whats up guys. I need help in starting up my brothers 1996 civic ex sohc vtec. He was changing the distributor cap recently and rotor and when he went to start it up it only cranked but didnt start at all. We thought it was the distributor that went bad so we bought another one from the junkyard. we put it in and still it doesnt start. It only cranks. I checked the spark plugs, spark plug wires, fuses, Fuel line, battery and everything seems fine. Please help if you have any ideas of what it could be.

 

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No need to bump every 10-15 minutes, someone will get to your question when they get to it.

Are you getting spark? Can you hear the fuel pump?

 

I need help asap and no thats not true they never get back to me. Maybe days later. No im not geting spark and honestly i dont know much about the fuel pump. I just took off the line by the fuel rail and cranked it to see if fuel was geting through and it is.

 

Check to make sure the ground on the thermostat housing is good. Make sure the spark plug wires are in the right order. And check the ignition coil. I know you said you replaced the whole distributor, but bad ignition coils are a fairly common occurrence for a car this age.

 

Yea true but we replaced the distributor twice unless the junkyard has nothin but bad ones. The spark plug wires are in the correct order. I was told that it could be the timing belt.

 

Check the coolant temp switch too, specifically the wiring to it.

 

so is there spark when you crank? like you pulled the the plug wires off and grounded it and could see the spark jumping?

 

main relay? how about an alarm system in the car? remove it if you have one. kill switch your bro didnt tell you about?

 

What made your bro change the cap and rotor?
Was it a routine maintenance or was the motor acting funny prior to the replacement?
What I'm trying to find out is whether changing the cap caused the car to not start or it had problems to begin with..

 

yeah i was trying to get to that too. i'm wondering if bro left to the marines or somethin and he got the car after it had been sitting parked or somethig like that.
nice avitar BTW bro. shes hot LOL

 

still haven't heard if you're getting spark..... check the spark.... if no spark check the rotor and cap individually for continuity, i've gotten bad caps and rotors before. If your rotor screws in make sure that is in tight. otherwise might be the coil or even the ignitor. good luck