91wagonman

Hi out there. Looking for a bit of help...I am a longtime Civic lover of this generation Civic...I have had a 1989 wagon, a '90 wagon, and currently this '91 wagon. It was running fine but making an odd random squeaking sound, which I identified as coming from the distributor. Took it apart and found that the sealed bearing inside was shot. Tried to disassemble further to replace the bearing, and ran into the fact that the "tamper-proof" screws holding the guts together cannot be removed. So, I robbed a distributor out of my now-parts-car-'89 model, stuck it in the '91, and in my haste, forgot to hook up the outer wiring connecters (one round, one rectangular) before I tried to start the engine. Would not start, of course...went back to the distributor, discovered the disconnected wires, felt very stupid, plugged wires back in: STILL would not start. Tested spark on 3 of the cylinders: Yes, there is spark. Tried switching plug wires on dist. to all 4 possible positions, in case somehow this distributor was timed differently...no luck. SO, I figured, maybe that distributor is no good somehow, won't work in a '91...so I contacted my local auto-parts store and got a brand-new (not a refurb) distributor...AND IT STILL WONT START!!!! Tried everything above again (except attempting to start without wires hooked up!). The best I get is an occasional chug during cranking, but nothing approaching starting. Pulled a plug out, expecting to see it all wet...but it was DRY. I am totally stumped. Does anyone know if I could have fried something by cranking it without those wires hooked up to the distributor? Maybe something in the fuel system or a sensor somewhere? Help!

mike_1212

You may have installed it 180 degrees oit of time.

HondaPartsHero

Check firing order

fcm

Dry spark plugs=no fuel, check PGM-FI Main Relay.

Can you hear the fuel pump priming?
Do you have fuel to the fuel filter? 94

VegasInvasion

If you pinched/shorted a distributor wire or the plug isn't getting a good connection the ecu won't know when to open the injectors. But check your fuses first, you might have just popped one. Otherwise try cranking it for at least 30 seconds consecutively, often times an engine code will pop up and give you a hint at the problem.

91wagonman

Hi all. it was awhile before I got back to working on this...and it turned out to be that I had the plugs out of sequence...so thanks to HondaPartsHero! I can't believe that I was such a dolt...I even made a diagram of how the wires came off, but apparently I totally messed up and did not draw the diagram correctly. Initially after I hooked them up correctly, it still would not start, but it was just badly flooded from trying to start it earlier. It runs great now. Thanks everybody!