I have a '91 Accord EX. I had the driver side rear jacked up yest. to do some brake repair. Then last night and this morning when my wife tried to start the car it would turn over and not start. At first I thought it was the typical starting problem we often deal with, but it was a little too cool outside and early in the day for this problem. I pulled a plug and cheked for spark and there was none. I then pulled the dist cap and there was a nice puddle of oil in the cap which explained the no spark. I pulled the distributor and the O ring around the shaft seems to be in good shape with no tears, scratches, or scarring. Any ideas? Thanks for what appears to be an awesome site!

 

Only way I could ever see oil getting inside the distributor is through the O Ring gasket that goes around the camshaft near the distributor. maybe the rubber has gotten hard and no longer creates a good seal. I would take the distributor off (mark the position it is in before doing so though) and clean it up and replace that gasket as well. Good luck to you.

 

So we're not talking about the O-ring around the distributor shaft then? If so I need to pull the valve cover and get into all that then right? I would like to make sure that this is the problem and be very sure before I get into all that. What will all be required to change the camshaft o-ring as far as gaskets/o-ring/special tools and such? Thanks for your help.

 

no, he is talking about the distributor shaft seal...simply remove the dizzy and you will see the seal, no need to remove the valve cover...

 

u wont be able to see the shaft seal unless u take idistr all apart from the inside that is the only way to replace the leaking distr shaft seal ........it is not the o-ring at the end of distr if u get oil inside the cap ,,if the o-ring was leaking you would have an outer oil leak coming down outside distr ...........before u take apart make sure u have a seal on hand i am not sure if dealer sells just the seal and pay close attention how u take things apart .....momtaxi is right no need to remove valve cover

 

just replace the dist. housing,it is not that expensive,the shafts wear and cause the oil to get in.

 

Been doing this for years, I have never heard of the inner seal that is hidden from sight unless you disassemble the entire dizzy. There is a seal available but I have not found the part number from a different company, I misplaced it a couple of years ago. It is true that you can and must at this point get another housing from the dealer, the dealer you ask, those folks who get an arm and a leg for parts, I have heard that it is the best place to get a dizzy sub assy, you just transfer over your other needed parts from your old distributor after cleaning them of course, dont use carb cleaner, use something less acidic.

Before disassembly line up the marks on the bottom of the distributor and then see which way the reluctor is pointing at the other far end of the shaft, this is the top of the three sensor reluctors inside the distributor, it has a single pointer, the one in the middle has 24 and the one all the way down inside has 4. The bad seal is below this four pointed reluctor on the inside of the distributor, not the round black o ring that is on the outside at the base of the distributor but make sure a new one comes on the new sub assy. DONT FORGET TO MAKE NOTES OF WHICH WAY EVERYTHING IS POINTING. I just told a very long story the other day about rebuilding these things at home so getting a used distributor is an option but trust should come with a new sub assy.

 

I have never heard of this seal being available to buy seperately I meant to say.

 

How much oil are we talking about?

If it's a little then start off by replacing the seal around the dizzy/cap.

If it's to the point that the cap has a spoonful of oil or more after a few minutes since you have cleaned it out, then replace the distributor.

 

[QUOTE=-Bionic-]How much oil are we talking about?

If it's a little then start off by replacing the seal around the dizzy/cap.

yo bionic what does replacing the seal around the cap have to do with getting oil in distributor ,,why are u telling him to do so...........

as for the shaft seal you might find 1 aftermarket u might have to take it out and match it ,,unfortunatelly if u cannot find 1 ,,u need a distr sub assembly

 

From the looks of things and from the research I've done, you guys have hit the nail on the head with the inner seal, and the fact that there is no replacement part. I was going to just resort to a new distributor, which are on ebay for around $150 shipped, but I'll call Honda tomorrow about the sub-assembly first. I've never rebuilt a distributor before, so hopefully I dont mess things up too bad. Sure makes me feel better knowing that I have you guys as a resource and you seem to know your stuff. Thanks again, and I'll post more if I need help and to let you guys know how it went.

 

I will move the post here too. It is not the entire story, I need to get the next one in my hands to finish it up.

