ok I feel like an idiot. I have a multimeter, but have no idea what I need to set it on for this. Here is a picture of my meter:

 

First plug the probe wires in. Plug the red wire into "V(ohm)mA", the socket on the left. Plug the black wire into "COM" the terminal in the center.
Use the 20 VDC range, which measures DC voltages up to 20 volts. That is the setting to use for most car tests-- since the car battery is approximately 12 volts, the voltages you find will be battery voltage or less.

 

I think my meter must be screwed. Cause when I hook it up like you said, and touch the red to positive on the battery and black to the negative on the battery I get almost 19 volts.

 

Yes that's not right. Sometimes it is because the battery that runs the meter is very weak. So try a new battery in the meter, and if that doesn't help, new meter.

 

ok, I put a fresh 9volt in the meter, picks up a solid 12 volts at the car battery. But when I probe the middle wire on the TPS I'm not getting anything. Not sure if this has anything to do with it but I'm not able to start the car with the key anymore either. If I turn the key on, I can run a jumper to the small post on the starter and it starts right up.

 

A guy on another forum told me:

Get a meter and turn the key to on without starting the engine. Locate the 3 wires at the TPS and pierce the TPS negative wire (black) with the black probe. Pierce the TPS reference wire wire (power) with the red probe. There should be 5v. Pierce the TPS signal wire with the red probe. There should be about .5v. Manually open the throttle. The voltage should rise smoothly to about 4.5v at WOT.

When I did that, my response to him was:

ok, I dont have a black. I have:

red/blue stripe
green/white stripe
yellow/white stripe

I used the green/white as the "black" and pierced it with the black probe.

Then I pierced the red/blue with the red probe. Without moving the throttle at all it was at 2.1 volts and as I applied throttle is slowly moved to zero (at full throttle)

Then I pierced the yellow/white with the red probe. With no throttle it was at 4.97 volts and remained there and never changed all the way to full throttle.

 

Put the black probe on engine ground and leave it there. Test the 3 wires one at a time with the red probe. One wire should stay very close to zero, one stays close to 5 volts, and the other one varies.

Is this the same throttle body that was on before swapping the engine? In some throttle bodies, the TPS operates backwards and must be rewired.

 

This is actually the throttle body off of my D15B7 that came out of the car (95 Civic DX). The motor I put in it is a D16Z6 out of a 95 Civic EX. The TPS and connector got broke when I want putting the motor in. I pulled the throttle body off of the old motor and put it on the new one. I ordered a new connector and just pulled the pins from the old connector and put them in the new one in the same order.

 

OK, with the black probe on engine ground:

red/blue went from 2.06 at no throttle to .36 at full throttle
green/white stayed at 0
yellow/white stayed at like 4.98

Do you think I should try to switch them? if so, which ones?

 

Seems to be wired wrong and/or defective sensor. Red/blue wire should be on the center pin. And the voltage must increase as the throttle opens. If it works backwards, swap the other two wires.