Help! ZC distibutor wiring

Chen · #1 10-23-2005, 08:23 PM

I have an 89 CRX SI with first gen ZC DOHC swap. I bought a brand new ZC distributor TD-03U and I had to rewire the plug coming from the car so that it would fit the plug on the dist. The wires colors from the main harness do not match the wires on the distributor.

Main harness:

white
orange
white
orange/blue
white/blue

Distributor:

white
yellow/green
light pink or peach
light blue
light blue/yellow

Can anyone tell me which wires go together? I would love to get this done. Gotta get to work. Thanks in advance for any help.

Chen · #2 10-23-2005, 09:57 PM

One more thing to add. My Haynes manual said to remove the cap and crank the engine until the rotor is pointed toward #1 spark plug. (TDC). I did not do that. I theorized that if I marked everything and put the new dist. in exactly as the old one with the rotor in the exact same position that I would be ok. Did I create problems for myself by doing that?

civickiller · #3 10-23-2005, 11:33 PM

the distributor can only go on one way so its all good.

who did you buy the distributor from ? distributor king ?

Chen · #4 10-24-2005, 01:33 AM

yeah on eBay for about 200

civickiller · #5 10-24-2005, 03:01 AM

try this

distributor - harness

white - small white
yel/grn - large white
peach - orange
light blue - wht/blu
light blue/yel - blu/orange

Chen · #6 10-24-2005, 03:22 AM

what made you go with this configuration? Just curious. Thanks. I appreciate the help. I will give it a shot after work tomorrow and let you know what happens. Thanks again.

civickiller · #7 10-24-2005, 03:43 AM

well usually on every dist, the white goes with the white, on obd1 dist the yl/grn goes with the larger white so i figure maybe its the same. peach and orange because those are the only wires that are different from the rest, i also figure that the 2 light blues would go with the 2 blues but which blue goes with which blue is just a guess

Chen · #8 10-24-2005, 03:49 AM

I had the wires matched up differently than you suggested and I could not get the car to fire at all. I suppose it is possible that I have a continuity problem where I spliced in the new plug. I will try your configuration tomorrow though.

civickiller · #9 10-24-2005, 04:09 AM

doing some more research online.

if the way i wrote doesnt work, try switching the peach and small white wires on either the dist side or the harness side. then if that doesnt work try switch the blue/(white) and blue/orange wires on either the dist or harness side. you might need to try the different combinations but those 2 changes should be the only ones you might need to make

Chen · #10 10-24-2005, 08:23 PM

I just tried your first configuration and it cranked a couple times and fired once. The tach just quickly shot up to about 2.5 or 3 grand and then back down and the car died. Tried again and no fire at all. Gonna try the second suggestion and see what happens.

Chen · #11 10-24-2005, 08:47 PM

I switched the peach and white and it did the same thing. Then I switched the blues without switching back the peach and white. It cranked once and then stopped, kinda like a dead battery crank. Didn't sound too promising so I didn't wanna keep cranking it. Then I switched the peach and white back to the original config. so that now only the blues were switched and it did the same thing as the first time. Fired once and then died. If I leave the key in the "on" position and keep cranking it, it will not fire at all. If I turn the key off and crank it then it will fire once and die. Hope this isn't too confusing.

I'm really stuck here. Gotta get this thing runnin soon. Any other suggestions would be awesome.

civickiller · #12 10-25-2005, 02:11 AM

is this a brand new swap or was the zc running in your car before ?

Chen · #13 10-25-2005, 04:08 AM

It's been in and running for about a year now. I was having intermittent starting problems. When it would happen which again was very intermittent, the car would turn over but not fire at all. I could always get it to start after a little while of sitting. And then it stopped doing it for a while. I went ahead and bought the new dist. planning on putting it in, but I just never got around to it. Then I had the starting problem 3 times in the last few days so I decided to put it in on Saturday. And here I am now.

civickiller · #14 10-25-2005, 05:45 AM

ever think that it could be your main relay ?

Chen · #15 10-25-2005, 09:24 AM

never really thought about that. do my symptoms point towards that?

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