Need Help Quick! Car won't start.

Hi all,
I want to go to the track tonight but my car won't start. Here's what happened...

I was trying to install an 88-89 CRX gauge cluster in my 88 Civic Hatch but for me it doesn't just plug in and work. I tried swapping a few wires to see if I could figure it out and each time I made a change I would start the car and then kill the engine after a few seconds. I did this about 3 or 4 times when I decided to pull the car out of the garage and drive it for a minute. It started just fine but when I put it in reverse and drove it about 10 feet out of my garage it died. I had to get out and push it back in. Thinking that it might be flooded I waited a few hours and tried to start it again. The engine cranks but does not start. I have plenty of battery so that's not the problem.

This happened last night so today when I got home from work I thought for sure that it would start but again no luck. This evening I pulled the spark plugs and turned the engine over a couple of times and then replaced the plugs but that didn't help either. I'm now at a loss. I can only assume that I somehow messed up something by changing the wiring behing my gauge cluster but I didn't think that was possible.

Please help. If I can get it running again tonight I'm going to the race track!

i dont think messing with the gauge cluster could have any effect on the engine itself. make sure you got spark and fuel getting in.

make sure you got spark and fuel getting in.
How do I check that?

Dude...............I'd give up on the track for today...

Spark.....take out one plug wire and short it to a place on the valve cover that isn't painted (for better electrical contact) and turn the car over...(need a friend for this) - you should see spark across the wire and head/block....

As for fuel - most likely you have fuel---you can pull off the fuel line (don't smoke for God's sake) between the engine and the firewall, and see if you have fuel from the tank when u turn the engine over (the pump is in the tank).....the best place is probably at the fuel filter....it is the canister (a little smaller than a coffee mug) just under the passenger side wiper, bolted to the firewall and hanging on a bracket...

I'd put all your wiring from the gauge cluster swap back first tho to elimanate any potential issues there. U never know??? :confused:

- i am no expert but I hope this helps.

you can check spark by taking out a spark plug then crank the engnie, and you should see the spark plug sparking. idk about avle cover, does it leave a mark like when you ground it ?

then if the sparkplug is sparking then either you got no fuel or no compression. pull the line off after the fuel filter just to make sure its not the fuel filter. or better yet, take off one of the injectors and see if it squirts fuel, or take them all off and make sure they are all working fine.

Thank you for the replies,
It looks like I'll have to wait till tomorrow. Plus I'll need someone to give me hand. I'll keep ya'll updated.

try just disconnecting the battery and letting the electrical system flush itself out? now is the starter actually moving the crank?

hey man, my car is doin the axact same thing, i took my original cluster out, and put in a new one, i went to start it and it did the exact same thing. So i ripped the new cluster out and threw in my old one, and it still didnt work:mad: The spark plugs do not spark at all! Im startin to wonder if i fried my computer.

Ok, I checked for spark and I don't have any. I removed one of the spark plug wires and had someone crank the engine while I looked inside the plug and I saw no spark. If that's not how to check then let me know. If I should have seen a spark by doing that then what should I do now? No spark= buy/replace what?

ok but did you ground the spark plug. cause if you dont ground it then it wont spark. if you didnt ground it then get the spark plug plugged in the spark plug wire. then put the spark plug threads on a metal part of the car, like anything metal on the body of the car. then try it. if its not grounded then it wont spark

Ok, so I really didn't have any spark. Thank you civickiller for clarifying the exact process. After I tried the same steps on my wife's car and hers did spark, I knew I was doing it right.

This time I decided to check all the fuses and Lo and Behold, the Alternator Solenoid Valve fuse was blown! I replaced that fuse and connected my battery cable and then THANK GOODNESS my car finally started! It's pretty funny how a little tiny 10Amp fuse can prevent the car from working. I'm just glad I figured it out without having to pay someone to change a fuse.

Thank you all for the help and suggestions.