I had leaking injectors in my trashed 90 convert. When the smell of gas got pretty bad, I stopped driving it. I removed the fuel rail and decided to replace the whole rail with one from the salvage yard. This required a bit of re-wiring. While at it noticed that a lot of wiring was in poor shape, so I did some taping and insulating, particularly on the large plug that goes into the ignition module. I also did the Delco conversion.
Put the batt back in and turned the key. Everything lit up properly, brake pump started. Turned the key and with barely a split second crank, all went black. Disconnected the batt and reconnected with the same result.
Does anyone have any idea what might have this effect.
It would seem like it might be a circuit breaker or relay since I can repeat the process without replacing anything. If it were a link or fuse, I assume it would be dead until I replaced something.

It sounds like the battery went dead,charge the battery to full charge.then hook up,cleaning all the terminals.

Charging the batt was the first thing I did while working on the car. Besides, I would think that if it was the batt, disconnecting and reconnecting would not bring the dash back to life the brake pump work each time. When it does its split second crank, everything goes completely dark. Turning the key off and on does absolutely nothing.

You raise two questions:

Why would you need to rewire your injectors since they plug-in? Did you use a different wire harness? And was that harness the one you taped and insulated?

Did you use different injectors from the junk yard?

Your original problem was an "O"-ring sealing issue with the fuel rail or intake manifold, but you said nothing about what you did to prevent that.

You definately have an electrical problem; two or more injector wires are shorted together. If you installed an incompatable wire harness, it may be wired differently at the plug.

Most people don't know it, but injectors come to the engine plant in three distinct 'sets.' They come (marked) plain, plus, or minus. As long as the whole engine has the same type (plain, +, or -), each cylinder gets the same amount of gas, and the oxygen sensors are able to keep the fuel ratio correct. "Money savers" who buy one NAPA injector, cause one cylinder to be richer or leaner than the others. Injectors need to be bought & installed in sets because O2 sensors take an average exhaust reading.

Does your fuel rail have a pressure regulator attached to the back of it? If so, when you get it going again, have the fuel pressure re-tuned.

I still think the battery is the problem.slow charge it over night.The battery is the only source of power to run the auto.The battery could of gone bad,if it will not hold a charge.

I disagree on the batt. If it was dead nothing would run when he turns the key to run. It's only when he turns the key to start that everything goes dark. Recheck your wiring job. Something is not right.

bad battery cables,look under the ends .

"bad battery" these car pull a lot of juice even while running.

Ground cable or connections??????

I'd be looking at some of the changes that have been made.

A) Delco conversion was installed.

Unless the Delco unit is known good, I'd disconnect it and try to start the car, if the dash etc. stays alive I'd put the known good maganavox unit back in. The first pick and pull Delco unit I installed did not work.

B) Rewiring was required @ the fuel rail

I'd re-check the wiring

C) Fuel rail ( w/injectors ?) was installed.

Maybe disconnect the injectors and see if the dash goes dark - I'd be suprized if one of the pick and pull injectors was shorted out, or how it would affect the the rest of the car, but dissconnecting them might give some insight

After you confirm you have good connections at the battery, and you still have a problem, try disconnecting the red wire at the altenator. A bad regulator inside the altenator can cause a battery drain.

I really really appreciate the input. I read everone's comments carefully and then it hit me. When I was at the wrecking yard, I found a Buick [forget the year/model] with the small engine stabilizer strut, so I pulled it along with its top mounting plate that attaches to the front of the motor near the compressor. When I went to mount it, I realized there are no threaded holes on the engine [where they shoudl be] for the mounting plate even though the bottom mount is welded to the passenger side frame rail. I also noticed that the dogbone strut on the top of the engine was bent to the left, or toward the front of the motor. Remember, this car had been hit left front, and the repair job was a something a butcher would disown. The top rail is still bent so I assumed that was the problem with the dogbone. So when I went to connect the new fuel rail, I noted that the rail I got from the dismantler had a plug, whereas the motor in the car did not; pretty worn wiring straight from the harness directly to the injectors. Looks like there never was a plug there. Still the engine ran pretty strong, especially considering the state of the plug wires. When I read simplyconnected's post, and some of the others, it hit me that the 3.8 engine in the Reatta had been transplanted from something that is not fully compatible with the Reatta. I thought the dogbone might have been bent with the top rail, but in reality it just does not line up with this particular engine. There are no bolt holes for the little strut mounting plate because the car that donated the engine never had the strut. And I had to wire in the plug for the fuel rail because that engine never had a plug to connect the fuel rail. So, the questions remain:

