ATTN cvcc wagon: Iginition Coil Wiring

cvcc wagon or anyone else with a 83 civic, I have been fighting my car for the past couple weeks and finally found out I needed a new distributor, so I got that and it ran fine, atleast for a few days.. A few mornings ago I tried to start it and nothing happened. Figured it was my coil since it was leaking oil over the wires. So I went to get a new one and forgot to label what wire goes where.

There are 4 wires besides the main Coil Wire.. 2 solid blue and 2 black with a yellow stripe. 1 of the blue wires and 1 of the black/yellow wires comes from the distributor, the other 2 come from a elsewhere, which have a clear rubber insulator around them (also a thicker wire).. Now I remember which wires go together on the coil terminals, but I don't know whether the thicker wires goto positive or negative on the coil... CVCC WAGON, can you please look at your engine and tell me how it is wired???? The sooner you can reply the better, I'm dying to drive my car again. Especially after putting a few hundred into it, in the last few weeks.

Once I find out the proper wiring setup, I'm gonna have to buy yet another coil and hope to god it works!

Thanks to whomever answers this the quickest,
StiffyLS

I got to thinking, the USA models and UK models use different distributors, but hopefully someone knows the way they are supposed to hook up... any help would be very appreciated.

I have the USA Model !!!!

Thanks again,
StiffyLS

the blue wires go to the negative post and the black/yellow ones go to the positive.

(just wait, in a few months when i swap my engine out i will be coming back to this post to see if it put it back together right :D )

everybody likes pictures :) the post on the left is the positive. the yellow wire on the negative post is my tachometer wire so ignore that
http://www.redpepperracing.com/gallery/albums/album326/abc.sized.jpg

Nice coil!!!! but were do those other cables go to? i know about the distributor cap ones are but i dont know where the other 2 come from????

i didn't investigate into that but i assume that it ties into the battery somehow

the black/yellow one goes to the ignition switch, and the solid blue one goes to the fuel cut-off relay...

BTW, I hooked up the wires like you said and still no spark. I swore from the first day I have owned my car, that I had 1 blue and 1 black/yellow wire hooked up to positive and the same to negative, just not sure which pair went where (distributor/ignition switch/fuel relay). I was stumped. Brand new remanufactured distributor, new plugs, wires, cap, rotor and coil. So, I hooked my coil back up the way I thought it always was, 2 wires from the distributor on negative terminal, and the other 2 on the positive. Well it seems that all those different combinations of hooking the wires up to my coil had fried my brand new ignitor unit in the distributor, after putting in the old ignitor unit from my old distributor, my car started! Unfortunately, it seemed to be firing only on 1 or 2 pistons!?! So what the hell, has my mind trick me into thinking 1 blue and 1 blk/yel to each post? Or did my timing belt get off mark somehow? Or what? Before I try putting both blue wires to negative and both black/yellows to positive, I want to be sure that I won't fry another ignitor unit, which will cost me $100 (nothing against you cvcc wagon, I bet the way I have the coil wired now is the problem and both blues to negative is correct, just making sure!) I have already put too much money into this problem of mine and way too much time! grrrrr

thank for your help,
StiffyLS

both blues do go to the negative. is your timing pretty close. there is the adjustment bolt on the top and there should be another on the bottom (the bottom one is usually left alone but if it was rebuilt it may not have been set right), if your timing is off it will run pretty rough and seem like it isn't running on all cylinders. unless you pulled your timing belt off it should be alright, when i replaced my head gasket last year i had the belt off one notch and it ran rough at idle so if you were messin with that it may be your problem. make sure you are getting spark to all your cylinders, if you are only running on 2 you can find out which by unplugging the spark plug wires while it is idling and seeing which makes a difference.

Alright, I fixed it!

For some weird reason, the way I have the coil wired now is correct, both the blue and black/yellow wires from the distributor hook up to the negative terminal on the coil and the other 2 wires hook up to the positive terminal (ignition switch and fuel cutoff relay.) The reason my car was only firing on 2 pistons was because of the distributor... Somehow I must have budged the stator when replacing the ignitor unit, making the gap between the stator and reluctor uneven. After adjusting the gap to make it even all the way around, it ran great again!

Not sure why in the hell my coil is wired different, but all I know is if you hook up the wires wrong, you can fry a $100 ignitor unit... atleast that's what it cost here, brand new. luckily I had an old distributor laying around.

Now time to find out what badass honda motor will bolt in to my civic hatchback without mods, and to find that motor :)

Thanks for all your help,
StiffyLS

the badass motor is the one i'm building :)

EK1 block (1.8L) EL1 head (canadian non-CVCC from a 1.6L) Weber DCOE carbs, header, cam regrind and a port and polished head. the project is in it's infancy right now. i have pulled apart my donor car and have the EL1 head and all but i haven't located the 1.8L EK1 block yet. pictures here:
http://www.redpepperracing.com/gallery/wagon_swap_project