I recently broke down when the rotor inside of a no-name Chinese distributor failed and just started wobbling around in the cap, so I replaced the distributor with an OEM used one, and the delight I felt after the car started again is hard to put in words, but now I’m in a position where I need to get the ignition timing redone and the jumper wire (That you need to sort by the blower motor) doesn’t do anything when shorted, I tried 3 difference wires including the classic paper-clip and the CEL doesn’t stay lit. I do not own a timing light and I’m too poor to get one right now (unemployed living with the folks)
After replacing the distributor the car feels down on power and I only drove it a few miles to test it since and the CEL did come on during that 3-4 mile trip to the store, but did not come back on, when I was driving home. I left the distributor aligned somewhere in the middle once I installed it.
Tried rotating the distributor but it doesn’t seem to change the idle much at all, and again I can’t seem to get the CEL to stay lit after I short the jumper, what’s the best practice to get an acceptable running condition that will not damage the engine and allows me to drive 20 miles away to hopefully borrowing a timing like from an auto parts store (will call for that tomorrow).
I’ve only been wrenching on cars for a couple years and my experience is mostly theoretical so any advice would be appreciated! I’ve been browsing this forum a lot in the past year and finally decided it would be right to my fellow Integra owners on the forum!
If you don’t have a timing light then jumping the connector is pointless. That’s step one in a two step process and without the critical second step the first is just time spent doing nothing.
[QUOTE=Colin;2335039]If you don’t have a timing light then jumping the connector is pointless. That’s step one in a two step process and without the critical second step the first is just time spent doing nothing.
Are you sure you’re jumping the right two wires?[/QUOTE]
Well honestly, I just wanted to go mostly retarded, then advance it slowly until it feels about right (or it stops triggering the CEL). Yeah I’m convinced It’s the right connector, I looked up several videos and confirmed It’s the right one.
I still want to get it timed right, I just need to get to a safe setting.
I was also told to just leave it in the middle and get it timed ASAP by a buddy, but in that setting it feels severely down on power and triggered the CEL, I’ll take it for another spin around the neighborhood and see if I can get the CEL to come back, and see what the code is.
I just came back from about a mile long cruise around my neighborhood, no CEL yet but every once in a while the motor feels like it shudders, speed was mostly below 30mph.
I was advised not to, but I don’t see any other option worth trying, should I just cut the connector and physically connect the wires together?
My point was that unless you have a timing gun jumping the connector does not help you at all. You can adjust the distributor timing without jumping the connector - but you can’t accurately read what the timing is with the timing light unless that service connector is jumped. So you’re wasting your time with that thing unless you have a timing light.
But, it’s definitely worth trying to figure out if there is something wrong with that connector as it will be needed when you can get a timing light. Don’t cut the wires. If the wires are connected to the connector and you can make the connection with your jumper then I’d start looking elsewhere. Did someone else disconnect that connector? Is this car modified? What ECU is in it? Does it by any chance happen to be an OBD0 car that was converted to OBD1?
[QUOTE=Colin;2335052]My point was that unless you have a timing gun jumping the connector does not help you at all. You can adjust the distributor timing without jumping the connector - but you can’t accurately read what the timing is with the timing light unless that service connector is jumped. So you’re wasting your time with that thing unless you have a timing light.
But, it’s definitely worth trying to figure out if there is something wrong with that connector as it will be needed when you can get a timing light. Don’t cut the wires. If the wires are connected to the connector and you can make the connection with your jumper then I’d start looking elsewhere. Did someone else disconnect that connector? Is this car modified? What ECU is in it? Does it by any chance happen to be an OBD0 car that was converted to OBD1?[/QUOTE]
Thank you for your continued replies, I greatly appreciate it. And good call on the fact the timing can be changed without the wires shorted ( I was led to believe by Eric The Car Guy on youtube that the ECU would fight your timing changes)
It’s a meticulously maintained, garage kept, rust free, 90 Integra LS Hatch, Auto Trans, 172k miles, Stock B18A1 and OBD-0 as far as I know, the connector was still in the original yellow tape that was holding the wires by the blower motor in that corner of the passenger foot-well (it wasn’t connected to anything just tapped to the bundle of wires), so I assume it hasn’t been changed, pulling the carpet back I can see the little window for the red light that would read back the code if a CEL is on, and I have successfully read flashing codes before for an EGR failure.
