the car will not start

[SlowRolla37]

so im leaving wrestling practice last night and it fairly cold outside. i go to start my car and it wont start. it doesnt even turn over. the headlights arent working either so i thought it was probably a dead battery or alternator. so i call my father and he comes to try to jump start it. that doesnt work so we figure well just push start it since its a manual. and that isnt working. so we decide to just tow it home. hes pullling me at about 30 and i put it in third and let the clutch out and the engine is compressing but there is no spark and the engine wont start. so i tried putting it in second and the same thing. the pistons are compressing but there is no spark. my guess's would be a bad distributor, spark plugs or someone syphoned my gas...jk. anyone have any ideas on what could be the problem

[JoeKneale]

Don't know if you ever figured it out, but I cracked open my manual and John H Haynes had nothing useful to add. Off the top of my head it seems like it started as an electrical problem like you said. There could be alot of reasons that the car didnt take a jump (diameter of the jumper cables corrosion of the terminals, weak charge on the jumper car etc.). If you tried to push start it you would still need a good alternater to get the current back, alot of times bad alternaters eat good batteries so that may be the first cause of all the issues. After all of that you may want to pull out a spark plug, inspect it, and dunk a clean cloth into your cylinder to see if your attempt to get it started didnt somehow keep the fuel squirting and flood your engine out. If something like that happened even if you figured out what your first problem was it would screw you over (although I do not how your injectors could pulse if the car was dead, I had this happen to me with a lawn mower after I replaced every part of the electrical system I realized that along the way the engine was so flooded gas was coming out the exhaust, but that was carburated sooo...). Does the car have an aftermarket alarm (previous owner maybe) that cuts off battery power when tampered with?

[SlowRolla37]

no alarm im aware of. its a ve. pretty basic. i would think though if i let out the clutch and just let it ride like that in third while being pulled at a constant speed of 30 the car would turn over even with a crappy alternator. who knows though. im thinking electrical problem right now. im going to get the battery tested at walmart right now and well see what happens.