1. Will the wrong fuel rail shut down the entire electrical system, almost like the security system does.

2. I will change in the Optima batt from my Caddy to test the battery theory, but I am tending to go with Vince that if the batt was the culprit, the dash would not come to life every time I disconnect and reconnect the Batt.

3. The fact that everything goes black after a hiccup long crank of the starter just leads me, and some others, to some other major wiring culprit. No one seems to like my circuit breaker/relay theory: The problem is in a circuit controlled by a breaker or relay. This theory is bolstered if disconnecting the batt would reset the breaker. Right? Putting juice through the offending circuit by turning the key to "start" trips the breaker again.

4. I am reluctant to replace the whole motor so I will probably have to make some kind of plate to fit between the top dogbone mount and the engine so the dogbone lines up straight instead of wagging left and tearing up the rubber mount.

5. I will have raise the car to see just what the top plate for the engine strut actually bolts to on the motor. I can see that the a/c compressor mounts to it. Removing the compressor will not create an ozone problem because the system is already empty. Not sure till I'm underneath to see how hard that is to replace whatever is there now, with the equivalent piece properly drilled and tapped to hold the engine strut.

Thanks for the 'honorable mention' but most likely, when you wired the plug, it didn't go as planned. I am at a loss because I don't have a schematic for your setup, but I certainly believe your system shut down because of an overcurrent condition (a short). Your alarm disconnects the system, but this shutdown is drastically different.

Breakers reset when they cool down, not when you remove power (although removing power prevents further heat when they eventually reset).

Normally, injectors have a hot wire and a ground wire. Rarely, is one terminal internally tied to chassis, so both terminals appear on the injector. Your engine controller fires these injectors, but I don't know what current protection is used, IF ANY. That's the part that scares me. Of the failed injectors I have seen, they usually open rather than short, causing no damage or system shutdown. I would disconnect and separate the wires, to see if the system shuts down again upon restart.

Re-check the fuel rail's pinout for chassis ground, as GM may have assigned one intentionally (but you may have used the wrong one). - Dave

I can't believe you altered the stock wiring to install a questionable used component. I hope that you did not cut any of your car wiring. If you didn't, I would go find an exact replacement and start over, including undoing the Delco conversion. The Reatta gods are frowning. Steak

If the wiring was cut, it may have been connected so there was a "hot" wire and a chassis ground which is incorrect. The ground should be through the ECM. The injector is only grounded intermittently to open the injector when needed.

A constant ground to the chassis would be almost the same as a short. The injector would be energized and open all the time. IF the key is left on for very long would most likely ruin the injector. I imagine it would trip a breaker somewhere first as appears to be happening.

Well, let me start with something Dave wrote. He says a breaker or relay will not reset just because power to the system is disconnected and restored. If that is true, then this is not a relay problem because the entire electrical system shuts down less than a second after the key is turned to start [but not before]. Not nearly enough time to build up any heat.
Steak, I did indeed cut the wires from the harness to the fuel rail for two reasons. First the insulation was pretty worn and wires were exposed in many places, and second it is the only way to change the fuel rail, regardless of what rail is used. There was nothing to unplug on that engine [I wish I knew whatGM make/model/year this motor came from]. What I TRIED to do was number the wires to each "original" injector [when I got the old rail off I noted that two injectors had been replaced because they were different]. The problem was that the wires had been unloomed and exposed for so long the color was obliterated. Also, the color did not match the wiring diagram for my car [duh I now know, because it is not a Reatta motor]. It is therefore possible I crossed a hot with a ground [I can't remember now if both wires to each injector are separately color coded which would require 12 color permutations]. I labeled the wires on the new rail and followed them back to the plug. The idea was to wire the new plug into the system so the car's harness wires fired the same injectors as they had before. Ronnie, I will have to check to make sure the hot and ground wires for each injector are correct, nothing is touching, and none are body grounded. Still, I would not think this would shut the whole system down, only the offending injector would malfunction.

