Today on my way to work I made a stop for gas and I noticed the car was running a little different. Kinda like a bad spark plug, So i rand home real quick pulled out my plugs and all was good. So next I pulled off the dist. cap and OMG...this is what I found. I cant believe the car still drove like this. Looks like the screw for the rotor fell out and started a BLENDER effect.

 

wow!! surprised it still ran

 

Thats what I said when I drove home and removed the cap!!! I thought, how in the heck did I make it home.

 

Ya it's more common then you think. I've switch the screw to a bolt and add a little blue thread locker to it. Happened once at the track to a friend. Wasn't a good night, lol.

 

Yeah I did the same thing, used a better grade screw with some blue locktite

 

Had this happen to my old Moroso dizzy.

 

Well this might explain why my gas mileage went to poop!!! I hope!!

 

not sure which is worse...


my coil after 30k miles.....something must have been arcing... the car ran superb and didnt notice anything different. even took it to 110mph before i found out this happened.

 

LOL

i just did the same thing 2 days ago. screw came out and the rotor stayed in place. killed the cap and snapped the end of the rotor off. chances are you'll need

1. cap
2. rotor
3. coil

i tried just the cap n rotor and had a no start. honda coils are SO easy to kill. when that spark has no where to go it just grounds out in the coil

if the car was still running when you shut down you shouldn't need a coil, but, if it died and wouldn't restart there's a good chance you cooked the coil.

 

when is there a situation when the spark "has no where to go"?

do you know why my coil incinerated like that?

 

the most famous way to fry a coil is to do a compression test without disconnecting the distributor

in this case when the screw falls out and flys around beating the **** out of the terminals the gap between rotor and cap gets so big the spark eventually can't make the jump and shorts back into the coil. kind of like that compression test where the spark is going down the wire but has no plug to fire into.

the old oil filled coils were SO MUCH MORE forgiving than what's in our cars

energy always takes the path of least resistance. when there is a plug that's where it goes. when it's just wire or just metal the weakest link is what takes the jolt

 

this is not smart. the honda screw is non magnetic and is the one you should be using. buy one at the dealer.

 

oh i see right on...


loctite blue is not necessary! these screws can become really hard to remove even without loctite.....loctite would just create a greater chance of stripping the screw. All you need to do is find the right size screwdriver...push hard and turn the screw.

 

agree, but, a SMALL dab of blue can work, you just have to hit it with the propane torch for a second before you remove it. biggest claim to fame of a dab of loctite is to prevent vibration loosening

 

Hey Racebum, I infact did use a non magnetic screw. and just installed a new cap and rotor and she fired right up. Seems a tad bite smoother. might be all in my head.....lol

 

same here. not sure if it's in our head or just had a worn cap n rotor. what's really unique in my situation is i still had the oem honda cap and rotor from japan. did a motor swap 2yrs ago and never did change it {should have}

 

I just had the same thing happen 2 months ago.

 

racebum - have any idea how simple it is to replace just the coil? I ran into some water a bit ago and my car stalled and won't restart now. I ruled out hydrolock, thankfully, and it's not getting spark. Replaced plugs, wires, cap, rotor and I have a new distributor but I ahve never set ignition timing so I'm trying to avoid it lol. I tried swapping ignitors and it didn't help, so I'm guessing the coil is fried.

 

removing the coil is easy..
first remove the rotor
remove the dizzy housing cover
there are 2 screws on the top that hold the coil, remove that
2 screws that fasten 2 electric wires- remove that and it comes right out.
or watch this lol
http://www.youtube.com/user/canobd2#.../0/D_D7yerWH7U