I have a '91 honda civic DX. The car started one morning and died, would not restart. I pulled the spark plugs and am not getting spark. The distributor cap and rotor have been changed and still no spark. I would appreciate some advice on what to check next.

 

Check that the cam (and thus the distributor) rotates when you crank. One way to do that is to take the oil cap off and watch the rocker arms. If they don't move, the timing belt is bad.

Check that power to the ignition circuit is staying on. If you pull the hand brake up the BRAKE light on the dash should stay on all the time you're trying to start. Also if you turn the key on but don't start the check engine light should come on for 2 seconds and go out.

 

Does the fuel pump also fail to prime? Any CEL codes blinking from the LED on the ECU? If not, have the igniter uniter and coil inside the distributor tested.

 

another way to test the rotation of the cams without taking the valve cover off is take the distributor cap off and have someone crank the engine. the rotor SHOULD Spin and if not the small screw that holds the rotor came loose and fell out "unlikely but possible and has happened to me" or the timing belt snapped. to test if the screw fell out of the rotor take the cap off and try to spin it. if it spins freely the screw fell out. if it dont spin the screws good. lol ive had the screw fall out while i was driving and that was a big load of bull**** lol

 

It was the ICM. All is well now. Thanks y'all.

 

Just to clarify for readers of this thread, the ICM (ignition control module) is the same as the igniter unit. The ICM/igniter unit is located inside the distributor.