96 EX

So today I was leaving work and going to class when my car was studdering/hesitating. Then all the sudden it starts cutting out real bad and eventually dies all together. I pull to the side of the road and try to restart my car but it wont start again. Long story short got towed home and been working on it ever since. So far I've checked the following:

Alternator - Took off and tested at AutoZone, its Good
Fuel - Checked to see if fuel was entering the cylinder head, it has fuel so check!
Spark - Now here is the problem, I took my spark plug out with it still connected to the spark wire, I had my g/f crank the car while i watched for a spark. It DID NOT spark, so I checked #2 and the same thing.

My question is what could be causing it to not get spark? I was thinking distributor since its not getting any spark. Recently the coil inside the cap was kinda bent so I attempted to bend it back into place (Its a MSD cap/wires). Also it acts like it wants to crank over but it just doesnt have any spark to ignite the fuel.

MonkeyMagic

likely problems in order of cheapest to most painful:

cap/rotor
coil
ignitor

being that something was kinda bent, and you attempted to bend it back. it probably attempted to bend back to normal and kinda broke.

96 EX

Thats what I was thinking, Im just trying to narrow it down.Thanks for the reply! Anymore input would be apprechiated.

IhateworkingoncaRs

Was your spark plug grounded when you checked it? Regardless it's probably a bad dizzy since you have fuel.

B20EF

This sounds like what happened to me, it was my ignitor. And yah that is an expensive little piece.

96 EX

How expensive are we talking? I'm pretty sure it's the dizzy. When I checked the plugs I grounded them to some metal on the engine and no spark came out regardless of which one. Like I said I'm POSITIVE its getting fuel the odor is more than would be in there without.

B20EF

I bought mine from Partsource for $150 (CAD), and thats just your typical replacement one. If you want OEM Honda I believe it closer to $300.

Former User

It costs about $180 (including shipping and handling) for an OEM ICM from Majestic Honda.

For $60 more, you can get the distributor housing, the ICM, and an O-ring.

Arthas

Check the FMPG (I believe) fuse in the engine bay fuse box. Its a 15amp.

96 EX

I'll check this fuse, recently my speedo quit working cause the C15 connector was touching the intake manifold bracket shorting out the fuse. I just got that fixed now this! I really hope its not the ignitor, but we'll check.

Things to check,

cap/rotor
coil
ignitor

Obviously the ignitor will be last,EDIT: I check the fuses under the hood and inside the cabin and all the 15amp ones are good to go, so I dont think its a fuse problem. Hopefully I can get this figured out, getting a ride to school at 6 a.m is kind of hard.

thienpham

did u fix the problem yet