Hey what's up I'm in need of some help here. I'm working on my co workers 92 hatch, has a d16y8 swapped into it. car was running fine about a year or so ago, then one day just stopped running. the owner thought it was the fuel pump so he replaced that, nothing. so he bought a distributor for it, but couldn't install it because the obd2 plug had been cut off of the y8 dizzy and obd1 plugs had been soldered onto it. that's where i come in.

here's what i know about the car:
trim level is unknown, car has an old custom paint job on it, i think it's an ej1?

swap was done fairly clean, using the stock body harness, an ex/si engine harness with the 3 vtec wires ran to the passenger shock tower.

The ECU is a p28, as far as i know it's virgin, however i will check it tomorrow
I made an obd1-obd2 distributor jumper harness, car gets good spark just no fuel, verified by a jegs fuel pressure gauge installed in line of the fuel feed line

There is a brand new main relay in it, and the CEL comes on when the key is first turned to position 2 for about 5 seconds then turns off, as does the main relay

Using a test light I verified that there is voltage going all the way back to the fuel pump plug

fuel pump is new, but when i pulled it out tonight the positive wire had been crushed in the tank gasket and half the wires were cut, (see pic below) which leads to the next thing,

fuse 24 was blown, and fuse 12 was replaced with a fake plastic one, i replaced both with new(er) 15 amp fuses and relay behaves proper now, before i replaced fuse 24 cel would come on and stay on and the relay would click once i turned the key off. i also checked fuses 31 and 32, both are also good.

car cranks over good, i have 12.2-12.4 volts at the battery and i keep it on a charger at night

when in position 3 (cranking) i noticed no voltage being sent to the fuel pump? this seems odd?


a few things i have noticed:

when i hooked my test light up to the fuel sending unit positive wire there was a very dim glow coming from it like there's not enough voltage? not sure if that matters.

i cut out the crimped portion of the fuel pump positive wire, and soldered in a new wire. should i have used crimp connectors instead? also, the copper was very dirty looking, almost black, this could cause a serious voltage drop right?

tomorrow i'm going to take the ecu out and test it in my hatch (i'm obd1 converted) to see if it'll run my car just fine

i have not checked the thermostat ground yet, but will also do that tomorrow, along with checking actual voltage at the pump.

did i miss anything? i've been searching through threads but no one seems to post up the final solution the threads just die off.

this one was very helpful though:
https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/93-eg-wont-start-fuel-pump-doesnt-prime-2971031/

and here's the pic of the crimped wire:

 

Never test wires with a "test light". Use a digital multimeter instead. Looks like the wires is pinched causing the fuse to blow. If you can, pick up a used one from your local junkyard and see if the problem persists. Exposed wires in fuel tank is not a good idea.

 

If battery voltage reaches the fuel pump, and the pump still fails to prime, then the fuel pump or its ground wire is bad. Based on the picture you posted, proper repair of the ground wire should put your friend's car back on the road.

 

ok i'm going to drop the fuse box and check things out. with my dmm i'm not getting any voltage reading at the fuel pump clip, i have my probes pressed into each metal terminal on the plug, so looks like i have to go back through and check everything. ecu is good i plugged it into my hatch no codes fired right up so that's ruled out. going to try re soldering main relay as well, it clicks after 2 seconds or so of the key being in position two which means it should be sending power to the fuel pump right? the thermostat grounds looked a bit dirty, but i checked resistance and it was only 2 ohms from the negative terminal to the brass connector bolted to the housing, but i'll clean that just to be safe

 

When you turn the key from off to ON(II), does the CEL illuminate for 2 seconds and then turn off?

Is fuse 31, 24, and/or 18 blown?

 

fuse 24 was blown, i believe because of the pinched wire.

problem is solved as far as i can tell, what it was was a broken connector in the front to rear connector. pulled the whole harness down, fuel pump primed, car fired up after a minute of cranking (hasn't ran in over a year). jiggled the wires around, car started to bog down and die. testing led me to find the broken connector

thanks for all the help!

here's what broke: