darkstormcr

I was driving one night, took off from a stoplight in first gear (normal speed not flooring it or anything) and the CEL comes on. I notice that my rev limiter has dropped to 3k (limp mode) and that the idle is sort of rough, not significantly but rougher than it had normally been. When I get home I check the code and it gives me a code 4 for the crankshaft position sensor.

anyway after doing some research I learned that this sensor is in the distributor (obd1)...some say its also by the crank pulley, but I'm pretty sure thats only for obd2 motors because I don't have anything hooked up there.

long story short - two distributors later (one refurb'd and one new), I can't get the code to clear for the life of me. wiring seems to be in check (checked with v/o meter), everything appeared good on the ECU. Is the timing going to affect whether the light shuts off or not? Right now on the new distributor it runs at about 1200-1500 rpm on a cold start, it used to run at around 2,000. I have not messed with the timing quite yet, but I am in the ballpark...I put the distributor on the same way the original came off (lined everything up, made sure the rotor and shaft where in the same position...etc).

I formerly had a code 22, about 2-3 weeks prior to the code 4, and I was about a quart short of oil so every time I hit vtec the CEL would come up. But I did an oil change and filled it up to spec, solved...other than that, the motor had been running strong...

what i'm dealing with:
- 93 DX Coupe (original motor D15B7)
- 94 B18C1 (OBD1) GSR, all stock inside
- OBD1 P72 ECU
- a new autozone distributor at the moment. the refurb'd one was also from autozone, not sure what brand. if it makes any difference, I had a 92 GSR distributor on the motor originally. it appears slightly smaller than the 94 GSR distributor when compared side-by-side. but from what I hear, most of the dohc vtec distributors can be interchanged

Any ideas??? its driving me nuts!