My 1988 Honda Civic Will Not Crank , Please I need HELP

I bought a1988 honda civic and the one I bought it from said it needed a
distributor.I bought a new one and put it in .Still it will not crank.I
put another main relay and wire harness on it it still will not crank.It
turns till the battery goes dead,but it acts like its not getting no fire
somewhere.Does anyone know what might be the problem.I dont know what else
to check.PLEASE HELP IF YOU CAN. Thanks

 

First, put away the shotgun. The spray-and-pray approach is very expensive
and normally ineffective.

If it acts like it's "getting no fire", then logically you'd want to check
if there is even any "fire" at all before doing anything else.

Start with the basics and work down from there.
It's not, as they say, rocket science.
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/startproblems.html

 

For the record:

How many miles are on the car?

Did you replace just the distributor housing? Or the
distributor housing along with everything inside it
(notably, the igniter and ignition coil)? Did you use
genuine Honda ( = OEM parts)?

A few caveats to assist you getting help:
The terminology you want to use is that it won't fire. The
car's starter motor is able to "turn over" the crankshaft,
so we can pretty much eliminate the alternator, battery and
starter motor at this point.

Running the battery down until its dead will reduce its
life, even if recharged. Also, using the car's alternator to
re-charge the battery will reduce the alternator's life. Try
not to try starting the car too much in the coming days.

The site to which Tegger sent you is based on much input
here and much hands on experience. I recommend heeding its
advice, for the greater part. I would pay special attention
to checking for spark at this point, following closely the
precautions about doing so. You don't want to burn out the
distributor's ignition coil in the process.

A complete tuneup (plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor,
air filter, fuel filter, add a bottle of Chevron Techron
injector cleaner to near empty fuel tank and fill with gas)
using OEM parts is strongly recommended for used cars whose
history is not known.

Drain and fill coolant system with new Honda-make coolant or
Havoline Dexcool, too.

 

The first step would be a complete tune up. In the future, don't buy a car
unless you can take it for a test ride and make sure the engine and related
parts are working correctly. There may be some serious engine problems so
any money you invest in tune-up related parts might be wasted if you end
up junking the car. On the other hand, if you end up replacing the engine,
you could use some of the tune-up related items such as spark plugs in
the working engine.
Jason

 

jason, i swear i'm not picking on you guy, but why on earth would you
toss out stuff like "if you end up replacing the engine"??? it's a
no-start condition. that means diagnose & repair. it does /not/ mean
wild-ass guesses of fear like "if you end up replacing the engine". if
you don't know how to do simple diagnosis yourself, buy the helm manual
and simply follow the flow charts. [and "first step would be a complete
tune up" is an utter waste of money if you don't know what the problem is.]

how old are you by the way? you might want to sign up for an evening
class in basic auto repair. it'll feed your need for knowledge and save
you a bunch of money if you have the desire to do your car maintenance
yourself.

 

what he said.

 

Jason is right. You have to run the engine before you buy. Short story: A
guy buys a car that recently ran out of oil and engine knocks or is seizing.
Buyer doesn't know but seller knows the whole deal. Seller pulls the ignition
wires and tries sell "as is." Buyer gets a trashed engine. Court in favor of
seller since a document "AS IS" was signed.

 

A too-common con.

Mike

 

Undoughtfuly,no one on this sight knows anything about car motors.I ask a
simple question and everyones is trying to out talk the other ones,about
everything except what I asked.I am a woman and I know more than the
replys I got on this simple question.

 

Please repost the problem. We need the details. For example, what sort of
sounds did you hear when you tried try to start the car. I know about a
dozen different reasons why a car will not start but we need the details
to know which of the dozen reasons apply to your car.
examples:
Dead battery
out of gasoline
starter motor faulty
starter solenoid faulty
ignition switch faulty
various fuel related problems eg injectors/filter/fuel pump
broken or stripped timing belt
Jason