I have a 95 Honda Civic. It had an oil leak around the O ring at the distributor. I asked the guy at Honda was it a quick easy change, he said yes, just take off the three bolts put on the O ring and bolt it back on. Well...he didn't say anything about marking it to get it back exactly so as to not mess up the timing. (found out that stuff after the fact) so now the car won't start. Have tried moving the distributor to different positions...a bunch of times, and it still won't start. At some positions the rythm of the motor turning over sounds funny, can get close to what it used to sound like but it won't start at all. It does have gas and it does have spark, and charged the battery up to full charge. The spark was blue. Any ideas?

 

Did the distributor slide back in kinda ruff or nice and smooth? Cuz the little prongs on the inside have to Go in smooth one way when sliding the distributor back in and if it goes in ruff your facing them the wrong way try pulling it back out and spin the prongs 180° then slide it back into the head! the distributor should sit in the middle not to far back or to far forward let me know if you get stuck

 

Ok first make sure your timing is good and heres how;
Take your number one spark plug out! Its the one closest to the belts, drop your oil dipstick in the spark plug hole then grab a 17m socket and put it on your bottom pulley, put the car in neutral, spin the bottom pulley with your ratchet till you see your dipstick riding on the piston up and down! spin it till your dipstick gets to its highest point which is "TDC" top dead center! make that number one piston go all the way to the top, and the dipstick is the one to show you when your piston is closest to the head, OK now look at your cam gear on the head (if there's a plastic cover on it take your valve cover off and remove that cover) Now the cam gear should have the word "UP" on it! Now look at it! is the cam gear on the "UP" side? or is the "UP" upside down? If its upside down spin the bottom pulley once again with your ratchet one revolution till that cam gear is in the up position, and once again make sure your piston is as far up as possible thats "TDC"!! OK if you got this far look at your cam gear it has two little flat lines one on the left and one on the right! Those have to be flat even with the top of the head like across! If all this is on point your timing is fine! I would say swap out your dizzy! There's more to a dizzy than just a coil and an igniter! It has a top dead sensor and cylinder position sensor inside! I've seen them bastards back stab you and you won't even know it! just make sure your timing is on and if it is try swapping your distributor! If after that it doesn't fix it I would make sure the fuel pump isn't cutting off when your cranking the engine, that I would also check the main relay! Under the dash, and please make sure your tranny ground is nice and tight you can send me a personal message if you need help let me know if this helps?

 

Blue spark = weak spark

Test the coil. It may be blown.

 

Been sitting with no power, back on now, so I could read the replies. The car was running great prior to pulling off the dizzy to change the O ring. So will try rotating the teeth the 180 and hope that fixes the problem. Thank you for your help!
Joyce

 

OK, we trired that and it worked! Whoohoo! Actually sounds better than it did before! Thank you so much for the help!

 

Apologies for the hi-jack

what did you do to fix it? timing like dcgogettem advised or swing the distributor 180 degrees?

i am having the exact same problem.

Checked Spark
loosened nut from fuel filter started the car and it squirted through.
dont know how to check if fuel are going through the injectors though. I have a gauge on my AFPR and that goes up.
tried another distributor from another b16a6 and still have the same problem.
i have checked the main relay for hairline cracks on the soldering work and cant spot anything.
tried another battery incase it could be something silly like that.
i have adjustable cams gears and they look fine on there stock markings.

i tried everything i know and i need help from the experts.

hope you guys can help.

thanks
E

 

Yes that is what I did, swing it the 180 and viola!

And does anyone know if the wheels/tires would be interchangeable on a 1995 Civic and and 88 Civic? Step daughter has a flat and no spare and no money....and stranded.

 

thanks. does not work for me tho.