When I go to start the car and I complete the circuit to the starter the clutch line gets extremely hot. I can't find any wires exposed on it but would it be a lack of ground? If this is so why can I not ground the battery to the trans housing and solve the problem?

 

You definatly have a grounding problem.

MM&Y of car would help.

Check/redo the main grounds, batt. post and cable clamp, batt. to chassis ground and chassis to engine ground, DO NOT just eyeball the connections, disconnect/clean/reconnect.

A ground connection can look perfectly good, even be tight, but still have little or no continuity, redo them. 94

 

90 civic DX with a GSR swap. Will this cause a no spark/ weak starter issue? I re-sanded the t-stat, valve cover ground. I had no trans ground so I added one off of a bracket. I had the battery grounded off the chassis and housing (its a 1 piece ground from the terminal to the chassis to the end) but it seemed like the car was shorting out. Strange.

 

So it only heats when I crank the starter over. When its just "on" and all the lights are on nothing happens but when I send voltage through the starter it heats the line up. Could it be a bad starter ground? Its a new starter, Im going to try a known good starter.

 

The starter grounds through it's case to the transaxel, even if there was a problem with the starter, it should not "heat up" the clutch line.

The clutch line is acting like a ground path, it would only do that if the engine ground was bad or inadequate or somehow power was being supplied to it.

BTW is it cable or hydro?

You said it is a one piece ground cable, from batt. to chassis to "end", where is the chassis ground and where is the "end" conneted to, what bracket, where? 94

 

Its hydro converted. I made sure there was no wires grounding out. I have a ground on the valve cover, thermo and trans. The one piece goes from the neg terminal to a bolt on the passenger frame rail but it continues as a regular ground. I had it bolted to the trans but it seemed to make a short.

 

Car was auto now manual

 

I also sanded all the grounds, the T-stat, valve cover, batt to chassis, batt terminals.

 

A lot of Honda/Acura use the "one piece" ground cable, from batt. to chassis, [frame rail] to engine, [transmission] it should work fine,

You said, "I had it bolted to the trans but it seemed to make a short" where is it connected now? 94

 

I bolted the end back to the chassis. there is a bolt in the middle as well that I cleaned off.

 

Tried a known good starter and it did the same thing.

 

bump

 

Happen to me before,
auto to manual but no hydro.

Everytime i tried to start it the wires get hot.
I can see smoke on the wires.

It was definitely grounding somewhere.
Found out one my wires leads going to the starter was grounding.

Double check nothing is touching metal.

Hope this helps

 

The "end" can not be on the chassis, it must be on the engine/transmission or the engine does not have a proper ground and it will "seek" a ground from where it can.

As I said, on a G2 the one piece ground cable goes from the batt. to the chassis, under the batt. and then continues to the engine where the "end" is connected to ground the engine.

94

 

Fixed it. It was the combination of grounds. Still dont have spark though. tested the ICM and coil. they work fine on my integra and so dont the wires. Tested the Ignition switch for continuity and it works in all positions. The thermo ground is good. So it must be either a break in the black/yellow wire or the ecu is bad right?

 

Is there power on the black/yellow at the distributor assembly when the ign. switch is in BOTH the run and start positions?

Check for power at IGP1 and IGP2 at the ECU/ECM. 94

 

Tested the Black/yellow for continuity at the dizzy and shock tower connections and got nothing. Tested pin A25 (OBD1 ECU) and still got nothing. The ECU is a Phearable unit but it works in a friends car. Im running it with an HAmotorsports OBD0-OBD1 jumper.

 

Test for power, [not continuity] on the black/yellow at the distributor assembly.

It needs to have power, [12V+] when ign. switch is in both the run and start positions, if not, you will not have spark. 94

 

Ok 12.38 volts at the dizzy plug. Now on an OBD2 dizzy the yellow/green is the ignitor right? I only got 5 volts there. I had 2 same size white wires on the OBD0 harness could I have miss wired the ignitor?

 

yellow/green and black/yellow wire seem to be getting 9-12 volts. Still no spark. Timing belt is fine and on the correct time. Dizzy and wires work in my 01 ITR. Why no spark? I want this nightmare to end.

 

Did you check for power at IGP1 and IGP2 at the ECU/ECM? 94

 

12 volts at both sources in both key positions (on2 and on3).

 

Have you tried to pull trouble codes?

Do you have a 12V test light? 94

 

No codes. And yes.

 

With the dizzy and wires working in another car and the ecu working as well it would mean that the harness has a problem some where right? I've tested the ignition switch and it was good. Im just not getting spark from the coil. I tried to see if it would spark right off the coil when cranking but it didn't. Still had 11.8 volts but it wouldn't jump off the coil for some reason.