Strange things happening - Need some ideas

[Chen]

Got a DOHC ZC in my CRX and sometimes when I step on it the engine will stumble/hesitate and the tach will bounce up and down. It used to happen once in a while, but now it's more frequent. The idle has become progessively worse too. It used to be that when I put the clutch pedal in, the tach would drop low (under 500) and then jump back up to normal. Now, it will go up and down about 3 times before leveling out. But when it levels out, it's too high. I am gonna look at my EACV and check it out.

Any ideas about any of this?

[Chen]

I was driving home tonight and I started having problems again. This time was the worst it's been. Cruising at 55 and the car would jerk and the tach would bounce up and down. A few times it went all the way down and stayed for a few seconds, as if the engine shut off. But it never did.

Any ideas?

Timing belt? It's been about 81k. I know it's overdue, but would that cause this problem?

Any help would be great.

[Tony]

Check inside the distributor. The bearings are known to wear out, when they do it starts eating up the teeth inside for the crank position sensor. if this starts messing up it will cause problems similar to what your experiencing. You can take the cap off, rotor, plastic shield and look down in it...I think that is all thats in the way. If you see metal shavings, get a new distributor.

[razr_88]

Originally Posted by Tony

Check inside the distributor. The bearings are known to wear out, when they do it starts eating up the teeth inside for the crank position sensor. if this starts messing up it will cause problems similar to what your experiencing. You can take the cap off, rotor, plastic shield and look down in it...I think that is all thats in the way. If you see metal shavings, get a new distributor.

could not have said it better myself... let us know what you find!

[Chen]

I took the distributor off a couple of weeks ago and the coil was cracked. Only about 2 years old, but the car is pretty low so not much shock absorption. I just happened to have a new one laying around. Replaced it and it did the trick.

I did see metal shavings though. Lifetime warranty on the distributor, but I need the original packaging which I don't have. Oh well.