I swapped out the block/head on a 89 civic recently (PITA!). Anyway, I’ve got it all together and now it won’t turn over. Nothing. When I turn the key, I can hear the ignition switch doing it’s thing; under the hood, there is some switching noise coming from the passenger firewall area (souinds like a relay doing it’s thing…), but nothing else. The lights are on strong and all the interior electrical components come on like they should, but the starter is not getting the juice it needs. I even replaced the battery with a known good one just to verify that it wasn’t the problem. Everything seems hooked up and attached correctly… Does anyone have any ideas?
By the way, the car isn’t anything special… 89/auto. Though the engine and head came out of the next gen car, everything else is the same.
I am willing to bet that you don’t have the tranny ground strap on. There is a ground to connect from the tranny/bellhousing area to the chassis. You will see all your lights, here your starter solenoid click, fans will work, but it WON’T crank. Hook that ground up and you will be golden.
if your still running OBDO make sure your using your old injectors and distributer. this won’t help with it not cranking but when it does it won’t fire and the different injectors could fry the ecu.
also check the thermostat ground. the ecu is grounded though here aswell