cbaber

Can't seem to figure this one out. The car is a 1998 Honda Civic HX. It has a JDM sohc ZC non-vtec (same as D16Y7). M/T. One night at work it wouldn't start. It would not crank. I went through the basic troubleshooting and determined the battery was fine. I narrowed it down to the starter because:

1. When turning the key ON, the starter wire is getting 12V.
2. When applying 12V to starter wire (by shorting it to the + main starter wire) the starter will not crank.

So I grabbed a spare starter, swapped it out, and it had the same problem. Although it did start once and I was able to drive it home. When I got home it would not start again, and hasn't since.

I did some more troubleshooting:

1. I inspected/replaced a couple grounds.
2. I tried a different main + starter cable.
3. I tried a different battery ground cable.
4. I tried a known good battery.
5. With the starter out of the car, and hooked up to the same battery, it will crank when 12V is applied to starter wire.

I don't get it. Out of the car the starter will spin on the same battery, but back in the car it won't spin at all. This is all done via shorting the starter wire to 12V (bypassing all the fuses, ignition switch, etc.) The car will run and can be push started. I've tried a known good battery, and another starter (not new). Any ideas? The only thing I can think of is that the starter IS bad and won't turn a load like the tranny, but will spin freely outside the car.

cbaber

Solved. It was the transmission ground cable. On my car the cable mounts to a bracket on the transmission. Corrosion build up between the transmission and the bracket mounting points, not between the cable and bracket. I had replaced the cable and sanded the cable mounting points so I missed this. I just removed the bracket (just holds wiring) and mounted the ground directly to transmission.

Jimi Hondrix

Thanks for posting your results.. may help others in the future.