2003 Mazda Protege CRANK / NO START

OK. So this will be like the 10th time explaining this, but I will not skip over anything.

Bought the car May12th. Drove it for 3 days. The weekend came and I decided to do some repairs.

The motor mounts were bad, I changed those, as well as the spark plugs, wires, oil, oil filter, and tightened up a few loose / missing bolts here and there.

Everything was fine. The engine started up and ran.

I noticed I forgot to reinstall this bracket the holds the Crankshaft position sensor connector (where it plugs into the wiring harness)

I turned the car off, disconnected the crankshaft position sensor connector (to have clearance to install the bracket)

I did NOT plug the crankshaft position sensor back in, and obviously the car refused to start.

I double checked everything and found that the CKS was unplugged. The guys on the Mazda forum said if I plug it back in, everything should be fine.

I plugged it back and and no start. I disconnected the negative terminal on the battery, pumped the brakes a few times, and left it unhooked for 24 hours to make sure the computer reset.

24 hrs later, no start.

I hooked up to jumper cables to be sure I had enough power. No start

I replaced the crankshaft position sensor, and went through the reset proceedure again. No start

I pulled all the plugs and double checked gaps and it looked like inside the combustion chamber was damp (getting fuel) and on top of that I felt like I could smell it a little bit too.

Now I took the car to the shop. They said the OBD2 scanner is reading the computer so the ECU isn't dead. They said they "think" its a bad crankshaft position sensor. (I already purchased and VERY carefully installed a new CKS that I got from a reputable online seller)

The shop wasn't sounding super enthusiastic about working on this car (they had it for 3 days) and barely touched it.

SO I towed it home today. I have now noticed a sporadic power situation where the dash lights / power seems like its running on a dead battery and other times, the power seems good.

I will take the battery to get checked. But anything ringing a bell for anyone?