My brother in law wants to give me a 1990 Civic that has not run since 2007. I tried to start it but got no power to the dash and the fuel pump. Ant ideas are very welcome. I tried some starting fluid and it started and ran for a few seconds but it is not getting fuel.

 

Checked all the fuses?

Turn the key to the on position, pull back the passenger floorboard carpet under the glovebox and look through the hole in the metal kick plate. Is the red LED flashing? If so, count the flashes to determine what codes are are stored in the ECU, then go about fixing those codes.

I would recommend pulling the back seat and running power directly to the pump to see if it will turn on. If it does run when jumped you need to find why the pump is not getting power. If not you need to drop the tank and replace the pump (and the 15 year old gas).

 

Great info. I will be doing that this next weekend.

 

You suggested pulling the back seat, how does it come out? This is a basic hatch back.

 

Fold the seat backs down, and I think you may need to unbolt the hinge on each side to remove the back-rests. Can't recall - it's been about 15 years since I had an EF hatch.

Once the backrests are out, there is one 10mm bolt holding the bottom cushion down. It's near the center of the cushion along the back edge. If you know where it's at, you actually don't even need to pull out the backrests to pull up the cushion - you can just stick your 10mm socket / extension down in the crack of the seat. With the 10mm bolt out, the cushion tilts forward then lifts out of the way. The fuel pump connector is under the access panel.