RevengeCRX

When my ground connection to the battery was loose, or when my battery was weak, I always heard that infamous, "zzt zzt zzt clickety" sound too. Double check your ground and make sure it's touching BARE metal on the body side. My ground was haphazardly connected to a painted part of the body, which made for a bad ground.
Jumping your car also grounds the battery, so that would make it start.
Try this: take your battery and put it in another car, if that car won't start, or has a weak battery sign (dash lights dim, clicking noise), then it's DEFINITELY the battery. If the car starts right up, then you need to find a better ground, and from what you described, the car starting up, then a minute later you try to start it, and the car won't start, it sounds like you have a bad/loose ground.
Also keep in mind, that if a battery is REALLY bad, jumping the car will only work for that session only. Once you turn off the car, the car will not start again unless you jump it, indicating a dead battery.

shady visions

Yeah, I'll try all of that tomorrow. I think I did take the battery out of the car once and put it in my mustang and it powered it up fine. But that was a while ago, I'll try it tomorrow. Anyways, if it is on painted metal, it could be a bad ground?

Also, will electrical tape help fix any of my wires? I have a headlight wire that looks like it was chewed through partially, and i want to know if I can just electrical-tape it up. Otherwise, I am going to look for a new wiring harness?

RevengeCRX

Cool. Yes, a ground connected to a painted part of the body is definitely a bad thing. If you only have that ground to work with however, just grind down the paint until bare metal is exposed, and that may solve your problems.
:chuckles: I use electrical tape on just about everything on my car. I got like 10 rolls laying around. Good electrical tape will fix wires, but posi-locks or soldering are the best ways to hold wires together, unless you're talking about exposed wires, yeah just electrical tape the shit out of them . Posi-locks can be purchased at autozone, but they're a bit expensive, like $7 for 15! You won't need to get a new harness unless multiple wires are damaged, like my car: all the wires leading to the passenger lights are destroyed, and one wire has shorted all the way to the fuse box! But somehow the car still runs fine! I just ghetto rigged the passenger headlights by splicing them into the driver's side, no problems, no dimming lights. :chuckles:

shady visions

The asshole that had the car before I bought it did all type of crazy shit to it. He rigged it so that the clutch didn't need to be in in order to start the car up. And I think he fucked something up there, but I don't know of anyone that would know how to fix it, or how he might've done it.

RevengeCRX

My rexy is the same way. I believe you just cut the connector off, then tie the two wires together, and presto! no more holding the clutch in. If you wanna fix it, which is not necessary and more of a pita than anything, you can snatch the plug out of a 88-91 civic/crx (or maybe other models, not sure) 5-speed from the junkyard, look for those two wires tied together in a loom down there, good luck finding it! splice the wires into the plug, then put that plug right back into the clutch sensor! There ya go! Fixed it, and it will probably take you a full day to find the plug, find the wires, and connect it back up.
I'm just saying it's pointless to fix. But I am curious on what other things he did before he sold the car to you? My rex has all kinds of issues: passenger lights harness fried, bumper reinforcement bent, headlight brackets bent, hood misaligned(bent), suspension shot(when i bought the car, it's fixed now, damn ebay coilovers that the previous cheap owner put on , now it's got tein springs and o.e. struts), no cat!, rattling exhaust, mad oil leak(with the old engine), overheating(no fan, now it has one and runs fine), etc... It has a shitload of problems, but i'm relatively happy now that I have a b16a in there now!

shady visions

Those are basically the same problems I am having now..

RevengeCRX

Lol, then I'm not alone in the world! All i gotta do now is fix that rattling exhaust(i mean the shit keeps rubbing up against the body, not cool when you have a girl in your car ), fix the headlight brackets, get a new bumper reinforcement, and give her a good paint job. Oh yeah, the doors, and the passenger window are a bit off alignment too.

shady visions

Fixed the ground, didn't solve the problem. I tried jumping the car now, and I get the same result.

RevengeCRX

Okay, so your car still starts with a jump? Then only 2 things: Battery is totally dead(did you try taking your battery and putting it into another car yet?), or you might need to actually CHANGE your ground. I couldn't really grind down the area where the ground was connected, so i just grounded the battery to the rear passenger shock tower by connecting it to the strut bar(since my battery is in rear). Ground is perfect now. Oh, and try cleaning your terminals and make sure that the wires are in there nice and snug, and clean your posts too. If all that still fails, then shit, I have no f-ing clue what could be wrong, other than a broken ass starter.
OOOOh my rex didn't wanna start after I kinda blew the old engine. It started to knock pretty badly, and when I was driving one day I heard a loud "clank" and the car died about two seconds after I took it out of gear. I have no clue what it was, and I wasn't able to start it but once, and it did that same "clank" and just died. After that, nothing . Hopefully that's not your problem.

shady visions

no, the car doesn't start at all.