I have owned over 20 Hondas and done many swaps, but i'm stumped! I got a crazy Deal on a 1991 CRX Si about 3 months ago for $750 CDN. The car had been parked for 2 1/2 years and the original engine had a bad head gasket with the cylinders being full of oil. I tried cranking it over a few times over a couple days, but engine wouldn't catch...the thing is, is that the last time i tried cranking over the starter, it didn't work anymore, it was like a short.

I put a whole new engine, tranny with starter included that had only 100,000 miles on it. I did a very nice install and covered all the grounds i had disconnected. I go to crank it over and the same problem...the starter will not turn over. Instead the relays buzz a bit and the igntion lights on the dash almost die, in fact sometimes even clears out the clock and radio. Once in a while the activation of the headlights or even park lights and the power will seem to short the whole car...i'm stumped.

Btw, i checked conections at the starter, altenator, all main grounds, changed both the main relay and a smaller one near it (i think starter realy) bought a new battery for it too.

Sorry for the long post, if anyone can help provide other suggestions, that would be great. I don't want to pay the dealer a million dollars to diagnose the problem if i don't have too. thanks.

Deetz

 

was there an alarm hackjob under there thats messing up the iginition harness?

if its the same problem with a new engine then its gotta be elsewhere, right?

this is weird. take a multimeter and see how strong your grond is at random parts throughout the chassis. hook up the neg terminal to the batterys neg, and touch the other side of the car to the ground under the dash by the main relay for example, so if you have crazy resistence on it or something, because thats also the ground for the injector pulse on the ecu. that was a weird problem i had one time, it had to do with the engine bay being painted and the paint wasnt scraped away near the ground.

do this also, hold the smaller relay in your hand when you crank the car, do you feel it click? i know you replaced it but its possible theres a short in th wiring, you know?

/begin edit

thought of more stuff:

ignition output signal. test to see if you have ignition everywhere it should be.

also the ignition switch itself could be faulty.

youve got the battery hooked up to a charger im sure, right?

any blown fuses? (im sure you check that, but what the hell)

/end edit

thats what i would start with. you seem really knowledage, probably more so then me, but i hope maybe that gives you something you didnt think of.

good luck.


Modified by doublethink at 6:08 AM 12/5/2004