A friend had his 1989 Honda Civic towed over to my house the other night after it died on him on the road. I knew tht his electrical system had been gone over fairly recently, so I figured it was something in the fuel system. Fuel pump tested out ok, fuel filter was original, and since it should be changed every 30k miles, I changed it out. Traced the fuel system all the way to the injector, and we had fuel.
When I first popped the hood I'd pulled one of the spark plugs to check for spark. Now, while watching the plug I saw spark, which is why I hadn't bothered diving in to the electrical system. But, once the fuel system checked out, I figured it was time to check the interior of the distributor.
With the cap off, the problem was evident immediately, I could spin the rotor freely. The small screw that holds the rotor on to the spindle had shook free causing the rotor to not spin correctly. A little locktite, some fiddling and reassembly later the car runs!
This is a reminder to all, always look at the simple problems first!
Jody
