Richard Sammons

Hi everybody. let me thank you in advance And let me pre-warn I'm not very knowledge in the automotive field but pretty mechanically inclined. That being said I have a 2000 Honda Civic EX with the D16Y8 in it. It has. Now I'm not sure if this is stock but OBD2B to OBD1. The problem I am having is I got a Cel code 9 cylinder position sensor. Did some research and decided to go down to AutoZone and get a new distributor. I bought the brand new Duralast Gold full distributor installed set the timing. Car ran like a champ but no RPM. The tach moved just a flicker when you first start the car. When the engines cold I have to pump the gas and keep the key turned or turn it over multiple times while pumping the gas to get it to start. Once it starts runs like a champ. Once the engines warm it'll start instantly. I've returned the distributor a couple times now to different stores and replaced it with the one they give me either Cel code 9 comes on or I have no RPM tach. The car does run crappier when the Cel code 9 is on. I have checked the resistance in the cylinder position sensor in all of them AutoZone and my original Honda they're all about 250ish. I check the continuity through the wires at the ECU through the cylinder sensor and back about the same resistance as at the distributor connector. Check to see if either way was grounded and could not get continuity. So I don't think I have a short there. Not saying there isn't one somewhere else. Now this is where I'm stuck I know the resistance requirements for the distributor is 350 to 750 ohms resistance. All that I've checked are like a hundred below. Not saying my multimeter is right. I've been meaning to get a resistor to check against or go buy a new multimeter which I don't want to do. My next problem is I've been trying to figure out what pins in my wire harness are for the g101 ground. I cannot seem to translate it .I don't want to just poke around the wrong wires and short something out and have a worse problem . I've only been looking at diagrams on my phone and reading some forums. My thinking is my multimeter is find my wiring is fine and it's just these piece of s***Duralast Gold Distributors. My reasoning for this is if I had a short or whatever bad ground. I would get the same results with every distributor but because I get different results I would think it's the distributor. But I'm not sure because like I said before when I first turn it over my RPM tach does jump just a bit . I don't know why I'm no expert but that is giving me the feeling it's losing ground or something not saying that's not happening in the distributor. Thanks again

mk378

You have an OBD1 ECU then? That is not stock, and a converter harness would be installed between the ECU plugs and the ECU.

Check for ground faults in the sensor wiring. The two wires to the sensor coil should have no continuity to ground or to any other wiring, only to each other. Also if a converter is involved, the polarity could be reversed, that would cause strange results.

On OBDII systems, the tach is driven from the ECU, on OBD1 it is from the distributor having a tach output. I am not sure how it works when converted. Also it is possible that your tach head is simply bad.

Richard Sammons

Yeah I have the day off and a babysitter for once. so I get to play around with it today. I know when I have distributor on there and I get Cel code 9 it has no I conductivity to the block just to themselves I haven't checked with the one that gives me no RPM tach. They used a wire harness for the OBD2b to OBD1. Do you know how they refer to the g101 ground in the wire harnesses. I just can't seem to figure it out. Or how I get RPM signal if the OBD2b gets it from the ECU but I have a OBD1 ECU.

Richard Sammons

Anybody know why somebody would have put an OBD1 ECU in one of these obd2b car. if I got that right. Is the OBD1 a better system or something. does it give me more horsepower. what's the deal here was it cheaper to replace with a 1 and a harness. Car ran for like a year perfect like a champ better gas mileage than what everything says it's supposed to get. Then I started getting an intermittent Cel code 9. Damn thing would never come on when I could get it tested finally it comes on I get it tested and I won't communicate with the computer. Which was kind of a good thing I learned how to pull my codes by jumping the PIN which is awesome I don't have to depend on somebody else. The bad thing is it doesn't tell me if it's just not getting a signal, has to week of a signal if the signals intermittent. I have a feeling I'm missing something, I just don't understand something. Which I know there's something I don't understand and that is how I'm getting my RPM signal and g101 pin in harness. I know knowledge is power and I don't have the knowledge right now I'm thinking I can't pay for a person's knowledge to deal with this but I can pay for it in a book form. So I've kind of been thinking about buying a Chilton's or is there a better one. I know the RPM tach works fine if I put in my stock distributor it works i just get a code 9. I swap ones out from AutoZone and either one of two things happen I get a code 9 and RPM tach works or I get no codes but no RPM tach.

tony_2018

yeah gj

JRCivic1

Aftermarket distributors are JUNK. It doesn't matter what auto parts store you buy it from... they all suck. My suggestion is to find a used TD-73U housing (just like the one that came off your car), move your coil and ICM into it, and move on. The code 9 that you are experiencing is a pick-up problem, and it is difficult to rebuild a stock distributor for the average auto enthusiast. It is common for coils to fail on the stock distributor and the typical mistake that owners make is to buy a complete distributor from an auto parts store like you did instead of replacing the coil only. Not that this is your particular issue... I am just saying. Anyway, find a housing.

As for the tach. The ICM's in aftermarket distributors do not typically provide a strong enough tach output signal to drive both the ECU and the tach on your instrument cluster... and thus, your tach needle jumps around at best... or lays dead at worst. The reason for this is that in Civic's from model years BC to 1998, the tach is driven directly off of the distributor. Beginning in 1999, the tach is driven off of a secondary circuit inside the ECU, and that signal is amplified for proper output. You are using an OBD-1 ECU that does not have this amplification... and the distributor has no output... so the jumper harness is SPLITTING the ICM signal and sending this weak, degraded signal to your instrument cluster to drive your tach. The $800 stock distributor can barely do this successfully with quality parts... the cheap azz Auto Zone distributor that you bought doesn't have a chance.

mk378

You don't get more horsepower or anything just by changing the ECU. OBD1 ECUs are used along with major modifications under the hood such as a turbo or 1.8 or 2.0 liter B-series engine, etc. The OBD1 ECU can be modified for these setups with a chip, the chips don't exist for the OBDII Civic ECUs.

If your car is stock except for the ECU, you should go back to the proper stock ECU.

tamboo

i've heard good things about distributor king on ebay over at integra.net.
personally i prefer to piece things together. honda coil at amazon for $75
is worth it imho. other stuff i grab at rockauto, look for the hearts <3...