I'm fairly sure I know what's happening with my car, but I figure I'll post the symptoms here and see if any guru's have other suggestions...

The car: 90 Civic EX
ZC Motor/Tranny
89 Teg ECU

The symptoms:
At times, especially when accellerating hard, the Engine Light comes on. It tends to go out fairly quickly though.
At times the tach will suddenly drop off, like it's losing it's connection.
At times, both of the above will happen, but if the tach doesn't come back quickly and the car is out of gear, the motor will completely die.

I'm figuring that one of my friends didn't get some of the wires for the distributor quite connected enough (the one part of the wiring that's different in a ZC) and now there's an unstable connection in the distributor somewhere. I'm guessing I'm going to have to re-do all the distributor connections, but want to eliminate the cylinder position sensor connections if possible. Can anyone tell me if the tach receives it's signals from the cylinder position sensor on the exhaust cam or if it's from inside the distributor on the intake cam?

Or does someone think I'm totally off base, and there's another problem somewhere?

Thanks in advance!
Eric

 

Far as I know, the CEL cannot come on and go back off without you resetting the computer. I assume you're not throwing any codes? If not, then the thing with the engine light sounds like a loose wire in the gauge cluster... did it ever do this before?

If you've got a problem with the tach dropping off, then maybe the tach wire is shorting with the CEL. Do you have time to pull the gauge cluster? Might find something interesting. I don't really know though . HTH!

P.S. I believe the tach is controlled by the igniter module in the distributor, so if you get funky tach readings it's usually caused by the igniter. Reason I say it might be a short is that CEL thing... but maybe it IS your igniter. With all that in mind, I'd say the tach is controlled by the intake cam.

 

Ive got a 90 si, crx. With a ZC. The motor rides so high it cut the distributor wires, screwing up the tach. The previous owner (who installed the motor) broke evry mount letting the TPS bang itself apart into the firewall. And the computer was not bolted down. I rewired the distibutor with used parts. Keeping in mind I wasnt keeping the motor and its a crx dist. that dosent seal properly. I purchashed a used tps, learnied how to let the tps run the car rich. And I bolted the computer down, Which is nessessary because the bolt that go in the comp. act as a gound. Parts of my wiring harness werent even pluged in. The car now runs 9.5's in the 1/8. And still has starting issuses I believe due to the comp not being grounded for so long. Your integra comp, should have the led to tell you the engine codes. I have the same set up, expet Si. (easier to bolt in) Read the engine codes and I can tell you what "MOST" of them mean. Been there and done that. Im in the process of installing a b16.

 

I would let the check engine light stay on and see what code you get. The CEL can go off without the ecu being reset. The tach receives a signal from the ignitor. HTH

 

Hmm, please excuse the dumb question as I don't have a Teg shop manual, but aren't both the ignitor and coil inside the distributor body on an 88/89 Teg?

I did remove the distributor cap and the inside of the distributor doesn't look so good. The coil wires are rusted/corroded pretty badly, so I guess I might want to just change the whole unit.

Eric

 

If it looks that bad inside, then yeah, that's a place to start. Unfortunate it has to be such an expensive part .

 

Well, it certainly was the coil/distributor that was causing the problems. I installed a remanufactured one, which stopped the sputtering and such, but now my ecu is throwing a code 9, which means I guess I'm going to have to re-check all the rigged wiring for the cylinder position sensor. My best guess is that somewhere during the installation process, I managed to mess up the wiring for the sensor.

Thanks for all the feedback guys!

Eric