TEC Rebuild
TEC Distributor, Honda "A" will not start, no spark. Gather info from owner, distributor was very noisy prior to car finally dieing about a month after noise was discovered. Pulled cap off to find a large amount of rust (main shaft bearing has slowly grinded itself to death leaving miniture metal particals which had corroded to a fine brown rusty color all over the interior of the distributor). This is refered to as a Pattern Failure, a common problem on these things.
The original bearing is said to not be available as a seperate part and would require some experience and a press and a puller to change anyways, bigger money for labor. Once you see this rust and no sign of oil on the inside of the dizzy then the outer housing is reusable. (OIL INSIDE IS ANOTHER STORY).
Get recycled dizzy with same style plugs (possibly different exterior housing), this one has two square (rectangle), not round plugs. Same maker, TEC. I rape both dizzies, remove all guts from corroded one with good body / internal oil seal and reinstall other dizzy guts from body of different style (same plug config) and whammy, home rebuilt.
I crossed over all the sensors (3) and main shaft with good smooth bearing, cleaned out the original housing, lubed oil seal, installed non corroded ignitor and coil and guess what, one of the rotors was stuck on the shaft, didnt even try to be nice, had a useable one in hand, ripped it off in pieces and pryed the metal retainer off with a screwdriver.
This whole job was a learning experience, but why, I have rebuilt many TEC dizzies. After installing the assy the car didnt start but it had spark out of the spark plug wire that jumped to ground easily. OK, maybe I messed up the fireing order, nope, marked the cap before starting the job, pulled the cap and set engine up to TDC, WOA, rotor is 90 degrees out of phase, OK time to pull dizzy again and take it all the way back to the house where rebuild was done (its midnight now).
Now I know why two other shops could not find one of this specific model dizzy USED. Owner didnt want to pay for a true rebuilt one as was almost what was paid for entire car. I very closely examined the three reluctors and their alignment, PERFECT MATCH, whats up, WOA, look at the retaining pin hole on the drive end of the shaft, it was 90 degrees out of phase. I didnt reuse the original rusty one, I just happened to have a third used dizzy that the drive end pin hole matched, one more rebuild and BACK ON THE ROAD.
The TEC dizzy pick up coils are non adjustable and do not require an air gap measurement. The shaft bearing goes bad allowing the shaft to wobble around in a larger circle letting the rotor hit and even cut the cap electrodes all the way off, the car will still run. When the wobble gets so bad the reluctors will close the air gap and even hit the pick ups destroying the reluctor, pick up or both not allowing the car to start, so rather than inspecting them I just change the entire set up from a known good distributor.
Ignition coil lesson, if you do this job beware of the small screws from the ignition coil and the pick up coils. They are of the same screw and pitch but of different length, the pick up screws are longer, if you put the shorter ignition coil screws back into the pick ups, they will do the job, BUT if you put the pick up longer screws into the ignition coil and make them tight enough to lock the washer you will have bottomed out the screw in the nutplate, run the screw through the bottom of the nutplate, forced the nutplate up and slightly out of the coil plastic molding, in the end you may have broken the nutplate terminal from the coil winding (copper wire) and created an open circuit, hence, no spark again. If you just make the screw tight not realizing that it has not locked the washer then you have left the wire from the ignitor semi loose (unkowingly) with a good chance of a comeback for a no start, no spark. Pop the cap, remove rotor and shield, reverse shorter and longer screws (can be done on the car), reassemble and whammy, back on the road.
One other lesson I still need to remember is the alignment of the drive gear back on the shaft, there are alignment lines on the bottom of the dizzy housing to match up with the drive gear alignment mark but it is possible to be 180 degrees out of time as the shaft has no mark on the bottom drive end, hence, I need to remember which way to point the top reluctor (single pointer) but it only takes five minutes to pull the dizzy from the engine and reinstall the drive to the correct configuration. (ANOTHER STORY)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by GDubb5150 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">From the looks of things and from the research I've done, you guys have hit the nail on the head with the inner seal, and the fact that there is no replacement part. I was going to just resort to a new distributor, which are on ebay for around $150 shipped, but I'll call Honda tomorrow about the sub-assembly first. I've never rebuilt a distributor before, so hopefully I dont mess things up too bad. Sure makes me feel better knowing that I have you guys as a resource and you seem to know your stuff. Thanks again, and I'll post more if I need help and to let you guys know how it went. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Save the time and money by buying a new distributor.

 

I had the same problem with oil getting into my distributor and replacing the ignition module solved my problems.

 

I will not say that it was a miracle but I guess that a small amount of torque on the internal parts mounting hardware could distort the distributor enough to stop an oil leak and a prayer may have stopped it. Unless you was cleaning oil out every week then I can see it. But opening up the distributor and seeing oil that took a year to build up, cleaning it out while replacing parts and then reinspecting a week later sounds more like it and finding no sign of oil, but anything is possible.

 

FIX: I bought a new distributor off of ebay from a company called DirectAuto. The distributor was brand new, not refurbished and only cost $95 + $10 shipping. It came complete with coil, cap, rotor. Basically ready to install. I installed it, set the timing, and it works perfectly, havent had any issues with it. Thanks for your guys' help. If I wouldve listened to the auto parts stores or the Honda dealer, I would still be wondering what to fix.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jake15348 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had the same problem with oil getting into my distributor and replacing the ignition module solved my problems.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Jake , there is no way in hell that if u were getting oil in the distributor it got fixed by replacing the module .......oil is coming in distr from the seal at bottom of shaft

 

I know its a civic, but its the same deal

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1065831

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 90blackcrx &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I know its a civic, but its the same deal

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1065831</TD></TR></TABLE>

that is the distr o-ring ,that will not let oil get into the distr ,, if the o-ring is bad u will have an external oil leak .....the seal i am taking about u can only remove from the inside the distr, and u have to take it all apart to get to the seal

 

the car wouldn't run, we replaced the ignition module and the car ran. I will add that this wasn't a permanent fix, we have had to replace the module again since then.

 

I agree with dessert. This new distibutor will soon be full of oil if the seal wasn't replaced.