I DO NOT want you to do it again, but when you disconnect the battery and re-connect, does everything restart the same, or was it different the second time? I know it shut down when you turned the key to 'start.' Did it do that the second time, or was it already 'dead' the second time?

I didn't mention relays. Certainly, relays return to normal state when power is removed. Breakers and fuses react to current, which produces heat inside the breaker or fuse. Disconnecting power to a tripped breaker will not cause it to reset, although on a self-resetting breaker, it will ensure the breaker won't reset on a shorted load. You know how fast breakers trip (and fuses blow), it doesn't take them a second.

My concern is, will the engine control system still shut down if you have your wires isolated (as if all your injectors are all open)? In other words, could you have major damage to the injector output transistors? No sense in going any further until you know the answer. If everything is ok, then proceed.

I would cut and re-route the wires accordingly, which was your original intent. There's no problem there. 'Ring' the fuel rail plug, and match injector pairs of wires. (You could probably excite each injector with a 9-volt battery (but not for too long, they use fuel-flow to cool down), just to make sure you have the right injector.)

All these EFI engines work the same, and that fuel rail doesn't know whether you are feeding from a Buick or a Chevy, nor does it care. Pulse Width Modulation is always the same. Just make sure your firing order is correct.

I would definately use a matched set of injectors when you get that far along.

Injectors are usually isolated by "O" rings from all metal, and they handle fuel. For these reasons, their coils attach directly to two terminals. I don't know how many poles your rail plug has, but it is possible that one common ground pin may be used, since injectors fire one at a time. A fuel rail/plug picture might help, if you can put one up, please. - Dave Dare

It doesn't take a 9 volt battery to excite my injector! lol

Hey, Dave. I'm all about Pulse Width Modulation.

Real quickly, Dave. I disconnected the batt several times. Each time was the same. Turn the key to "on", dash lights, fan runs, brake pump actuated, [not sure about the fuel pump; will have to check to see if there is fuel under pressure at the rail by momentarily pressing the valve and seeing if gas escapes]. Turn the key to "start" and get a hiccup crank from the starter and everything goes black as though the batt was instantly disconnected. Turn key "off" and back to "on" but nothing happens. All is completely dead. I could repeat the exact process over and over.

Richard, don't do it again until you disconnect and isolate the fuel rail wires, and see if the system still shuts off. Please post a picture of your fuel rail connector.

This whole discussion is above my pay grade, but you've isolated it to something on the crank curcuit if that's any help. Maybe it has thrown a code. The FSM devotes an inch thick section to elec diagnosis. Steak

I think we isolated the problem right down the the faulty wires. Steak, the diagnostics codes might tell if there is a problem deeper within the electronics. I'm hoping that portion is ok, and everything will work as soon as Rich gets his fuel rail connector straight.

what happens if you use a remote starter button between the start terminal of the starter and the Battery + terminal??? have you removed a ground strap between the motor and the body or the engine Frame... try a jumper cable from the neg bat terminal to the engine alternator bracket and to the body... or you have a fuseable link messed up comming off the starter batt + teminal...

just my 2 cents worth: I believe one of the two battery cables or the connections are bad [or] the starter solinoid? The starter system has no safe guards. It is direct power from the battery [via] the cable to the solinoid-[to] the starter and back to the battery [via] the ground cable. I have had perfectly good looking cables fail. Both ends had clean connections. Change the cable and instant start. A test would be to ground the battery to the motor with a heavy [wire] jumper cable and then another directly from the + of the battery to the starter motor by-passing the starter solinoid. This is dangerous. It will produce a large spark when making the + connection. You can do it in reverse and connect the - cable last but it is still going to spark. One thing for sure, if the starter is good the motor will turn over. It might even run if your other work is correct.........ken