Other than Fujita Intake, and Masterflow exhaust there are not other changes to the vehicle motor/ECU.
Right now after several spins around the block I could not get the CEL to cut back on, so my guess the distributor is set in a “safe retarded zone”, I’m just concerned about the occasional shuddering I haven’t felt before.
Well… Back to square one, she started overheating and I discovered it was due to a cracked hose and weak clamp on one of the coolant hoses from my FITV that I removed for cleaning, coolant was spraying out slowly on my way to O’Reilly’s (to pick up a timing light) so I pulled in to a CVS real quick before it got critical, put back about half a jug of Peak 50/50, let it sit for 20 minutes and then… She didn’t start, I suspected the distributor right away, (I did buy it used for $45 afterall) it was scorching hot to the touch, and a couple hours later after getting towed home, it was still hot to the touch! Anybody hear or experience this before? (the battery is now disconnected)
Could the overheat have fried the igniter or coil pack? It really wasn’t hot for too long, once the gauge started climbing I pulled over.
Could this have been caused by timing being off? The drive up until the overheat was pretty good, but I obviously didn’t push her too hard.
Finally, just FYI I am using a distributor off a manual DA, I was told they’re identical other than a notch on the cap.
I’m still open to any ideas about the timing jumper. Since my last post I also replaced the Ignition Control Module in the distributor with a fresh layer of thermal compound, the old girl now idles when it’s hot out. I got a friend coming over that’s really good with Nissan 240’s tomorrow and hes bringing a timing gun.
Any ideas on why shorting this connector doesn’t keep the CEL on is appreciated (I tried a bunch conductors and the CEL still goes off with the clicking sound 5 seconds after turning the key to “ON”)
What were the results of your timing gun tests? My car kept getting CELs intermittently until I finally figured out it was the distributor that was triggering the issue. A couple of months earlier my original distributor had gone bad leaving me stranded on the freeway (bad crank position sensor). Went to O’Reillys and replaced it with a rebuilt cardone unit. Soon after that I kept getting random CELs. So I was able to get an OEM distrubutor from a junkyard, replaced the rebuilt one from O’Reilly, and just like that the CELs were gone. I really do believe now that there is a difference between the OEM distributors designated for AT’s than those for Manuals (or else honda would have made just one distributor for both). All I know is that my original was a TD-24U, and the replacement TD-24U I got from the junkyard has been trouble free since putting it in. There is also the TD-23U (also OEM), but honestly I have not read enough information out there that would lead me to believe that they are one and the same distributor that many people claim them to be. As far as the rebuilt unit I got from O’Reilly, my theory is that I was given a unit meant for the manual, not AT, cos when I returned it back and got another replacement, the newer diz unit looked different as far as wiring goes. I haven’t tested out that replacement yet as I am just keeping it as a backup to the OEM unit that’s now installed in the car. Long story short, OEM is the way to go when it comes to honda distributors. And not only that, but make sure to get the correct model that came with the car originally.
Sorry for late reply, I’ve since actually started working for O’reilly auto parts, I adjusted the distributor around for a while until I got it “good” and the old girl drives fine every day!
From my experience it’s just better to keep your original distributor and replace the guts, my DA is an auto and I supposedly have a manual distributor but I replaced the coil, igniter, cap/rotor with what’s recommended for the auto and she runs fine, could never get the service jumper to put the car in diag mode so I could get the ignition timed, and never bothered with cutting the connector but with some patience and a bunch of 93oct fill ups I got her running fine.
