Summary:
Bought a 1993 Del Sol 1.5 on Saturday. Passed smog and got registered on Monday. Car died on Tuesday. Changed battery on Wednesday - Will not crank. Tested Alternator and Starter - Good. Checked timing - Good. Changed distributor (I noticed a lot of people talking about the control module within the distributor - didn't want to mess with it so I just changed the whole distributor) - Will not crank. Any ideas?

 

check your ground wires the big ones theres one from head to front radiator support and theres one from the tranny to the side of the fame near the tranny mount.

 

main relay, ecu itself, bad ground. three things to check off the top of my head

 

there is also one built into the wire harness that connects to the thermostat

 

Ok. Grounds are all good. Bolted down nice and tight. Is it possible this car is a "lemon"?

 

yup make sure the one on the thermo housing is there too ive cars not starting because of it..

 

how did you check the starter?

 

Alternator and Started checked at Autozone

 

Is it possible the Alternator and/or Starter are bad, but for some crazy reason they passed at Autozone?

 

is it completely dead? does it turn over? fuel pump prime? does it make any noises when you try and start it clicking etc??

 

When I turn the key I can hear the fuel pump click and the starter click, but that's about it.

No grinding nothing...

 

id replace the starter.

 

Ok... installed new starter. Still will not crank over... ?

 

when you turn the key all the way all you here is a click from the starter?


try this take a jumping cable and connect one side to the negative side of the battery and the other side to the starter case and try to crank it.... if it cranks you have bad grounds.....

 

Eliminate a faulty main relay using the quick checks at http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/start...html#mainrelay

Check all wiring connections of anything you have replaced or messed with recently.

Check for stored codes in your ECU.

Where did you buy the distributor? Check the exchange policy on your new dizzy and see if you can try another one. Bad ones are sold by accident from time to time.

Autozone staff unfortunately can definitely screw up alternator and battery checks.

Hondas are not prone to being lemons. It is more likely that something you did recently messed up the car a bit. Some simple little thing. The alternative is that the previous owner monkeyed with your new used Del Sol, and you have to undo whatever mischief s/he created.