just did a motor swap in a 92 legend/automatic. cant get it to fire up. first, i ve got fuel pressure and main relay working great. second, have the dealer service manual and i have been up and down this thing doing pinout tests and continuity tests. everything checks out. not appearing to get fire but i dont know how to check it at the coil pack. ive tried grounding the base, sticking a grounded plug in the coil, and spinning the engine but no fire. im not sure this is correct method though. ive have battery voltage on 6 of the 8 wires going to the ignition module and other 2 are grounded as they should be. but ive got battery voltage on BOTH wires going into the ignition coil that drops when you try to start the car. any ideas?

 

Check the ground wire that attaches to the thermostat housing. This is the one of the ecu grounds and if left loose will cause a no-start condition. Make sure that the check engine light comes on for a few seconds when the key is turned to the on position. If it never comes on at all, you have either a power or ground issue with the ecu. Check all related fuses and grounds.

 

im with Kenso on this one

 

the 2 grounds behind the right shock tower, one on injector rail, one on tstat housing, one in left rear shock tower, one big one behind a/c compressor, all grounds intact. mil comes on for 2 secs and goes off, but when i jump the connector mil doesnt come on and stay on or blink any codes. i thought this to be odd. but i have replaced the ecm due to not switching on my main relay. ihave b+ voltage on 6 of 8 wires going in to the icm and ground on the other 2 but i replaced icm just to see and no go. whats funny is withthe key in ON position,,, got b+ on both primary and secondary side of all coils as should be but when you hit start position ,,, voltage drops on both sides. i flipped a coil pack and bolted it down that way to ground the pack and grounded a wireand connected it to the end aof a spark plug and spun it over nd guess what??? no fire. im thinking a shortage to voltage somewhere but my mind is drained from this problem. my acura dealerships lead tech couldnt help with this problem, he sais with what ive concluded ,,,, this car should run. it passes all tests laid out in the dealer service manual. im thinking ignition switch and cyl/crk position sensor next. could some one please tell me which pins to probe while spinning to check for pulsation on this sensor. any and all help greatly appreciated

 

Did you swap the harness over from the old engine to the new one? In other words, is it a known good harness? I had a situation somewhat like this once where everything would check out ok with the key on, but I would lose signal from the crank sensor to the ecu when turning the engine over. In my case it ended up being a backed out pin in one of the connectors on the pass. side shock tower near the abs modulator. If I get a chance tomorrow I'll try and post up the test for the crank sensor. Also if it checks ok I would recommend checking at the ecu to see if the crank sensor signal is reaching the ecu.

 

no it isnt a known working harness but ive already removed the known working one from the old engine. i had that same issue on an older prelude with an automatic.ive been procrastinating about changing it but i just wanted to try and resolve it first because im not really looking forward to changing it. itll be monday before i get back to work on it but first im gonna probe the cyl pos sensor at the ecu. any idea which pin to probe and what kind of signal/voltage im looking for?

 

oh yeah! about the mil lamp... will you jump your service connector and see if your mil comes on steady? i know with other obd1 hondas the mil will stay on steady if no codes are present. this one doesnt come on at all except for diag test when you first turn key on.