The car is a 1991 Honda Accord LX 5spd...

The title pretty much explains it. I had oil in my spark plug wells so I replaced all the gaskets and seals and adjusted the valves. Then I put everything back together again and it won't start.

The engine turns over but won't catch. I've verified that everything is plugged in.

I've never adjusted the valves before so could I have just done such a horrible job of adjusting them that it won't start?

Thanks for any help.

 

OLD WIVES TALE, if it broke after you touched it, then you must have broke it, The valves are too tight. You need to be sure the specs you are using are for a hot or a cold engine and dont crimp the feeler gauge down hard, it needs to move freely and evenly on all valves.

I like to do this the long way, the book states to set up the engine and then do 50 percent of the valves and then turn the moro once and do the other 50%, I like to do each individual cylinder at TDC. If you are doing it hot then you know that you are not lightning fast so the last valve is going to be cooler than the first. so do them all cold and do each cylinder at TDC.

You could even do the extra extra long route and do each lobe on the heel of the lobe and not worry about anything else. You do know that the intake and exhaust are different specs, YES.

 

i agree with DUANE u might have valves too tight,,, tell us how exactly you adjusted the valves and what size feeler gauge you used....

 

ops skipped the how ........tell us how you adjusted the valves

 

Okay, I set the 1st piston to TDC and adjusted the exhaust valves to 0.012 and the intake valves to 0.010. Then I rocked the car until the camshaft rotated a quarter turn and adjusted the next valve. Repeat for all four valves.

However, I think I might have adjusted them in the wrong order because when I was first adjusting them, I thought that the #1 piston was the #4 piston and vice versa.

 

.....you did'nt miss reconnecting a ground wire to the valve cover or something similar did ya' ?

 

I actually broke the bolt off the ground wire. I figured that could have been the problem so I rigged up a ground wire going to one of the bolts that holds the spark plug clips onto the valve cover. It seems to give me the same problem with or without the ground.

 

recheck the valve adjustment , the groung wire off is no big deal...........
with valve cover off, use a long extension, 19mm socket and a rachet, turn wheels to the left, put ext in the splash shield hole, spin the engine counterclock wise,,, this way u will be going,1 3 4 2 ..so if you are at top dead. feel the rocker arms at either 1 or 4 , they should feel loose so u know which cylinder to adjust ..depends on where u are at turn engine counterclock and follow firing order ... .012 for exh and .010 for intake is correct

 

If they are too tight and stuck open, a cylinder needs 60lbs of compression to fire.

 

(edited to remove wrong description; the spring doesn't push anything up)

When I took the distributor cap off, it sounded like something fell out. THere's a spring that's still on the distributor and I wonder if there should be something on the end of it. I think there might be a piece missing from the end of the spring.

Here is a picture of my distributor with the spring circled. Thanks for any help.




Modified by the heep at 12:54 AM 9/10/2005

 

Latest update! Still not working

I took off the valve cover, readjusted the valves. and put everything back together. It still doesn't start.

The engine turns over. I put my finger into the spark plug wire and got shocked so it is firing.

What should I check next?

 

This is a TEC dizzy and there is nothing on top of this spring, the spring makes contact with the cap, the spring is easy to bend and easy to knock off and loose and it is needed but nothing is missing from that area of your dizzy.

 

Fixed!

A big thanks to everyone who helped me. The problem ended up being that the distributor rotor was worn on the inside so it was slipping on the camshaft. I replaced both the rotor and cap and everything works.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by the heep &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Latest update! Still not working

I took off the valve cover, readjusted the valves. and put everything back together. It still doesn't start.

The engine turns over. I put my finger into the spark plug wire and got shocked so it is firing.

What should I check next?</TD></TR></TABLE>

LOL LOL LOL ROTFLMAO........IS THAT A NEW WAY TO TEST FOR SPARK ???

Glad car is fixed ,LOL LOL ...sorry bud cannot stop laughing with ur method of testing for spark LOL LOL ..........

 

Yeah, I was dumb enough to listen to my little brother when he told me to do it that way. But it works, you don't need any tools, and the pain lets you know you're alive!

That's the beauty of Honda-Tech... you learn new things all the time.