should have specified, it's a '94 GSR.

mcgalliardt20

My 96 acura integra is doing the same thing. I put in a new ignition switch an it still wantnturn over. My starter has juice an my fuses are still good. I have no idea what can be wrong. Maybe someone can help me as well

VegasInvasion

still nobody eh...

tamboo

fwiw:

http://www.spooledupracing.com/downl...als/FSM/Honda/

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/startproblems.html

fcm

Because the IG-1 fuse, [50A] is not blown I must assume an "open" circuit after the ign. switch, [or a dead short on the starter exciter lead would blow it].

My guess is the exciter lead got hot enough to melt off it's insulation and insulation of surrounding leads in the harness causing all the short to grounds of so many circuits.

When so many circuits are shorted to ground it is a very good bet a harness will need to be replaced. 94

VegasInvasion

Yep, main harness was melted. I would rather cut off my own arms than have to replace another main harness.