A week ago in my '91 Accord LS Wagon 2.2L I had felt the engine stumble and I'd get a CEL. It still ran fine. Once I'd restart it the CEL would go out. When I checked for codes I got a 9, Cyl Position Sensor. After a couple days the stumble and CEL would come up more frequently. The day I made time to check the distributor it died on me twice on the freeway on my way home from work. I was able to restart it, while coasting in N, and made it home. I didn't recheck codes as I figured I would be in for a new dist. no matter what. I had to go with a reman dist from Autozone. It ran stronger than ever after I installed the dist and adjusted timing. I figured I had it licked and no more worries. This morning it died on me 3 times on the way into work and again it restarted fine while coasting in N. The CEL would go out after restart. Now I get a code 8 which is TDC/Ign Coil Signal??? Did I get a bad dist? I'd prefer OEM anyway but I was cornered with no wheels for work and AZ was the only one that had one last night.

Also, I know I can check the coils in both distributors when I get home but is there a way to check the pick-ups too?

Thanks in advance.

 

I just saw the footnote and code 8 for my car relates to the TDC sensor. And that's in the dist again right?

 

**** autozone bro. ive had reman dizzy and reman alternators reman axles go to **** right away. autozone is a piece of crap. i just installed a reman alternator on a 94 mercury capri and the first thing i head was a bearing in the alternator. and it has draw so it drains the battery. ive also had a reman dizzy from autozone be bad out the box. so i say **** autozone

 

Didn't have a choice last night, but yeah I don't like reman anything from them.

So I exchanged the dist for another and now it's back to just stumbling occasionally, maybe 3 times in 50 miles, and a CEL. Code now is back to 9.

I'm guessing maybe the first one I bought was crap and this second one kind of put me back to where I was with my orignal dist. Any tips on where to go from here?

 

Check the distributor connectors and wires for wear and corrosion. A vehicle of your age could have dried and cracked wires that may short occasionally to cause these issues.

 

Did that around the dist. I dialectric every connector I touch when I do any work and that all still looked good. I will look further this weekend though.

Are there any test points I can try for continuity to make the search easier?

It also accurred to me that I was feeling a little bit of a stumble beginning a couple months back. I just thought I was feeling the load of my A/C kicking on or off. Now I'm sure it was something related to this.

 

Is there anything below the heater core that a tiny coolant leak could get to and cause problems with the signal from or to the dist? I had bent one of the tubes coming from the heater care when trying to pry off a hose a while back. I would never see any puddles inside or out but noticed I'd be low on coolant occasionally. I traced it to the heater hose clamp not sealing the hose all the way because of what I did to the pipe and I had to add a second clamp. Solved the loss of coolant. Maybe some of the coolant followed a wire down to a connector somewhere inside the cabin?