I have a 99 Civic EX and have had it for 20 years. Anyway, while driving it stumbled, lost power, and cut off. Got it home and I pulled the plug wires, the well seal on 4 had spilt and it was full of oil. Then pulled the valve cover, checked the timing belt while I was there, it was ok. Just to make sure, rotated the engine to TDC, verified 1 was at top, and checked the cam gear…it was perfect. Now on to the dizzy, took off the cap, and the screw had backed out of the rotor, dug a groove in the dust cover, and cracked the rotor itself. So, replaced the seals on the valve cover, new rotor, wires and plugs (it was time anyway) and I had pulled the distributor to blow it out and when I went to put it back in, and since the engine was at TDC, I lined up the lines on the back of it, and it won’t go in. So I double checked the #1 cylinder and cam marks. Still won’t do in unless I spin the dist 180 degrees. And it won’t start. Sounds like a cad that’s out of time, cause I’m guessing it is.

thoughts?

 

The easy answer is to rotate the crank pulley and cam gear to TDC, remove the distributor cap to see where the rotor button is pointing, and then place the #1 plug wire at that location on the cap. From there, install the remaining three wires moving clockwise from the #1 plug wire in this order: 3,4 and then 2. If this order does not match the OE pattern, then figuring out why is the next issue. IF the order is now 180' out as you have suggested, you can fix this by pulling the distributor off the engine, removing the safety ring/circlip on the distributor shaft cog gear, drop the pin out of the middle being careful NOT to move the distributor shaft, gently rotate the shaft cog gear 180' without moving the shaft, re-insert the pin and re-install the safety ring/circlip. This moves the spark plug wire order 180' as well... so you would move the #1 wire directly across from where is was when it ran and then plug in the remaining three as I directed above... clockwise and in the order of 3,4, and 2.

Good luck.