89 accord - no spark

[timber_cruiser]

I am having problems with my 1989 Honda Accord. It just started dying intermittently, now will not start or run at all. I checked the fuel, and it seems to be getting fuel just fine. I have a timing light and checked all plugs, no light. I do not see any loose or broken wires. The distributor cap, rotor and plug wires look good. I replaced all of them about a year ago.

Where do you start to check out a loss of spark?

[Oldblueaccord]

See if the coil wire is sparking with your light. try chasing it back from the plugs step by step. If the coil is not test the signal going to it. or ground it a second your self to set it off. If the coil sparks it something with the distributor. Did you save the old tune up parts? I do and put them in the boxes and lable them "good known part" JIC the new ones go bad or I have a problem later on.

One side of the Main Relay does work off the igntion side it could be bad as well. You can jump the terminals on the relay to test this also.


wp

[2oodoor]

take the oil cap off and look inside there when somebody spins the motor over, you should see movement of parts, if not then your cam belt is defunked and thus is not spinning the distributor to initiate sparkage.

I would check the coil next.

Still a few other things it could be if all that checks out.

[timber_cruiser]

Thanks for the tips on what to check. I ended up changing out the cap and rotor, and now it seems to work fine.

I have never had a bad cap and rotor before. The old one was not too old and did not seem worn or cracked.