80 Accord Hatch: Electrical issue

[2ndGenGuy]

Fuck, and all this time, I've been stealing cars by hotwiring under the dash. This seems so much easier!

HAha, it makes sense though. When you turn on the key, you are basically just powering on the ignition. Jumping + to the coil would just send power back through the wiring the other way.

[lostscotiaguy]

"If you hook a wire from the black and yellow ignition coil wire to the positive post of battery and jump the starter it will fire right up. You can remove the ignition key, you can unplug the ignition lock but the thing will start anyway. You can check it for yourself."

My statement was made with the assumption that nothing else was "jumped" besides the starter circuit.

At this point I'm so lost as to what has been done with the wires that I don't have a sweet f***ing clue what's wired to what anymore....
My only suggestion would be that he remove all the "fast and the furious" wiring (start button) and see if it'll run with the normal set-up.
Don't get me wrong, customization is cool, and I wouldn't even mind something like a start button (assuming it wasn't a cheap looking 5$ Ebay special) but I'm thinking that whoever did all of it knew just enough about electrical work to be dangerous....which has also led to poor Cthulu's frustration, and hopefully not the loss of his vehicle. It's obviously hard enough troubleshooting electrical gremlins without "being there" but it's bad enough when you're also trying to take into account weird EXTRA wiring while you're at it. Sorry if I sound frustrated but I just wish I could help him. I'd hate to see another 1st gen go to waste over an easily fixed problem that's just hard to diagnose.

[Dr_Snooz]

Test post.

[Dr_Snooz]

Holy crap! It worked!

[Dr_Snooz]

Sorry. I tried to post to this thread days ago, but the site would have none of it.

Some random, disconnected thoughts:

I suspect you have either a resistance problem or a loose connection. Possibly both at the same time.

I had wiring trouble with my '76 Accord. If I replaced the heater blower motor fuse, it would run for 15 minutes or so and then blow, but not in the usual way. There was so much resistance in the fuse clip that it would heat up and literally melt the end off the fuse. The fuse would look fine, but would disintegrate when you went to remove it. The plastic case around the offending fuse clip melted from the heat. As you work, be aware of any corrosion in or around wires and connections. Also be aware of any loose connections or any signs of heat, like discolored wires or melted wire insulation. A best practice for wire connections is to ensure a clean metal connection by filing or sanding down to bare metal if needed. Then smear the metal with dielectric grease before putting back together, then coat any exposed metal with more dielectric grease.

If you want to have a snowball's chance in Hades of fixing a wiring problem YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE THE OEM MANUAL!!!! This is not negotiable. You need the wiring diagrams so you know what you're doing. Seeing that time is of the essence, work from the diagrams that LSG posted, but order the OEM manual posthaste unless you plan to get rid of the car in the next few weeks. To find your problem, start from the battery and follow the wire to your bad component. At each connection, test for voltage, resistance and amperage. You probably don't have an ammeter, so use your test light as a proxy. Basically, a brighter light means more amperage. When you test for resistance, be sure there isn't any power in the wire, or it will blow the fuse in your multimeter. At some point, your electrical output will break down. When you see this, you will know that the problem is between your last known good connection and the bad one.

That's wire troubleshooting, in a nutshell. Now here's the wildcard. You have something going on in the wire harness near the clutch. The fact that you could move it and make it work indicates that something is shorting out randomly. Keep that in mind as you troubleshoot, because you very well might be able to get everything to test out perfect. Move the clutch harness and it will stop testing perfect. That kind of thing can make you crazy.

Also consider that it is possible that you have a melted wire in your harness somewhere (possibly near the clutch). With all the wrong amperage fuse business going on, it's possible that a wire got melted in the harness and is grounding out on another wire. That will create all kinds of interesting phenomena while making it very difficult to find and repair. Just be aware of that as you work. The solution is either to replace the harness (=$$$$) or just run a new wire.

Yes, I wrote all that only to have the site flush it for me...twice. Anyway, good luck. I'll keep an eye on things and respond if I'm able.

[lostscotiaguy]

Maybe this will help a little more as well:

http://imgur.com/a/Hqcyq

[1GCustomAccord]

Probably the hatch is already in a junkyard by now.

[lostforawhile]

we made it very clear how to make it run so he could get it home snooze, but he wouldn't listen or whatever, hook the positive side of the coil temporarily to battery plus, jump a wire from the starter solenoid terminal to battery and bam she starts, that simple, then he could have driven it home to figure out the issue

[lostscotiaguy]

Hmmm....I wonder whatever happened with this?