OK, what did I kill?

1of400 · 02-27-2006, 05:20 PM

I had the engine/tranny out of my car ('94 Turbo 3.6) and put it back in this weekend. The install went easily and I thought I hooked everything up. The car struggled to start as it would barely turn over at first. I thought I had a bad battery. Ultimately I tinkered with a jumper battery and whatnot and the car started and ran great. I backed it up and out of my driveway and it died just as I went over a hump. It would not restart. I thought I had a crappy battery so I bought another.

The new one would not turn over the car and the tach needle bounced all over when trying to start it. I recognized the bouncing needle as a bad ground connection and immediately went under the car and noticed I had forgotten to connect the ground as the wire had been squashed up by the transmission and out of sight. I connected it to the one of the two nuts holding the starter on (is this right? honestly, I didn't remember which one it went on) and now the car turns over perfectly with no needle bounce. The problem is that it doesn't catch and run.

I fear I killed something by not having the ground connected right (er, at all). I'm hoping it is just a relay or fuse. Any suggestions what to look at? I've checked many fuses and all are fine. Could I have killed the control unit's relay? Could I have killed the control unit?