Loaned my 1990 Honda to my son and it wasn't a matter of an hour or so
and I received a phone call announcing it had died. Frustrating
considering it had run fine for 240,000 miles until he took it. Oh
well.... Towed it home and checked for spark and found none as expected
based on his description of how it died. Got out the Haynes manual and
did the diagnostic checks in Chapter 5.8. After disconnecting the wires
to the ignitor, I turned on the ignition switch and measured voltage at
the black/yellow and white/blue wires. Haynes said their should be
battery voltage at both wires. The black/yellow wire was OK, but the
white/blue wire had none. I was then instructed to "check the circuit
between the corresponding wire ad the igition coil." It became
confusing at that point because it appears the wire does not directly
go to the coil. Reading this discussion thread, I am lead to believe
the problem is the ignitor or coil. The ignitor makes sense considering
the recall Honda had on the part. I don't want to spend the money if I
can't troubleshoot the problem properly. The Haynes manual is sketchy.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
TeGGeR® - 14 Feb 2006 01:33 GMT
<snip>
> The ignitor makes sense considering
> the recall Honda had on the part. I don't want to spend the money if I
> can't troubleshoot the problem properly. The Haynes manual is sketchy.
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This PDF may help. It's out of the factory manual.
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/igniter-operation/igniter-on-car-test.pdf
This page has even more tests you can perform on the igniter:
http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/igniter-operation/off-car-testing.html
Can you describe what your son told you as to just how the failure occured?

Signature
TeGGeR®
The Unofficial Honda/Acura FAQ
www.tegger.com/hondafaq/
mac@bbc.net - 15 Feb 2006 00:33 GMT
My son said it just quit as though he shut off the key. No hesitation
or sputter, it just quit. I figured out my confusion on the wiring with
the link you provided. Am replacing the ignitor.
thanks