96 civic, 5 speed.

long story short - had an aftermarket alarm which I removed, black/white ignition wire was cut (alarm spliced into here) and I reconnected. I did this because I noticed I suddenly was losing 12v power to the car when it was in the “II” ignition position. When cranking, the power would be present, but when the key rests back in II, no power.

so, I spliced into the white 12v from ignition coil and ran it to the black/yellow wire. Now it cranks and never loses power.

Only problem is I don’t know why the II position doesn’t have power. But when I move the key SLIGHTLY backward toward “I”, I’d get power. I’m thinking of replacing the ignition switch along with the ignition itself.

here is a pic of the wiring before I “fixed” it. You can see both ends of the black/white.

 

Check the voltage in position II right at the key switch pigtail on the Black/White wire location. If you don't have power there... replace the key switch.

 

I hope not a dumb question, but is that the ignition switch? The two brown connectors that go to the ignition itself I mean.

it seems like something in the key tumbler that isn’t registering the ignition “II position”.

when I give direct power to the black/yellow wire, everything is fine. So it seems like the tumbler. Regardless of that, there’s still an issue with the car not starting sporadically.

 

So you’ve returned it to stock wiring after removing the alarm? Make sure your connections are solid with wire connectors crimped on to each end of the wire. Not twisted together or rigged up in any way/taped together. Do you have a picture of the “fixed” wire? If something is intermittent then it could just be loose connections.
If you’ve returned it to stock wiring with good connections and it’s still intermittent then it might be the key switch.
It seems to me that it’s bad connections.

 

UPDATE: went and checked the main relay harness again and realized I got no power from terminal 6 on the harness. This is the blu/wht wire which controls the starter. You test it by cranking the engine (turning key to START position) which would result in 12v. I got 0.

The under dash fuse for this wire is good, so I’m lost.

i was able to get a couple of used ignition switches/wiring and installed one of them yesterday. The problem was with the switch itself, which wouldn’t register the key being in the ON position. That is solved now.

BUT, there’s an issue with the fuel pump not priming and the relay not clicking.

Even with the botched wiring, the fuel pump wouldn’t always prime. But once it did, I could fire it up over and over (priming each time).

wirh the wiring fixed, I’m seeing the same main relay issue. After about 15 minutes of going to ON and OFF, the pump primed and relay clicked, and it fired.

I’ve tested the relay and the harness and everything seems good. The ecu also looks good internally. None of the wiring from ECU to fuse panel was touched during the alarm install.

 

Im not sure what to think if your fuel pump isn’t priming but the relay and wiring seems good. Maybe it’s the fuel pump itself starting to not work. Or maybe there is something wrong with the ECU that isn’t visually apparent.
There is another thread on the front page of the Tech forum I read today:

Re: Fuel pump not priming. 92 eg
Problem solved. Sent my ECU to Burton-racing and they did bench test. Although the only thing that was burnt was Q31 transistor, They were kind enough to replace IC17 Chip even though they said it wasn't burnt, but just incase because i explained that my fuel pump was not priming; and Sure enough fuel pump primes now.

 

I found THIS guide regarding a possible bad ECU. None of my capacitors were swollen and no joints cracked. I have solder skills so maybe I can replace the capacitors.

but yea, fuel pump won’t prime and relay won’t click SOMETIMES. Once I turn ignition to ON a few times, it eventually works.

can’t explain why the ignition doesn’t show power from the main relay harness during testing since the car does actually start when relay is plugged in.

 

Yeah I’m not sure. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

 

it’s either the relay or ECU. Gonna start with the relay and go from there.

 

This is not fixed.

Cut out those vampire taps. Replace missing length of wire with a matching gauge. Crimp connectors and heat shrink.

Until that area is correct the rest of the troubleshooting is pointless.

 

as I said in a previous post, I’ve returned the wiring to stock by getting another ignition switch harness.

edit: sorry. Thought I mentioned it.

 

Okay.

Check the main relay for sure. They are well known for cracked solder joints. Easy to fix if you have a solder iron.

 

yea for sure I’ve opened it up and checked it out but things look good. I don’t want to re solder if I don’t need to. I’ve also checked the connector itself and jumped two pins to trigger the fuel pump - which worked.

weird issue is I don’t get 12v on the blue/white wire when I turn the car to START when testing with a volt meter.

I hope this isn’t a dumb question, but will the car crank even with no main relay plugged in? Is it supposed to crank without it plugged in? Because it doesn’t.