1998 Accord EX, 4 cylinder Vtec ULEV.

The original problem was that sometimes it wouldn't start. When this happened there was a single click from the starter motor. Eventually it would start again, but it was happening more frequently.

So my son and I pulled the starter and took it to be rebuilt at a local shop. At the same time we found that the bellows on the air intake hose was split and that there was oil leaking from the distributor. Pulled those components too. The holes to the motor were blocked to keep stuff out of the motor until reassembly. Oil level is normal in the motor.

Repaired (in theory) the distributor with a Dorman kit which had the O ring and the inner seal. This is a Hitachi distributor, the type where a pin retains the part which plugs into the motor, and that pin must be driven out to pull the shaft to fix the seal, and then later the pin must be driven in. That seems to have gone OK, I am 99% sure the alignment is as it was when it came out of the motor.

Replaced the bad air hose with one from Dorman. Other than having two extra ports, both of which came blocked off, it is the same as the original, minus the tear.

Installed the rebuilt starter. With the battery on the ground outside the vehicle, ran jumper cables from the battery posts to the battery cables in the car. It would not start. Tried a battery from an RV (much bigger), it would turn the motor a little and then there was immediately a set of rapid clicks, like the starter trying and failing to engage. The dash lights would dim to nothing on each try.

Pulled the rebuilt starter. Tested it on the ground. It seemed to work normally. Took it to an Autozone and they tested it. Electrically normal. Still, we have seen starters before which tested good in the store but would not work on the vehicle. So bought a Duramax Gold from Autozone. Tested it on the ground, worked fine. (Spun much faster than the first starter in the same test, but otherwise same size and shape.) Installed it in the vehicle. Trickle charged the battery overnight so that it was at 12.8V. Jumpers from battery terminals to car battery cables. This time it acted like the RV battery did, turns the motor a bit (can see that on the pulleys) then it clicks madly. One at a time with a 2nd set of jumper cables jumped straight from the battery to the starter (positive), from the battery to the case of the starter (ground). Same fast clicking. Used a wire to bypass the car's ignition circuit, touched it straight to the solenoid pin from the positive jumper cable. Again, same fast clicking. Checked resistance from positive solenoid to positive battery cable, and starter case to ground cable - very low in both cases. The cables appear to be intact and have only minor surface corrosion visible.

Later today we will try wiring everything from the battery straight to the starter. (Bypassing the car's wiring entirely.)

Will also pull the distributor out to verify that the inserted part or O ring didn't fall off and into the motor, and that it still turns easily.

Anyway, this is very confusing. It is acting as if the starter is weak or the motor somehow has too much drag. But two starters? Other than the random "one click no starts" it was running absolutely normally before all of this work started. It is possible that somehow the distributor work is loading the motor, but how? I was able to turn it easily by hand right before it was reinstalled. Possible that just be sheer bad luck one of the belt driven accessories is also going out, and that is heavily loading the motor??? (I would have thought that the belt would slip in that case.)

Thanks.

 

Wired everything straight to the starter from a good battery, it just went "uh uh uh" and didn't really turn. But no clicking. Specifically:

• battery positive to starter power (via battery post to red jumper lead clip, to red jumper lead clip, to one end of two feet of welding cable, to the starter post)
• battery negative to starter body (via black jumper lead)
• battery positive to starter solenoid (via wire with spade on one end and alligator clip on the other, spade to solenoid, alligator clip to red jumper.)

So I gave up and decided to tow it to the mechanic. Before doing so, the battery tray and battery were reinstalled and all the cables put back on. Cleaned the posts (same battery as above) and battery cables. Thought to myself, better check that it is doing the same thing and try to start it. Started right up. Beautiful start, no "uh uh" sound, no clicks, just turn the key and "vroom". Drove it around for a few minutes to charge the battery a bit more. Stopped, turned it off. Started right up again.

Just dirty connections? Doesn't make sense because it wouldn't start when jumped from this battery or from a big RV battery. The cables cut through the surface crud on the battery terminals and should have had a good connection to the lead underneath. Perhaps something over on the pulley side is going out and is hard to turn (but not yet quite so hard that the belt slips on it and makes noise)? So the difference between a spotless connection and a somewhat dirty one makes a difference?

Anyway, at least we know for sure that the distributor is installed correctly. No oil leak on the little test, but early days for that.

Guess it wouldn't hurt to have the battery load tested again.

 

Looks like you found out that the best way to operate a vehicle is the way it was designed to operate.