Okay, in my ongoing quest to replace the stuff that isn't working properly in the CRX, I have decided that much of my ignition system should be replaced. I wouldn't be surprised if the plugs and wires were original! For now I don't want anything special, just a good direct replacement for what I have. I plan to replace the plugs, wires, and distributor cap. After that I'll see how it runs. I'll deal with external coils and all of that garbage later when I'm no longer fixing what's broken. Since I'm used to running the R (which has great OEM ignition parts), I'm not too familiar with my replacement options. Any suggestions? Good places to buy this stuff would be great too. Thanks!

 

Get the factory cap & rotor. Get decent wires not some Kragen house brand junk. I would try to get the NGK plugs if possible.

 

Stock rotor, cap and plugs. Upgrade the wires to something better.

I played around with a Jacobs system years ago and started melting coils! Since then, I've never had a reason to stray away from the stock system.

 

I have heard a lot of people suggest the OEM cap and rotor, which is good because they're cheap. sjasmund, stock plugs? Really? That would kick ***, since they're like $10/set! I figured the plugs would need to be upgraded. As for wires, I'm getting the impression that it doesn't really matter what wires. Everyone just says get "good" ones. Brands like NGK, MSD, Magnecor, and nology have been suggested. Can I go wrong with any of those? I just want to get these damn things swapped out so that I can forget about them and move on (but I don't want to end up replacing the replacements!)

 

Yep, we use stock NGK's straight from Honda. We played with a couple things but didn't see any difference. I'd read that platinum and all the other gimmicky plugs were for older cars with weak ignition systems. Newer, healthy systems didn't show any gains from using them. Anyone else hear that?

I use MSD wires but I would imagine the others are close to the same thing.

Don't forget to put a drop of Locktite on the screw that holds the rotor on. The shaft on the CRX distrubutor shaft is round. If the screw back out the rotor just spins on the shaft... things get really weird. It quicks running. You try to start it and it will turn and turn, then finally start... then die again. I've seen it happen on more than one CRX.