DarkFlame

I need to be able to crank my Civic's engine when I'm under the hood so that I can simultaneously crank the engine and observe the results necessary.

If anyone has any suggestions for a proper under-hood starter switch part, I would greatly appreciate it.

AND, if anyone has an easy hook-up that I can use, I'd greatly appreciate that, too.

Thanks,
David

B_Swapped93

jump the starter....what are you trying to see tho ?

DarkFlame

For starters, the spark at the plug. It would help to see that the camshaft is turning, so I can confirm the timing belt didn't snap. I just need to see if a spark is happening at the plugs (& troubleshoot backwards to the distributor), to eliminate that possible issue with the car cranking but not starting.

I just don't have anyone I can ask to crank the key while I'm under the hood.

94EG8

KD makes one:

DarkFlame

Just stopped by AutoZone to see about an under-hood starter switch. They have several, ranging in price from $4.99 to $19.99. They are just raw switches with no wires or clips. The cheap one was rated at 20 amps, which matches all the others, so I spent $4.99. They didn't have any of the switches (which include wires & clips at $14.99) shown on their web page as being in-stock for my store.

crazyhouse2011

Son, if you want to see if your timing belt is snapped, simply remove the upper timing belt cover and look. I'm surprised nobody has said this yet. I took mine off for good, and have driven the car in torrential downpours, hot steamy summer days, and 8 inch deep snow for miles on end (ie typical illinois weather year round), and have never had an issue with my timing belt getting wet or hit by debris, since its up so high in the bay and the cover only exposes the top six inches of the belt.

Removing the valve cover is a must, or at least loosening all 5 bolts. The timing belt cover has a tab that slides underneath the valve cover and you have to lift it to pop it out. Its a pain to remove, due to the hard to reach bolts, but I did it without removing anything from the bay so you should be able to as well. Now go return that switch and save yourself 5 bucks.

kyden

why not check to see if the rotor moves during cranking? you don't need anything special.

but if you think the belt snapped and you are going to continue cranking the car over, might as well call a machine shop for a price on replacing valves now.

DarkFlame

You've left me speechless, mainly because Dad is 84, and I'm just 29 behind him, and HE is the only person who gets to use that pronoun. So, allow me to quote from my 2nd post in this thread: Removing the upper timing belt cover is not necessary for this process, and I'd prefer to avoid "Its a pain to remove, due to the hard to reach bolts" for now, and I'll save that for my next Civic project ... changing the timing belt, tensioner, and water pump.

Meanwhile, the timing belt is NOT the only thing I need to examine.

As a point of reference, I measured the cam lobe to the oil filler opening and then re-measured after cranking the key/engine. It measures differently, so I am certain that the timing belt is still intact and functioning properly.

By now, the engine has been cranked over more times than I can count. There was no noise when the engine stopped, it just went silently dead. If the timing belt had broken, the too-much-cranking damage would have been done immediately as the 1st thing we did was try to restart the engine, only to have it just crank & crank.

According to my troubleshooting guide (located HERE), I am at that point (Section 1) where I've determined the timing belt is good but need to check spark at the plug. With nobody to crank the key, I have to do it while observing the plug spark.

crazyhouse2011

DarkFlame

It's a bad distributor. I was in the middle of assembling the remote start switch when the neighbor's mobile mechanic showed up. He took 15 minutes to troubleshoot - doing exactly what it shows in the diagram I linked earlier - and showed me that there is no spark coming out of the distributor but it IS getting all the juice and grounds required.

There is no visible damage to the distributor, but there is also no voltage coming out of the distributor - NO SPARK!!!

And, since the rotor rotates when cranking, we know the timing belt is still good. So, I'm checking out distributor prices online.

94EG8

Generally it's just the coil or igniter that goes bad. I'd just replace that. Aftermarket distributors are almost universally junk for these cars.