Hi,
So I found a oil leak in the valve cover and decided to change the gasket I removed the spark plugs, valve cover cleaned up of the head and the cover. Next I noticed that the leak was coming from the distributor which is on the side of the engine, I removed the distribution and put the same gasket material I used on the valve cover around the distributor O ring and put the distributor back in. Next I put the valve cover on and tightened the nuts. The gasket material required a 24hr dry time which I gave it. Now when I tried to start the car it wont start the engine turns, but it won't fire up. I removed the distributor again and reinstalled it again samething, this was a perfectly working car before this fix I did. does anyone here know what might be my problem? The rotor on the distributor turns so I know it is connected to the cam shaft. I checked for spark I got it in plugs 2,3,4. #1 I am not sure I have to recheck but 3 should be enough to fire up the engine, I have had cars with cracked spark plugs which fire up fine with 3 plugs. If you have any input please let me know this is my work commuter car I really need it working it is a 1988 honda crx dx.

Thanks.

 

did you put the valve cover ground back on...!!!

 

Yeah I put all the cables the way they were. I even checked with a meter to make sure for a proper connection. I am wondering if there is a order in which the distributor is suppose to go back on to the engine. One thing I did do was once I removed the distributor I turned the rotor on it a few times. I am not sure if this would cause the cam shaft and distributor firing order to miss align?

 

Fixed the problem. The issue was that when I took out the distributor the shaft turned causing the timing to be off between the distributor and the engine. So I just used a 17mm socket to turn the crank shaft piston #1 to up to highest it could go and then turned the shaft on the the distributor to match the cam shaft and made sure the rotor on the distributor was pointing at pin one on the cap or close as possible. Put everything back together and it all started up fine. Also I removed all the spark plugs before turning the crank this made it easier to turn.

Thanks,