Not to long ago i bought an 88 rx n/a, but when i went to pick it up it needed a battery. So i bought on and proceded to install it. We were in a hurry and accitentally hooked it up backwards. Now it wont run or start. It turns over and over, but wont run. If any of you have actually done the battery thing backwards, could you tell me what it broke? Thanks, btw i got it at an auction for $550, and a friend had driven it about a month or so before. So it did run recently.

 

Check the main 80A fuse underhood.

 

All the fuses are good, the 80a fuse is the main fuse on the car, w/o it absolutly nothing will work. Everything workrs but it wont actually start.

 

this problem may be pre-existing to buying the car, dont be so hasty to blame it on the battery.

 

that is true....i did this once...actually my friend did it, but i left him put it in so i blame myself...stupid friends but all i blew was my 80A main fuse...

 

There wasnt a battery at all. i'm sure its not the battery

 

I actually just remember somthing, the main fuse wasnt actually a fuse, it was a broken fuse someone had put in place of the fuse, any ideas what it actually would have fried? Maybe the ecu?

 

if the main 80a fuse was blown before you installed the battery backwards, then the battery didnt have a way to fry anything else

 

The fuse was a makeshift bridge across where the fuse would have been. Thanks for all the replies guys, this is the best forum i've ever seen.

 

Sounds like your problem is solved but for the next guy that is searching the forum. My brother did this to his car and after replacing the coils and ecu, it started again.

 

Could it just be that the engine is flooded??? Does it fully turn over? or does it just crank? Hopefully it's just an engine flood! It might sound stupid, but it might be easier to try pulling the ignition fuse (or whatever it's called), and if it doesn't work.... rule it out!

Good Luck!

 

Ok, i have a friend with a 86 n/a and we swapped ecu's and his car started right up, so now its not the ecu. I'll have to check out the coils next it looks like. It's still possible that its a compression problem i've been hoping it wasnt but looks like less and less things could be causing this problem. Any more ideas??? Thanks

 

one of my friends did that to my car and it blew the main 100 amp fuse...

 

well i did that once and i had to change about 8 or 9 fuses so check all of the fuses

 

if u hooked the batt the wrong way in would the car over really well cheack the the all the fuse and fuseable links and the alternater if u havent done any damage u lucky!!

 

it happen to me on mercury sable 89, burned alternator.....after changing alt it was everything ok....

 

I did once! and i had 5 speeds of reverse and toped out foward at 25!


ok.. that was dumb but oh whell

 

5 speeds of reverse?????

 

Um.... where to begin on this one... man, you are dense.

 

ive seen people jump batteries backwards and fry the ecu before. I could be a blown EGI fuse, or it could be an expensive lesson. Good luck.

 

I (actually raptor13x) hooked up a battery backwards when jumpstarting, it made the wires REALLY hot and they started smoking.. it wasn't pretty.

 

Did I read this right? The main fuse had already been blown, so someone jumped it (i.e. no fuse at all), and then he installed the battery backwards?

Sounds to me like it may have killed the ECU or coils. Just in case, I'd check all of the other fuses, and try a de-flooding.

Good luck!
Brandon

 

I did this in my mustang. Same symptoms as you. Burned out the voltage regulator.

In mustangs it required replacing the whole altinator, don't know about yours.

 

I'm very sure its not the ecu, but i wish it would have been, but now it seems like the coils could be next to be checked, how would i go about checking the coils?
thanks

 

Whoa! After checking what others have said so far I would also suspect the diodes in the altenator. But a "bridge" where the 80A SHOULD be? Man, sounds like that thing could have came WITH an electical problem to begin with! And reverse biasing those diodes sure did not help any. So could be a very interestin "oppertunity" to learn all about the rx-7 wiring. Good luck to you!