Ok yesterday and today I have been working on my wifes car that needs it monday for school. Its a 97 Honda Civic EX (stock). I changed the spark plugs, wires, distributor cap/rotor, fuel filter. Now when I turn the car on it sounds like a muscle car and takes forever to start, the engine bounces. I believe the plug wires are the way they are supposed to be. The only thing that I have never done is take off the entire distributor to take off the rotor. I put it back in the way it came off and pluged it back up. The plugs I did not gap because I thought they came pre-gapped. Any tips? Please help!!!

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you took the distributor off, as in more than just the black cap? If you removed the whole distributor, check the timing immediately. To start, look at the position of the spark plug wires on the distributor first.

 

Ok I have figured out my problem, I had the wires on wrong duh! On this car I had to take off the distributor to take off the rotor. The rotor needs to be spinned to take off the screw that is attached to the rotor. In order to spin it, it needs to be un-attached from the cam. If there is a work around please tell.

Here is the order with a picture for future visitors.

 

Could I have messed up the timing? I mean nothing turned when I took it off (cam).

 

You want to mark the distributor whenever you take it off so its back to the same place. But as long as your close to center you might be off by maybe +/- 2 degrees which is still in spec.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Luserkid &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">You want to mark the distributor whenever you take it off so its back to the same place. But as long as your close to center you might be off by maybe +/- 2 degrees which is still in spec. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yeah, just use a red magic marker and hit the housing and the block w/ one straight line - so you can line it up.

 

Unfortunetly I have already taken the dist off. Here are some pics. Tell me if I am wrong please.



Here is the firing order for anyone that comes across this forum in the future.


Thanks

 

gap the plugs and recheck your firing order

 

All is well, firing order was off but the pics I posted are the correct order (after I figured it out). I know it took a while to find pics of the firing order so that is why I posted the correct order. I changed the dist cap location to center instead of what I put in the pics since that is what was recommended by Luserkid

Thanks guys, always helpful

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Yea your all good now if you put it more in the center then your pics.

 

She has 180,000 miles cant you tell? Got to luv the Honda's.

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