So it was 3 AM

And of course I was on the total opposite end of town from where I live.

I was just finished working.
Made a left turn.
BOOM!
Well not boom.... more like ...bla! or flub-ub-ub-ub sssshhhhhh

Truck just died.
No warning, no noise, no nothing.

It would crank just fine. Wouldn't fire.
Sat and waited, in case it was flooded for some reason....nada
Lotsa of power.
Check all the fuses...nope

Fuel pump was clicking away.
I could even smell gas.... ( probably flooded by this time )

Called CAA
Waited my 45 min and got towed home.
Tried it a few more times while I waited.

Joking with the driver on the way home about how maybe
it just needed to be picked up and shook around by a big burly tow truck

He thought maybe it got scared of the dark

Told him how my dads old Ford Tempo used to do the same thing if you hit a big bump
The safety shutoff to the fuel system for when you got in an accident would go off, and you had to reset it

By the time I got home
It ran like nothing ever happened

Great, I'm happy it's running, but I would almost rather it wasn't
Only because I would like to know what happened

I am going to run some injector cleaner through it
Going to change fuel filters
Swap out all the fuses
Check the wires for loose connections
Drive to the same spot and turn left again
Do a rain dance
Burn a small woodland creature as a sacrifice to the fuel gods & BP oil

But other than that.....
Im at a loss
Any ideas?

Is there is a fuel cut off solenoid on all of these little trucks?
I am going to have to go through the forums
I am pretty sure I remember a decent diagram of the carb system
Hopefully I bookmarked it

If I remember right there are a couple of solenoids
One was kind of a step down for when you let your foot off the gas....i think
One was a sort of an idle solenoid

Will be doing some reading
Can't remember which one applies to which truck


small update
went to the garage
Turned the key
Fired right up
then died
think I will check the fuel pump first

 

I was thinking something with spark?!?!? Dont know about any cut off solenoid, but if you could smell gas while cranking, that would lead me to believe your fuel system was operating ok.

 

Yup I am thinking the same thing
Changed all the fuses ( just to be safe )
Fuel pump is pumping ( gas stings the eyeballs )
Fuel seems to be getting to the carb
Gas squirting from the bowl into the butterfly

So yea does not seem to be a fuel problem

So I don't think the fuel cut off solenoid is the issue either

Next I will tackle the spark
I think thats where the problem lies

What irks me is that when I brought it home this at 5 AM
it fired right up like nothing ever happened

I tested that by turning it off and starting it again & again
10 times I did it
It started right up and ran fine
And it started again when I tried later
It ran for about 30 seconds
then that was all

So that would mean it had spark then lost it??

not quite sure if that makes sense but ....

 

Water in dist cap? Bad wires shorting somewhere? (check at night for sparking along the outside of the plug wires) or loose/bad/dirty connections under a dust cap? Keep looking:sly: you will find it, we are pulling for ya!

 

did you try this yet..it should solve the problem



sounds like a coil going bad

 

yup im thinking the same thing
waitin on a bud who is MUCH more of a mechanic than I

The only POP
was that last synapse in my frontal lobe !

When I said it went boom
there was not an ACTUAL boom

more like ....... boom there it is boom there it is

it were a metaphoric boom

 

Quick update
NO spark
Have power TO the coil
No power out of the coil

hhhmmm
Gonna go with
Dead coil
Will be heading to the wrecker in the morning to try and match one up
Then test
Hope thats it

 

The good the bad ....

So the good news is that a coil from a 90 honda prelude is a perfect match right down to the model number etched in it.
Just bolt on and plug in.

The bad news is ....
It did nothing
Still no spark

Now I am completely lost

Any ideas??

I must be missing something

Is there an ignition control module somewhere?
Does anyone know what each of the fuses are for ( i don't read japanese yet )
Anyone know if there is a neutral safety switch or something like that ?

I was still thinking about a fuse problem
But it would be helpful to know what the fuses are for if anyone can help

I changed them all again today
When changing them, I noticed that one of them
in the center row
2nd or 3rd from the bottom
its a 10 amp

has clips for the fuse to plug into on one side but not the other
all the other fuses have the clips on both sides
it seems strange to me that there would be one with only clips on one side

there are a couple of spaces where there are no fuses
and they have no clips at all

I remember when I first got the truck and I blew a few fuses
I remember that one of them seemed to cause this same problem
at least in the way that it would not start

i replaced all the fuses
and I do not know which one did the trick

So I am thinking that a fuse may be an issue??

 

have you checked the main fusible link ?

 

If you can, check the back side of the fusebox for a connection that may have pulled/pushed out of the 10a fuse location with terminal only on one end.

It may be just a "spare fuse" holder, though.

If electronic ignition, you may have a bad distributor pick-up, or bad igniter.

If points, maybe burned points or bad condenser.

Keep us posted on your progress.

