boltonblue

bill,
you should be able to check for spark with an electronic timing light.
I still have one in the garage if you need to borrow one.

Legal Bill

Thanks guys. This gives several things to check. The TB is easy enough to see. I do have a timing light that i can use to check the spark, and the Haynes manual says you can check it by just holding the end of the plug wire a quarter inch from ground. If I don't get spark, I'll check all the fuses. Anyone know where this "main relay" is and what it does? any way to check that?

I replace the cap and rotor with some parts from the local auto parts store. I wonder I have a bad rotor. Somehow, I'd feel better if this was related to the broken exhaust pipe. I'm not a big believer in coincidence. If everything else checks out, I'll look for an ignitor.

Oh, any way to quickly make sure I have fuel pressure?

Bass

it's a main fuse for the car - i recall helping a few old ladies in the parking lot of walmart a few years ago - called scott and he said check the main fuse and sure enough it was broken and the car wouldn't start - swapped it and they went to bingo


not too sure of the year of Chris car but this is a good link

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/mainrelay.html

Bass

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/faq.html#startrun

Legal Bill

Wow. I just pulled the cap and found the inside filled with dust and the rotor was very loose. The securing screw was in tight, but the rotor wobbled on the shaft and could rotate around about 20 to 25 degrees. It looks like the rotor was self destructing for some time and finally wore to the point that it was no longer making contact with the contacts inside the cap. I plan to go buy a new cap and rotor tomorrow. The trouble is, I'll probably be buying more inferior quality crap!!!

Anyway, please let me know if this sounds like the problem.

Legal Bill

Steve, thanks for the link to that tegger site. This page sound similar to my problem:

http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/badsecondary/index.html

I hope the coil isn't blown. If Boch Honda is open tomorrow, I might see if they have the right parts.

Cubs2k

I would think if it was that worn there would have been other signs like misfires, stumbling throttle, irregular idle and CELs.....

Must have happened pretty quickly.

Legal Bill

^I thought about that. The blade on the rotor is quite wide and covers about a 15 to 20 degree spread all by itself. Also, the ignitor thingy might have failed suddenly as a result of this bad rotor

FitzyS2k

if the timing belt broke you would have some bad noises coming from the engine.
Once in my del Sol the car wouldn't start because one of the plug wires came of the dizzy. i plugged it back in and the car still wouldn't start. come to find out the part inside the dizzy burned out which i guess is common in the external distributors. got it fixed and it ran again. i can't remember what the part was called. it was years ago.

Bass

what's a dizzy? rotor?? distributor