Accord1987

I have a 1987 Accord with 2.0l carb motor. All stock with the exception of an MSD Blaster coil. I have had the coil installed for a few years so I don't think it is the problem. In the last 10 to 11 months I have had 4 igniters go bad (1 factory & 3 aftermarket). I didn't have the money to buy a oem replacement so I purchased the low end Altrom brand from Napa. The time duration verys on when they go, one lasted 5 or 6 months the next 3 and the most recent only about a month. I have just kept a spare in the car and napa replaces the bad one under warranty, But this is getting rediculous and i'm hoping someone here might have a resolution to this problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Fennec

An igniter will fail if the resistance on the primary terminal of the ignition coil is too low. Check the resistance of the coil to see if it is spec. Primary windings and secondary windings should be checked.

Accord1987

Coil checks out within spec. Checked the plugs and realized I had put the wrong ones in so put in new correct ones, But don't think that would cause a problem.

Accord1987

Well happened again today so I put the stock coil back in and will be getting the premium igniter from napa tomorrow. If anyone has any ideas please let me know what you think.

Fennec

One thing you could swap out is the condenser, though I doubt this would cause the ignitor to fail. Have you checked wires, connections, proper ground, voltage, etc? The ignition circuit is pretty simple on our older hondas, but I've seen some of the later 80's ignitions have a 2-stage ignition coil. What does your stock coil look like? I also seen the pickup magnets crack inside the distributor and the stator lose magnetic charge, but I really don't think that would kill an ignitor, too. Something to look for though.

Accord1987

Well the $80 dollar igniter went last Friday, so I just put a whole new distributor in. Guess we'll see what happens now.

letank

Thanks for the update.

As a note the only time I blew an igniter was using a super blaster coil.... forgot the brand, it took a while... the power was going down and down... thought that it was the engine dying.... but it finally stalled... no sparks.... Put a different distributor, 6 years / 30kmiles ago.