Hi folks, I have run into a bit of trouble with my ignition system. Its a 98 Civic EX
The story goes like this:
In cold weather I was driving the car with no apparant issues. I parked the car in my driveway for the night and the next morning it wouldn't start.
I have gas in the car and can hear the fuel pump prime.
I had been reading some things online and was checking for voltage on the green/yellow wire going into the coil and showed 12.37V so my next stop was to ohm out the coil.
Well I haven't done that yet because I slipped and shorted across the other wire feeding the coil with my meter lead.
Now since my blunder I have no voltage at the coil and I don't have a fuse pannel layout anymore.
Is there any chance I didn't kill my ECM?
Thanks in advance!

 

ECU should still be OK. Would have just blown the fuse. I think it is one of the ones under the dash. Turn the key on and probe the test points on the top of each fuse measuring voltage to ground. One that is blown will have voltage on one side but not the other.

Check that the distributor shaft rotates when you crank. Striped timing belt means no sparks.

When you get the coil powered up again try to draw sparks from the output post to a grounded test wire. This is a better test than the ohm test. The ohm test has a lot of false negatives, it will say the coil is OK when it is not. Weak orange sparks in the direct spark test mean the coil is bad. Don't ever let the coil fire into an open circuit e.g. cap off and no grounded wire, or plug wire disconnected.

 

Ok, Thank you I will check for power across the fuses.
Yes the distributor does rotate. I had to bump it over to get the bolt out of the rotor button. I had checked for spark at the plug wire before I started taking anything apart (well I cranked it and had a friend look so I hope he was accurate about no spark).
I will check at the spark from the main output once I get a break in the rain.

 

i had something like this very similar happen to me. put on a skunk2 im. drove it around. pulled into the shop, killed the motor to look for leaks or anything. tried to start it, nothing! i tried starting it, within minutes after shutting it off. told the guy at kragen what was goin on. he said coil, took his word for it. put it in. with a dead batter car fired right up. maybe same with you. (my car is a 98 ex)