Help car won't start - no spark

[Alexxn 00 Si]

92 Civic LX 1.5. Just up and died one day. Checked for spark - none. Car sat for 2 days, started up, drove, shut it off and won't start now, still no spark. Installed a remanufactured distributor, nope still won't start....no spark....

Anyone have any clue what I should do next ??

Much appreciated !!!

[Alexxn 00 Si]

So I did a test here...I connected the alligator clip of a test light to the positive post on the battery and the test light tip to the negative side of the coil...had a friend crank the engine over...shouldn't the test light flash on and off if all is well ? It stayed dark....igniter maybe ???

Help !

[fiberglasscivic]

If you just replaced the Dizzy then that's probably not the cause of the problem. Have you checked to see if your plug wires are good or if the plugs are good? If your wires are good then you need to check your spark by taking the end of the plug wire out at the plug end and hold it close to a metal part of the engine while a friend tries to crank it. If you see sparks then your ignitor is good. You need to note when you try that, whether or not the spark is steady or if it sparks at intervals.

[Alexxn 00 Si]

Originally Posted by fiberglasscivic

If you just replaced the Dizzy then that's probably not the cause of the problem. Have you checked to see if your plug wires are good or if the plugs are good? If your wires are good then you need to check your spark by taking the end of the plug wire out at the plug end and hold it close to a metal part of the engine while a friend tries to crank it. If you see sparks then your ignitor is good. You need to note when you try that, whether or not the spark is steady or if it sparks at intervals.

I replaced the distributor with a remanufactured one - so not alot of faith there really.....before I did any of this I tried pulling a couple of spark plug wires to check for spark - none.....I am back to the original distributor now - and did all of the tests with this one - NOTE - the original distributor is only a year old....

Thanks !

[fiberglasscivic]

I would start looking into other problems. It's very unlikely that you would have two bad ignitors or that both dizzys were bad enough to keep you from getting spark. Just because the newer one is remaned doesn't mean it isn't trustworthy. I would check you're wiring to the Dizzy and make sure everything is good there first.

[Alexxn 00 Si]

Originally Posted by fiberglasscivic

I would start looking into other problems. It's very unlikely that you would have two bad ignitors or that both dizzys were bad enough to keep you from getting spark. Just because the newer one is remaned doesn't mean it isn't trustworthy. I would check you're wiring to the Dizzy and make sure everything is good there first.

I am skeptical about the igniter myself but all of the tests I have been following in the Haynes manual are all pointing to the igniter at this point...I do have power going into the distributor and coil so I'm not sure what else can be wrong in the wiring....

[Alexxn 00 Si]

So what a surprise it wasn't the igniter....I'm totally in the dark now...everything else looks good, someone mentioned a Main Relay somewhere on another board.......

[GEESERTEG]

Have you checked all the voltages going in and out of the dizzy. What I mean is that you need to verify that your position sensors on the crank and cam are feeding back to the dizzy. If not it will not get the "thumbs up" from the ecu to function. I recommend you buying a Haynes type sevice manual. It should go more into detail of the whole operation. You can also try hitting my website up too. Good luck... I know how these problems can be.