Mpayne75

My nephews 96 civic won't start. It cranks just fine but won't kick over. I'm not sure what to try. He doesn't have any working lights or gauge cluster. This was a "race" car he bought in Florida. It drove ok until one day his battery died. He's just been throwing parts at it. He's actually about to call a junkyard in a few days if he can't get it working because the HOA is complaining

95_civic_gsr

Buy two things at your local Autoparts place. Can of Starting Fluid ($7), and a Spark Tester ($5).
First take the air intake tube off the throttle body. Open the throttle plate, and spray one second to one and a half seconds of starter fluid past the throttle plate.
Somewhat quickly, try starting the car. You don't want it to evaporate before you try to start it. If it starts, (fires up and dies) you have a fuel deliver problem.
Likely the Main Relay. These year Hondas have a known problem with cold solder joints on the Main Relay. If the car does not try to start. Install the Spark
Tester inline from the distributor, because I don't think you can get the end of most to connect to the spark plug down in the head. Crank the engine over,
and see spark tester lights up. If it doesn't, then you have a spark problem. Then you can diagnose better from there. Also, does it have a working OBD2
service port? If so, some places sell cheap $12-$20 OBD2 scanner. It might be throwing codes, but without a gauge cluster, you wouldn't know if any CELs
were present. Tractor supply and Amazon have had them for $12. Or you might buy a more reliable OBD2 Code Reader in the $40-$70 range.

Harbor Freight Spark Tester $5