Hey guys, I just installed a new ICM and put everything back together before realizing that I didn't put any alignment marks on the distributor. Would this cause an erratic cranking pattern while turning the engine over?

When I try to start the engine, I get this pattern "Rrr, rrr......rrr.rrr.rrr........rrr.......rrr", kind of like something is hindering it from turning over easily. I thought that it would at least start up, but just run like crap so then I could adjust it.

-Or would this be something else?

 

So, I just talked to the guys here at Carb Connection and they said that if the timing is too far advanced then it would spark before TDC and fight the motor on the compression stroke, giving it that erratic cranking pattern.

The strange thing is, that last night when I was trying to adjust it, it did the same thing while the distributor was fully adjusted in both directions. -So again, I have no clue as to how to properly adjust it enough to just have the thing crank up.

Any ideas?

 

well the shaft of the dist has an Offset tab on the end of it that lines up into the offset slot of the cam, so I doubt the dist. itself is installed wrong.
Your description of the way it is cranking does sound like a timing problem, but you should have had enough swing in the dist. to change the timing.

Timing light would be a fun thing to play with on this problem; Did you remove the dist cap and turn the crank to the TDC mark and see if the dist rotor is pointing at or close to #1 terminal? Checked for spark at the plug?
Did you make sure the wires to the ignitor are in the right places?
I remember that Blue and the Green are easy to switch because of the color fade.
Been there done that. LOL

 

Ok yea, I think that I definately have a timing issue now too as I had my girlfriend lay on the starter switch while I adjusted the distributor back and forth, trying to find a sweet spot. While I did notice a difference in cranking patterns as I moved the assembly to and fro, there never was a spot where the engine cranked up sucessfully.

Also, there was ALOT of white smoke coming from every flange in the header and exhaust system, including the tail pipe and valve cover breather. The smoke really confuses me as this car has NEVER had a smoking problem. I'm just wondering how that smoke is made from the spark timing being out of whack like that??

Oh well, I'm going to try it once more before having it towed to the shop on Tuesday. I remember reading somewhere that when you adjust the timing on these cars that you have to jump the service connector while doing it, but that was for an OBDII ECU, which mine was swapped for a OBDI Hondata chip some time back. And also, I have not checked to see if the crank is TDC while the dist. rotor is pointing at #1 yet either, so that will get verified tonight as well.

One thing that will make this difficult is the fact that my underdrive pully has NO marks on it that I remember that signify TDC. I even turned it a full rev. the other day and saw no evidence of an alignment mark, however I will check that again too. I may have to add one to it myself once I determine TDC from looking thru sparkplug hole #1 and waiting for the piston to top out.

 

Not sure about your engine, but there may be a timing mark on the flywheel and pointer, that you can see by removing a rubber plug on the transmission housing.

 

Ok, I got her started and running pretty well actually! I don't know if I was really doing much while rotating the distributor, because I was watching the marks on the crank pulley (which you can barely see) with the timing light and noticed that they were not moving at all in conjunction to the distributor. It seems fine, although I can tell there is significant power loss and it does really strange things at lower rpm's while under a load. (Shudders like it's running on 2 cylinders) I'll have to do some research into how to adjust timing when it's chipped with a Hondata ECU, since that ultimately has control over it.