Car was running great. All I did was change the rotor and distributor cap. Removed stock air intake and related electrical connections to get at distributor. We had to use an easy out to get the phillips set screw off of the rotor. Now, car cranks but no spark at plug. Checked to make sure spark plug wires are connected correctly to distributor, all correct. Double checked electrical connections on air intake, all connected. Checked main relay and it seems to be clicking at all three positions. Any suggestions, thanks in advance.

 

if u took the cap and rotor off and repalced it then maybe u got bad parts try putting the old one back on and see if it starts. double check to make sure the rotor is making contact at all the points too.

 

Did you try putting the old one back on?

 

Pull off the new rotor. Check with a multimeter for continuity between the metal strip on the inside of the post, and the metal tip of the rotor.

Aftermarket rotors often have lousy-quality resistors that fail. And if you find an open condition in the above test, chances are excellent that the coil is damaged as well.

 

Also check your ignition control module I had
A problem with this before. It's inside the distributor.

 

^^ it was working fine until he swapped the cap and rotor, so I doubt it's the ICM

 

I will try to put the old cap back on, but I cannot put the rotor back on because part of it broke off when trying to get the set screw out.

 

possible issue with the rotor inside the distributor? ive had a few of those break on me in the past.

 

i bet you cranked the motor without grounding the coil. my bet is your coil is fried.

 

I did crank the motor with the cap off to get the the rotor in the right position so that I could access the set screw on the rotor. Would this fry the coil? I believe that I have done this in the past with no problems. I will ohm it out to see if there is continuity. Do you know what the voltage should read at the coil?

I would like to thank everyone for their input, I really appreciate it.

 

Edge, is there anyway to troubleshoot the ICM. Thanks, KRAM

 

did you unplug the dizzy when you craked it over? might have blow the coil

 

i agree with this, i believe youre going to have to cough for a coil or a new dizzy.

 

LOL @ saying the same thing as TOO MUCH TORQUE but re-wording it to make it seem like you know what you are talking about

 

Not that I know of. I know when I was troubleshooting this problem my coil was fine after testing with the multimeter and my cap and rotor were new so
it led me to the ICM and that solved it. From what is being said it does sound like your coil. Have you confirmed it with the meter?

 

ahaha

yeah, its fried. You're lucky you fried the coil on the spot. my friend's coil died 40 miles alway from home from the result of not grounding the coil. The best way to access the rotor screw is to turn the engine over by the crank or power steering nut. also, anytime you work on the distributor, you should ALWAYS disconnect the battery or at the very least, the distributor plug.

 

Did you ohm it out or check for voltage?

 

Yes, absolutely. This would fry the coil. That's the #1 reason coils get dead.

You're not supposed to crank the engine over to get at the set-screw, you're supposed to turn it over by hand with a 19mm socket and appropriate extensions on the crank pulley bolt. There's a rubber plug in the fender liner for this purpose.

Coil failure CANNOT be detected with a multimeter! You can only tell by looking at it in the right light.
THIS is what a bad coil looks like, and why it looks that way:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/badse...al-arcing.html

 

what a perfect link!!

 

10 secs too take off the dizzy! next time just take it off and remove the rotor please. you live and you learn my friend haha

 

Not entirely correct, you can "detect" a bad coil what you can't do is confirm a coil is good with a meter.

Now that may just be semantics, but a coil that meters way off or open is obviously bad, but a coil that meters good my not necessarily be good, like most electrical components, they must be tested under load, or with a load.

That is why the most commonly used piece of test equipment in our shop is not my $600 Fluke, it is a $1.99 12V test light.

No it can not be used to test a coil, [before anyone asks]. 94

 

Right, and that's why you can't test a coil by pushing 3V through it. The coil will show continuity at 3V, but weird things happen when you get a bad coil to make its usual 10/20KV, such as that voltage going to ground through the case.

I (not being an electronics expert) have found that this is the usual mode of failure for modern potted coils. The old cylindrical, oil-filled coils were more robust and were much more likely to withstand ungrounded HT voltage without wrecking themselves.

 

Primary coil resistance read 0.8, spec is 0.6-0.8. Secondary coil resistance read 7.8K, spec is 12.2K-19.8K.

Installed new ignition coil. Car started and ran for about 7 to 8 mins. Then it died. I re-started the car and it ran for about a minute and then it died again. Could not re-start after that. Did not have time to continue troubleshooting.

Any ideas?

 

Did you replace the ignitor? Maybe the ignition switch is failing?

 

I did not replace the ignitor. All I did was replace the ignition coil, and the engine was obviously getting spark for 7 to 8 minutes, and then it died. Started up again and then died. Can't get it started now.