adhd316

Hello all, so I'll start from the begging. About 3 weeks ago my CR randomly died on me while I was driving down the interstate, I through it new neutral , I coasted to the side put it in park and it started right back up no issued and though nothing of it. Then it started happening more often, and after the second time the car would not start back up until sitting off for 20-30ish minutes. It seemed like I could drive it for 10-15 minutes and then after this it would stall. When it would stall it would just shut off, there was not sputtering or anything it was as iff the keys just turned off. I had a few people tell me it was my ignitor or ICM and seen a few things on line about it so I figured I would replace that. Well I was unable to get my rotor off from the old dizzy and once I did the screws for the Ignitor were impossible to get undone, so I gave up and decided I would return the ignitor and get a while new distributor. With the car being 13ish years old and 145,000 miles I figured that would be the best idea, no stripped screws, new cap and rotor etc. I re-installed the old distributor, went to start the car and nothing, it would crank but not start. I had assumed maybe in the process of wrestling with the screws I damaged the original distributor and wasn't to worried as I had already ordered my new one. Well, I put my new one on this morning and the car still wont start, it cranks and crank but nothing more.

I've checked all the connectors I can find/see to make sure they are connected properly. I've checked the plug wires a million times to ensure I have them in the correct order and they are. I am getting spark. The CEL comes on when you put the key in, but then goes right back off when you try to start it. I can hear the fuel pump priming, and the main relay "clicking". I have not been able to break loose the top nut on the fuel filter but I was able to loosen the fuel return line, and it seems like it is getting fuel. I have hand cranked the motor over to TDC and checked multiple times to make sure the distributor is on correct and pointing at 1 when the motors at TDC. I've check every fuse in both the engine bay and fuse block inside that would be relevant. I pulled the main relay out and checked the solder points on it as well.

I no longer know what to do. The car would start prior to taking the old distributor off. When this happened last weekend, other than the fact I took the distributor off, and then re installed the same distributor nothing else was changed. It is possible when I had put the old one back on I may have installed it upside down, or 180 off of TDC as I was unaware this was a possibility at that time. However I hand only cranked it a few times and then gave up assuming I broke something in the dizzy trying to wrestle the screws loose. Would any damage have been caused if it was mounted 180 off from TDC? Any suggestions would be great.

If this helps at all in November my timing belt snapped, I had 7 bent valves and took it to a local shop who took care of it. They had it for about a week and after I picked it up it ran perfectly. The first time it stalled on me would have probably been 3-4 weeks AT LEAST after picking it up. During that time frame I had no issues, could drive it as normal for as long as I wanted. At this point I am incredibly frustrated (being how I just dropped $1500 into the car) and afraid I could be overlooking something simple/stupid.

PhilStubbs

It's not possible to install a factory distributor 180° out, but it might be with an aftermarket one. I'm too lazy to read that novel you posted up there, so try installing it 180° off of where you have it now.

adhd316

I had double, and triple checked and them some to make sure the new dizzy was on correctly. When the engine is at TDC the new dizzy points down and towards the back of the card to #1.

OneBadTurboCRV

Doesn't matter. It is a simple 3 bolts to try and switch it around. If that's not the issue then move on to compression and leak-down testing.

adhd316

Dizzy is on correctly. Could I have flooded the car with fuel from the cranking and no start? Its a lil cold today so hopefully tomoorow I can pull the plugs and see what they look like. I used a spark tester to check for spark but with the small of gas I'm wondering if I have any in the cylinders or on the plugs.

PhilStubbs

It's possible. Pull the injector clips off and try to start it.

ludesrv

If you replace a dizzy with a dizzy, and the new dizzy is a known good one, then it's mounted on backwards. Honestly, give it a try. I've seen this be the issue more then once. If you have taken it apart before mounting it, it's easy to accidently mount the shaft or locating boss in backwards (I've done this before). Give it a try!

adhd316

all right, so it turns out the new dizzy I bought was crap, that was the hole problem, the new dizzy would not work, the coil was incredibly weak and the shaft of the dizzy had quite a bit of play, there was probably almost 90 degrees of rotation on the shaft before the rotor would begin rotating. So I spent 6 hours working on the old dizzy, sawing off the dust cover and rotor to get the rotor screw out, finally did, carried over the new dust cover rotor, cap, ICM and cap gasket from the new dizzy and installed them all on to the new distributor. And wahaha the car started right up, its running BUT not at full power.

Before I removed the old distributor I marked it and lined it back up, would putting the new parts in it have caused the timing to be adjusted at all? It idles fine and once you give it gas it goes but there is a hesitation when you first give it gas and then when you let off it bogs down quite a bit to where you feel like it will die but it doesn't. When driving it goes and cruises along great but there just isn't any power to accelerate. Is this the timing or is there something I could have adjusted or bumped that could have caused this? The only code it is throwing is "p0420" for Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold this was on before any issues with the car began.

PhilStubbs

A lot of aftermarket distributors have to be advanced almost to the end of their adjustment to be right. I have never checked to see if the casting of the housing is slightly off or if it's the internal parts. But, it could have something to do with using the cheap parts store internals. Ideally you should be using a timing light to confirm things, but it sounds like you don't have one. So, push the top of the distributor to the firewall till it stops and try driving it. Should clear up your problem.