Help SR won't crank

[TwistAndBurn..Rubber]

Before anyone says it, I searched I really did. The last thing I wanted to do was to post a thread.

Background
I've had the car for about 6 months, it's never had a problem starting before but it's had this weird rough idle and rough start up that I think i've finally fixed.

The car
Previous owner did the swap last March it was his daily. It's a s13 hatch, auto to manual conversion, fmic, walbro 255. it's pretty much stock

The situation
a week ago I go to leave for work in the a.m. car won't crank, i try again and see smoke from under the hood (maf ground burnt) the maf has been replaced and re-wired. I can hear the solenoid pop but the starter won't start. I remove the starter take it to autozone, it passes but it doesn't actually spin like it would to crank the car.

I get a starter from someone off of here on thursday, take it to autozone, they test it and is passes completely. I install said working starter friday morning. the car still won't crank

today I checked, my plugs ( I have spark), My pump (it works), my injectors (they work), i've already tried jumping my battery twice ( i got nothing), no loose grounds that i can see, and i've already done the black/white to black/yellow wire loop you do for auto to manual conversions

The car will start if you push start it or clutch start it whatever you want to call it.

I removed the starter earlier and i was going to take it to test again, then i had a friend come over and that's when we found the auto to manual wire loop thing. We looked for the gray clip and found it with the wires already looped, I undid the loop and tried to start it, then the solenoid wouldn't pop. I re-did the wire loop and tried it and the second time i heard the solenoid pop the car fired up.

Then it wouldn't crank again.


This is a mega mystery and it's driving me nuts. This is my current daily since the other one is out of commission for now.


What am I missing, Please help