Will the new distributor be OEM? If so, from whom are you buying it? Is it
used or new? If used, how many miles?

Two years ago my 91 Civic LX's coil died, but complicating this in the
preceding months had been a stripped rotor set screw. The rotor kept coming
off, leaving me stranded. Stupid dealer didn't figure it out. Per someone's
advice here, I drilled a hole through the distributor shaft and rotor and
used a cotter pin to affix the new rotor. Seemed to work great. Then the
coil problems began, though at the time, neither the independent shop nor I
knew the coil was bad. It insisted the problem was my cotter-pin revision to
the rotor-shaft assembly. So they sell me a new distributor, with a new
shaft, etc., and the newest rotor now affixed again with a new set screw. A
week later the car dies again (though I was seeing problems as soon as I
drove it out the shop's door). Now they say the coil died. So I had them
replace the coil. They also convinced me to replace the ignitor, too, since
they claimed a failing coil can adversely affect the ignitor. Having had
previous bad experience with the ignitor, and not feeling very good aboutthe
shop at this point, I bought the ignitor but decided to install it myself.

After all this, I felt ripped off, because it seemed I didn't need a new
distributor housing. However, after reading here over the years, I know that
the distributor housing does age; the bearing starts to fail; the threads on
the shaft for the rotor set screw do fail. A new distributor housing was
probably a good idea about that time, anyway.

If you can get an OEM distributor housing and new coil all for $180, I'd go
this way.

You should check ebay for its listings on OEM distributor housings. There
are some for 94 Civics there now, but you'll want to examine the ad closely.
E.g. is the distributor OEM? Brand new? (I'd welcome the input of anyone who
has bought a Honda distributor via Ebay.)

I would not buy non-OEM distributor parts.

The distributor (and its subcomponents: rotor set screw; ignitor; coil;
bearing) are the Achilles Heel of circa early 1990s Hondas. Fortunately, if
you know what to look for, you can deal with the distributor problems as
they crop up. My 91 Civic has had no problems for 2.5 years now, though I
watch it like a hawk.

"hutchtoo" <hutchtoo@gmail.com> wrote
> Still working on the non-starting problem with my 1994 Honda Civic EX.
Would
> appreciate opinions as to whether I should replace the coil or the whole
> distributor....
>
> The resistance between terminals makes it look like I have a bad coil:
>
> (1) Check that the primary winding resistance between terminals A and B is
> 0.6-0.8 ohms.
> RESULT: Mine floats between .001 and .400 ohms depending on where I put
the
> leads. This is way BELOW the spec.
>
> (2) Check that the secondary winding resistance between terminals A and
the
> coil tower is 12,800-19,200 ohms.
> RESULT: Mine floats around 15K-16K. This looks OK.
>
> COMPLICATIONS: the screws on the terminals and distributor rotor are badly
> corroded. I got metal shavings all over the place extracting the screws.
> Also subjected the distributor to some physical abuse getting the rotor
> screw out.
>
> ---> Should I just replace the coil ($85), or play it safe and pay up for
a
> new distributor ($180)?
>
> Would appreciate any thoughts based on past experience... tx.
>
>