After noticing a small crack in the disttributor cap, I decided to open it and see if I could glue it back together. The car only has 2000 miles on it so I figured I didn't need to buy a new one. When I too it off, there was a loose small bolt (1/8 inch long) inside the cap. I was very surpriced and knew something was wrong. I found that the bold was the one that holds the thing rotating right on the inside (sorry don't know the name of this thing, rotor maybe) The loose bolt had of course caused the crack of the cap and had damaged the rotor on the edges. Question is how do I rotate the engine so I can fasten the bolt again. It needs to be rotated to be able to fasten it back. I will buy new parts, but my car was drivable before I opened it, so can I temporaryly drive it wthout the bolt in place, can it hurt the engine? Has this happened to anyone else?

 

the screw that holds the rotor in place is not 1/8" long.
its about 1cm long.

 

Put the car in first gear and push it... or insert a socket into the front driver fender well and rotate the motor at the crank.

I'd take it to Acura and have them replace it under warrenty...

 

Yes it has happened to me pretty much...what I would do if I were you is turn the motor over and put the screw back into place, drive directly to the dealer and get a new cap, rotor and screw. Then when you replace it, make sure you tighten that bitch down TIGHT...happened to me twice actually.


Oh yea, two ways to turn the motor over are a)hit the ignition without cranking the car...just enough to turn the motor...tick, tick, tick. then check the rotor to see where its at...

The other way is to get a socket and manually turn the crank pulley(19mm).

Good luck

 

Should you lock tight that screw in? Sgt you ever have one come out after just tightening and no loctight?

You can also push the car in first gear to rotate the motor.

Craig - Who has done a valve adjustment with out the use of a 19mm to rotate the motor


[Modified by AssPenny, 5:59 PM 4/18/2002]

 

Yes it is 1 cm, I just did a quick (and wrong) estimation in inches. Sorry, 1 cm it is.1/8 in is 0,3 cm, don't we all love those english units!

 

Good to hear that someobe else has had this problem. I will try and put the bolt back in and drive to the dealer, but I'm afraid they will not have the parts in stock. Is this rotor and cap the same on any other Hondas?

Thanks for replies so far.

 

I don't feel so bad now as it just happened to me over the weekend

? though - I replaced the cap, rotor and re-tapped the screw and I'm still thowing a CEL "9" and have a fairly consistent miss across the entire RPM range. Reset the CEL twice and it keeps coming back, missing comes and goes but it pretty consisent.

Also took cap and rotor (again) and all looks okay, except for a "knick" (for lack of a better word) in the magnetic piece on the lower left hand corner of the distributor. I thinking the distributor is damaged and need replaced, but want to make sure before dumping ~$300. Thoughts?

 

the magnetic thing you are refering to is the ignitor assembly. if it is nicked then it is fukted. i did the same thing, but the screw went through the center on the ignitor and it wouldnt run at all. a new ignitor is in the 200$ range, goto acura and order a new one, it should fix your problem.

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=370636

 

The cap and rotor can be used from most all vtec 1.8L motors (i think)

The ITR has a different rotor than other vtec 1.8L motors (more plastic around the mounting part)... but the other will work.

 

Thanks guys, you confirmed what I thought!!!