I might have this thing fixed! Thanks to all of your wonderful information no doubt. I found that the negative lead is indeed grounded to a spot on top of the transmission but apparently there is a small bolt it is supposed to be grounded to right next to/behind the radiator. I popped it on ther and all seems well. I'm wondering though why that would have been blowing the fuse specifically on the regulator line?

By Kurt (142.179.39.216) on Monday, October 13, 2003 - 12:50 pm:

The main engine grounding strap will run from the top of the valve cover bolt to the front rad suppoort. It looks like a braided steel line. The earlier Accords I have seen used two and I believe the other one ran from the tranny to the rad support. The negative lead to the battery is supposed to ground out on the bracket on top of the tranny just make sure you have good contacts there.

- Kurt

By bruce (63.232.39.128) on Sunday, October 12, 2003 - 08:20 pm:

Brandon, the best way to bypass the thermosensor (the one on the radiator) is unplug both wires, then if you connect those two wires and your fan comes on with the ignition on your thermosensor on the radiator is bad( thats how you check to see if the sensor is good or not) to make your fan run all the time just jump those two wires and the fan runs when the ingition is on, if you want to contol when the fan goes on and off then you can run two wires to a switch mounted in the dash and use the switch to turn the fan on and off. I have a switch to control my fan because that thermosensor on my radiator kept going out.

By Brandon B. (Yellow78) (65.128.21.57) on Sunday, October 12, 2003 - 06:13 pm:

Hey thanks for the info, I checked the termosensor 'A' (the one on the engine not on the bottom of the radiator) and for some reason its not plugged in, in fact it looks like the connection pins were sheared off at some point with a wire cutter, the only thing thats left is a piece of frayed copper wire on one side. Is it possible that who ever did that might have tryed to bypass the circuit, I've heard of people rewiring the fan so that it's always on. It looks like some home made stuff in there but I know nothing about automotive electronics it could be for something else completely. I can't figure out were exactly to look for the grounding straps I thought I saw something earlier but it was just the negative lead of the battery mounted to the top of what I think is the transmission.

By Jonathan (172.150.221.206) on Sunday, October 12, 2003 - 05:57 pm:

Brandon, the four wires going to the cooling fan relay are:
Power to the fan switch (Black/Yellow trace)
Power from the ignition switch (White)
Ground (Black)
and the last Black/Yellow looks like it goes to a thermosensor, but it branches off at some places. Here's a wiring diagram....
http://web.njit.edu/~jjj8778/civic/wiring/78-79SedanAndWagon-NorthAmericaWiring.gif

Here's the key to what all the numbers mean....
http://web.njit.edu/~jjj8778/civic/wiring/key.gif

and here's where more wiring diagrams are posted...
http://web.njit.edu/~jjj8778/civic/wiring/

I'm guessing that the short is probably in the white or the black/yellow wire to the thermosensor. If there was a short in either of the other two, you wouldn't see it until the car got up to temperature, and the relay kicked on, if at all. Check the thermosensor too, make sure that's not bad and shorting to ground.

By Brandon B. (Yellow78) (65.128.20.215) on Sunday, October 12, 2003 - 01:35 pm:

I checked the grounding and it seems to be in place. I may to have 'solved' the problem temporarily by taking the 'fan relay' off the circuit. I was clicking everytime I pressed the gas pedel so I unplugged it and all systems looked to be functioning normally. I know its not a good way to solve the problem so I'm still trying to figure out what it is that is causing the problem, I'm going to to check the grounding again. does anyone know what the wires coming off this relay go to, there is one thick and one thin black w/ yellow strip, a thick white and a thin black. i tryed letting the car idle for a while and after about 15 mins. the radiator boiled over, so I'm assuming that I need this fan relay to keep it from doing so.

By bruce (66.20.225.168) on Friday, October 10, 2003 - 09:53 am:

Brandon, Make sure your grounding straps are good, Brents engine was not properly grounded to the chasis and so the throttle cable was acting like a grounding cable.

By Brandon Blische (Yellow78) (65.128.20.48) on Thursday, October 09, 2003 - 07:16 pm:

hye brent thanks for the reply, you say the throttle cable? is the throttle cable electrical? I thought it just opened the carbs to let gas and air in.

By brent c (66.91.248.160) on Wednesday, October 08, 2003 - 07:44 pm:

Not sure if it helps but, my accord had a problem sort of similar with the lights but not the fuse. Mine set the alternator wiring system and some of the main wiring system on fire. So I rewired all that was fried. When I was ready to start it again it started but all the lights came on, on the dash, and it started to melt the throttle cable housing. This all occured while pushing the gas. Turns out the throttle cable was the only place the motor was grounded. Oops! It fixed my problem. Hope it fixes yours or points you in the correct direction.

Brent

By Brandon Blische (Yellow78) (65.128.20.65) on Wednesday, October 08, 2003 - 06:05 pm:

Ok I'm new here so first off, Hi how's it going. So I bought this 1978 civic cvcc and I love it but I bought it knowing that there was something wrong with it. The regulator fuse keeps blowing everytime I turn the key, I thought it might be the thermosensor so I unpluged that as well as the alternator and eventually I unpluged everything on the line and it was still blowing fuses, so I thought, "I'll put a 20Amp fuse in this 10Amp slot and see it is starts smoking anywhere". Nothing happened when I turned the key, I sat for a while and then I decided to turn the engine over just for kicks, when I did so I pressed the gas peddle and strangely enough as my foot touched it all of the lights on the dashboard kicked on as well as the headlights (I had mistakenly turned them on earlier). I let my foot off the peddle and they all went out then I put my foot on again and held it there for a minute. I keep my foot on the gas, time goes by and smoke starts coming out of the dashboardright near the right wishsheild wiper and the fuse blows! I know the guy who had it before replaced the fuel pump with an aftermarket piece and tomorrow I'm going to take the dashboard off and check it out. Any ideas would be great, I think this is the wildest problem I've ever had with a car.