 

Thanks, yea I was already checking that
but
small space, and I am built kinda like Fred Flinstone
Big head, no neck, bigger shoulders

So I can only spend so much time cramped in there

I did get the panel unhooked from the wall but have been able to turn it around yet to see the back
It's pretty tightly packed

will try again in the daytime

 

yea i knida thot that too

But there are already spare fuse holders on the top of the box
Then there are spots in the box that have a spot for a fuse with NO connectors

then this one
with one connector instead of two
just seems weird

and I am hoping SOMEONE with an early 90's acty might know

because I am pulling my hair out trying to isolate this problem

 

OK
put in UNUTHER coil
tested in - out - up - the yang

I know that I have power TO the coil
I know I have power FROM the coil

Did the following test

------------------------------------Ignition Coil Test
Disconnect the ignition coil output wire at the distributor cap.
Connect a spark plug to the end of the ignition coil output wire which you just disconnected.
Connect a ground wire to the threaded portion of the spark plug.
Disconnect the ignition coil ground wire from the negative terminal on the coil (Green Wire).
Connect one end of a ground wire to the ignition coil negative terminal.
Turn the ignition switch to the ON position.
Tap the other end of the ignition coil ground wire jumper on an good grounding point (for example the battery negative terminal) and look for sparks at the spark plug that correspond to the frequency of your tapping of the ground wire.
If you have a good spark at the spark plug, the ignition coil is good.

_____________________________________________________________---

Tested out good
Saw spark !!!!

.´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.ooooo uuuuuuu light up my liiiiiiiffffffeeeee´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.

But thats where it ended
Nothing actually at the plugs

So the next culprit is the distributor and or connected parts
or as the KIDZ on the honda sites around call it --- the dizzy

( took me 30 freakin minutes to figure out what the hell they were talking about ) jeez

So now I have to figure out this dizzy thing

I'm not sure how to tell if I have points or electronic ignition
But Im workin on it

 

So this is the dizzy

Actually its me that's a little on the dizzy side

I have indicated where I have 12v power with the key on
That appears to be the incoming
( sorry that's the end of my techno jargon )

the other two appear to be outgoing - to the thing INSIDE the dizzy
They have NO power when the key is on
I don't know if they should
but everything I have read so far indicate that there should be power there

If anyone can help to decipher this for me .....

In the mean time, I am running to the boneyard to see if they look similar on those preludes I took the coils from

 

So got back from the boneyard

found a 88 prelude and I think the same year of civic
Both had almost the same distributor
which was very similar to mine but definitely different
The igniter looked almost the same on both
Both had the same wire color pattern as my acty

So I grabbed them both
they look the same as mine, but the numbers are different

I didn't want to take out my distributor, but I had no choice
It was just too tight to get at

I have been spending the last couple of hours trying to find some kind of info online that would indicate whether or not the ones I grabbed are going to be any different than the one I had
So far I have come up with nothing

So all I can do is try it and cross my fingers

guess it can't get any worse
Hopefully get to it after work tomorrow

 

odd almost every civic I ever owned had ignitor problems at some point..seems your truck is no different..here is a page from 1st gen civic repair on the ignitor and dist.

 

3...2...1... HOUSTON we have IGNITION !!!!

Freakin AAAA batman !!!

Problem solved!
Truck back up and running!!

It was the igniter !

Used the one I grabbed in the boneyard from the 89 Honda prelude.
Was a little worried that they would not be the same.
Could not find any info on them.

I thought they may be differently programmed because the prelude is a 4 cyl and mine is a 3 cyl

It seems that the igniter is just the igniter.

Hope this helps someone else one day.

Thanks to everyone for all your help and suggestions.

 

Had it running one day!
Drove out to my brothers place.
Came back in the POURING rain.

truck was ok till I was almost home..
Then it was a bag o poop

Hardly made it home.
Couldn't get it to start again.

Luckily it was just a water logged distributor.

Fixed with my shop hair dryer.

PITA !!

Filled everything with dielectric grease.
Sprayed everything with a silicone lube.

Boom Done NEXT

 

re-openning this ol' thread! I've been having these same problems with my 1990 Acty Street! No spark, and for a time it was a bit intermittent. I've replaced the distributor cap, rotor, spark plug leads, and now my ignition coil with no luck. blakkmoon (or anyone), do you remember how you got into the dash to replace the ignitor? I have the danko manual, and it shows me sort of where it is, but without taking the whole dash off I can't really confirm. Also, if anyone happens to know what the terminals are on the ignition coil, that'd be great too so I can confirm if my new one or old one is actually bad.

 

Chris, The Igniter unit will be inside the distributor on the engine, not under the dash. Pull the distributor cap & rotor and the ignitor should be right there.

Also a bit of info that may possibly do you some good - in the first picture in the thread, this appears to be the same type reluctor setup that was used in the early generations of the Chrysler electronic ignitions so there may be a possibility to use the ignitor from a chrysler product somewhere in the timeframe of 1975 models. Just some food for thought.

Fred

 

Thanks Fred!

Are the Ignition Control Module, Ignition Control Unit, and Ignitor all different parts? I've been a little confused on this point.

 

All the things you have listed are kind of used to reference the control units interchangeably depending on the system and the manufacturers name for the part. Some systems have only a magnetic impulse and a pickup inside the distributor, others have a reluctor wheel and a pickup/control unit inside the distributor(as in the picture earlier in this thread) and others , such as the earlier chrysler system, have a reluctor wheel and pickup inside the distributor and a separate control unit mounted on the firewall. Do some searching around and learning how your system works and then you may possibly use some other manufacturers goods on yours. The more you understand the systems and the more knowledge you obtain will never go to waste.

Fred

 

thanks, Fred!