Wdpfreak145

Okay guys, I'm back. Here's the deal: Monday night, I leave work and pick a friend up. We go to the gas station and on the way to the gas station the engine was missing and stuttering. At the gas station it was struggling to stay at idle and eventually died. I left the car for the night and came back to it Tuesday (yesterday) and then from there I took the cap off to check for moisture but it was totally dry. I noticed the spring on the distributor was slightly bent so I straightened it out and threw the distributor cap back on. Tried to start the car and it miraculously came back to life.

Drove it home and then on the way home on an uphill climb, the engine started cutting out to where it sounded like it was only firing on every other cylinder and then all combustion stopped. At that point the only reason the engine was rotating was because the transmission was still in gear and that was that.

Recent maintenance within the last two months:
1. New distributor
2. New plugs and NGK V-power spark plugs.
3. New timing belt and water pump.
4. New ebay headerback exhaust.
5. New 02 sensor.
6. Converted automatic p28 to manual by removing r17 and r18 resistors and then replacing one with a jumper wire.

Being that the instance yesterday was the exact same thing as when the car died 2 months ago, I replaced the distributor again today thinking that was the problem since it was a reman. The mechanical timing looked off by a few teeth so I also set all that back to perfect TDC timing earlier. The car will still not start. I pulled the plugs and checked them, no crushing or excessive gapping, and all the plugs threads appeared wet and smelled strongly of gas. And I can hear the fuel pump priming, so I know that the cylinders are getting gas. Spark plugs wires are in the correct firing order.

Any ideas fellas? At this point I'm pretty sure it's down to a no-spark issue.

Former User

Stop guessing and check for bright white spark at the plugs. If that's fine, check the mechanical timing and compression test the cylinders.

CEL codes?

Wdpfreak145

No CEL since I resolved issues with my ECU, IACV, and 02 sensor. There is NO spark at the plugs. Checked the first 3 cylinders and there is no kind of spark at all when cranking the engine.

Former User

Check whether the timing belt snapped or stripped.

Wdpfreak145

Timing belt is new, as in less than 2 months old. Mechanical timing is spot on.

Former User

Does voltage reach the coil and ICM?

Wdpfreak145

I don't currently have a multimeter to check with. Mine is at work

Wdpfreak145

So here's what I did. I ran a wire from one of the headlight terminals to a loose end. With the key in the On position (all the way forward). The black/yellow wire gives strong voltage and the headlight comes on as it should. With the yellow/green wire pictured below it, the headlight is dim/weak.

Former User

Resistance test the coil and have an auto parts store test the ICM.

Wdpfreak145

Will do tomorrow.

Wdpfreak145

This is a new (reman) distributor that I just got and put in today. What else could it be, just for the sake of argument?

beecee18

Is the lead from distributor supposed to be swing a full 12v
Or 5v reference voltage, that might explain the dim lights.

If I remember correctly it should be 12, so I'd def look into that.

Wdpfreak145

Well it's like I said earlier, this distributor is brand new to me as of today. I had a reman in it with a lifetime warranty, and it died exactly like the original one did. I swapped it out with the lifetime warranty and got another, and I'm still not getting any spark. Just seems so weird cause it happened out of the blue exactly like my original one did.

But with this one being rebuilt with all new components I'm skeptical to believe that the distributor internals are to blame for this. I will follow Ron's advice though, he knows his **** much better than I do.

Wdpfreak145

Can someone give me a full color picture or schematic on the inside of the distributor. The bulletin says the two terminals on the coil should be blk/ylw and blu/wht but mine is blk/ylw and ylw/grn

Wdpfreak145

Okay update. I got a multimeter from my local advance. It's a cheap one (20 bucks, only one they had) and I am having trouble getting consistent readings out of it.

With the multimeter set to 200 ohms, which is the lowest resistance setting it has, I cannot get a reading below 1.0 ohms when measuring the resistance between the primary terminals on the coil. I even measured it while I was at the store and it did the same thing with a brand new BWD coil. Measuring the coil I have at home, the multimeter will not read below 1.3 ohms.

When measuring between the primary and secondary terminals, I am getting a consisten 16.91K ohms.

The ICM reads 2.33k Ohms resistance between terminal on the side of it and the terminal closest to it.

Former User

Measure the internal resistance of the meter by touching the 2 probes together. Subtract the internal resistance from the primary coil resistance.

Have an auto parts store test the ICM.

Wdpfreak145

My multimeter measures 0.4 ohms of internal resistance and the coil measures 1.0 ohms of resistance. So that comes out to .6 ohms of resistance across the primary terminals.

My local advance auto parts told me they did not have the ability to test ICM's.

I will be picking up a spare BDW coil to test here within the next few minutes and see how that one measures as well. I will test with that one installed in the distributor first.

Former User

The coil resistance readings seem fine, but it wouldn't hurt to swap in a known good coil as the resistance readings don't always identify a bad coil.

Take the ICM to AutoZone.

Wdpfreak145

My nearest autozone is 25 miles from me. Dropped everything in just now with a new coil and still no change. Engine cranks over freely, but will not start or even attempt to.

Former User

There's more to look at, but testing the ICM is the first priority.

Read this thread:

http://www.team-integra.net/forum/bl...eshooting.html

Wdpfreak145

Pics to come, but with the key in the ignition in the ON (II) position, the blk/ylw terminal on the ICM produces 11.69 volts and what is supposed to be the blu/wht terminal also produces 11.69 volts. These are the two terminals corresponding to the two primary terminals on the coil, correct?

Wdpfreak145

Not sure if you can see the difference in these pics or not, but here I am testing the voltage on the ICM. Note the placement of the red terminal on my multimeter from picture to picture and you will see which terminal I am testing in which pics

s13hero

Ok, did you finish testing the coil IE primary resistance? follow all the steps in the link Ron J posted and you should have your answer

Wdpfreak145

Between everything that we have covered in this thread and the thread that Ron pointed me to on team-integra, I have covered testing every piece of the distributor internally. I have found the solution, pics are to follow.

Wdpfreak145

So while I was taking everything apart and putting it all back together about a hundred times, I started to inspect stuff. I happened to look at the rotor button and noticed some scorch marks on it right near the central contact.

At this point I was grabbing at thin air and decided to start replacing parts. I went back to my local advance to pick up a distributor cap and rotor button. I happened to talk to one of the old heads there and brought up what I saw on the rotor. He mentioned to me that he had seen some older engines have the spark ark through the rotor instead of traveling through the contact. He told me that if it got bad enough, sometimes the spark would ark all the way through the rotor. Well I get home and check the old rotor, and sure enough, there it was.

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