Mystery No Start-- Please Help

[Sprog]

My 1990 Honda Civic 1.5 cranks but will not start. 134k miles. No trouble codes on ECU. ECU does give the 1-blink “hello” signal. Fuses appear good. Decided to replace starter, which was original. No difference. Battery is good. Attempted to start during jump to our van -- no difference. Main relay clicks as it should (once at key to start, once after check engine light goes off two seconds later, once on cranking). Fuel pump whirring noise can be heard with key to start position (good). With cover to intake removed, could see and smell fuel entering chamber. Starter fluid tried – no effect. I suspected ignition might be the problem. Distributor cap, rotor, spark plug wires, and plugs were all replaced. Didn’t help. Doesn’t seem to be getting spark. Couldn’t get spark from grounded plug attached to wire. I measured resistance for both primary and secondary in ignition coil -- both were within specs. Wires going to ignition coil are receiving battery voltage. Resistances for TDC and Crank sensors (within distributor) tested good (Codes 4 and 8). Ignition output signal (code 15) also checked out fine. Distributor was removed and rotor shaft does turn freely. You can see rotor turn while cranking engine. So timing belt is not broken. I suspected the igniter (only thing left in distributor) might be the problem, so I replaced this. No help (and $70, non-returnable). Anybody have any idea what might be causing this?

[civickiller]

measure i belive it was b15 and b17 at the ecu. do you have 10 volts ?

[superbluecivicsi]

measurements to the spec of your helms does not neccessarily mean the coil or ignitor is still working. the only sure proof way of checking the icm and coil is to swap it out with known good ones. if they are good, and no spark, suspect the dizzy and ecu. other than that, check the grounds, relays, fuses and wiring of the ignition system.

more far out reasons why you would not get spark would be a broken camshaft, wrong cam timing, ignition timing.

[johnb16a2]

I agree, with all the above advise. But I'd like to add to check the ground wire going to the thermostat housing, because it's often overlooked.

Also I can't claim this as my own but it's still good information:

Take the cap off and you will see the coil. On the coil there are two connections. Get a 12v test light and hook it up to the connections on the coil, and have a friend try to start the car. If the test light flashes everything up to the coil is working.

Also confirm your rotor screw is on tight and the rotor is oriented correctly (Most dizzy shafts are not keyed so it is possible to install the rotor incorrectly) GL

[civickiller]

if you have a friend with a dpfi then you should try switch distributors and see if it starts

[Sprog]

I did the test recommended by Johnb16a2 above, I checked the voltage across the primary of the coil during crank. It measured only about .5 to .8 v., even with freshly charged battary. Should voltage at the the coil be be 12 v DC? I also tested voltage at going into the igniter and am getting 12 v there.

I also cleaned the ground on the thermostat housing, the valve cover ground, and the ground for the battery. No change.

Rotor is on correctly.

I am trying to get ahold of a different PM9 ECU to test if that's the problem.

[Sprog]

UPDATE – O.k. Here’s the latest on my “no spark” situation. I’m still not getting spark at a grounded plug, with new distributor cap, and new wires.

I did the following test. I took the cap off and ran a length of heavy 12 gauge Romex house wiring from the secondary tower of the coil to body ground. I got spark on cranking! Good, but the question now is: why is this spark not going through the cap and down the wires. I checked for continuity in the cap and rotor (both new) and they were fine. I then decided to crank engine (in the dark) to see if the coil itself was arcing. Nothing was visible externally but as I looked down into the secondary terminal itself, into the tower where spark would enter the cap if the cap were attached, there was all kinds of arcing going on in there. You may remember the old Batman TV shows, when the Batmobile was pealing out of the Batcave, all the flames coming out the rear end of the car. It kind of reminded me of that.

Now I don’t think there should be arcing going on within the secondary terminal itself, right? I removed the coil and did a close inspection of the inside of the secondary tower. The insulation appears pitted. So the coil is shorting out under high voltage because the insulation has been compromised. Yet the darn thing still tests good because my multimeter isn’t subjecting the coil to voltage high enough to cause the arcing. Primary and secondary resistances are still within specs! So I’ve learned that a coil can test good even if it’s bad.

My only question now is whether I caused this coil failure during the repair process by cranking the engine several times without having the secondary grounded OR if this coil arcing was the original problem. The problem did start after a week or so of heavy rain, so I’m hoping that the bad coil is the underlying problem. Thanks for all your suggestions and I will let you all know when I replace the coil whether that did the trick.