1986 Honda CRX Si not starting

[prime laurel]

Do I have to replace the battery? Turn sound on

Also sometimes literally nothing happens when I turn the key

[rough ocean]

So that sounds like a terrible starter, or it could be a bad starter relay. I dont know if that car has one but I have a z31 from the same year. And the battery and electronics all are wonky

I say get your battery tested and go from there

[prime laurel]

When I probe the battery with a multimeter it shows 10-11v

My meter doesn’t show decimal

[rough ocean]

So that is a little low, I say give it a good charge and try again

The electronics from the 80s dont like not having enough volts, creates a lot of problems

[prime laurel]

Ok

[ripe blaze]

It's cranking but something does not sound right

Can you take a video of the engine while cranking

[prime laurel]

I already disconnected the battery wires and it’s charging rn

I’ll do that if it still doesn’t start tmrw

[rough ocean]

Sounds good

[prime laurel]

The battery charged all the way and I connected the wires again but now when I turn the key this happens. Most of the time I turn the key literally nothing happens

[dense barn]

GG @prime laurel, you just advanced to level 2! Chat more to level up and earn top roles!

[prime laurel]

What’s the problem

[prime laurel]

@ripe blaze @rough ocean

[rough ocean]

Now we have either a spark or fuel issue

Now considering the era of the car I would immediately suspect the fuel pump

Put the key in the ignition and leave it in the "on position" for a few seconds then try and crank

Gets some starter fluid and try that way
Or for the spark, disconnect a spar wire, undo a spark plug and put it on the end of the wire outside of the engine to check if its sparking

[rough ocean]

Thats my 2 cents

[shy berry]

From what I remember, the distributor on this car is known to just randomly fail.

[rough ocean]

Now that may be it, the distributor in another japenese car from the same year that I have was replaced a few times

They are usually just a little over 100 bucks

[prime laurel]

What about the ignition switch or starter solenoid

[rough ocean]

I would say do the other test first, I dont know enough about the others. And it sounds to me like the ignition switch is going

[shy berry]

Sounds like a starter to me. It sounds like the actuator kicks out to engage the flywheel but then pulls back in

[sudden marsh]

The battery might not be holding voltage

[ripe blaze]

The starter sounds fine to me

It just disengaged because the car fired

[shy berry]

Yeah hard to tell since it also sounds like OP is premature letting go of the ignition

[ripe blaze]

The first video from the most recent post had the car fire

I'd check fuel pressure

[prime laurel]

I’m not letting go prematurely (look at vids). Also I realized after tapping the starter with a hammer a bunch it would consistently crank after turning the key. Previously it would take like 10 turns of the key to get the starter to even engage.

Also after tapping the starter for like a whole minute straight this happened. It was the longest it’s ever been able to crank even after I had to stop it myself cuz of how bad it was sounding

[shy berry]

So in the starter is not working properly. I’m willing to bet you have two issues.

Starter and no spark

Take a spark plug out, leaving it in the boot and hold it to ground and crank it over