They vanished even before that.

My '75 Corolla had a hybridized electronic ignition that used the points to
signal the electronic module when to perform the break function. The points
lasted far longer than in a Kettering system (25K miles, as I recall), as
they were never exposed to high tension curent.

It does have one, strangely enough. It's a radio noise suppressor and is
placed in the line from the ignition switch to the coil. Personally, I
can't see how it would affect spark.

He said side play of the central shaft suggested the need
for a new distributor (housing, at least, IMO). He added
that this also had the advantage of getting the guy a new
condenser.

Sounds like good counsel to me.

From what I've seen on my 91 Civic and on other cars
discussed here, it's pretty usual for an older Honda to
require at least one new, replacement distributor housing in
its life. My Civic at 177k miles is on its second.

dude, why are you so tweaked?  i said the reason to replace the housing
was because of a shaft bearing if it had excessive play.  replacing just
the bearing is possible, but the reluctor timing has to be recalibrated,
and i doubt anyone here has the equipment to do that laying about in
their garage, hence replacement is best policy.

and that replacement has an additional benefit because it also means the
condenser gets replaced at the same time, and condensers start to fail
with age.  sheesh.  maybe you should take a moment to read what i said
before jumping off the deep end.

agreed, but if you get a new distributor, all this is taken care of.

on the tec - td01u, the type on this vintage of civic, it's a huge pita.
 you have to strip the whole thing down because the condenser comes
with half of the internal wiring for the distributor so the whole lot
needs to come out.  i'll post pics on how to do it if you want.

The threads of that little screw (and/or the threads in the
rotor shaft) have a reputation for stripping. I would not
apply anti-seize. If anything, I'd apply Lock-Tite.

When the threads are fully stripped, either (1) a new
distributor housing is required; or (2) drilling through
rotor and shaft so as to use a cotter pin to attach them are
the remaining options.

This is one of several reasons why I think Honda tend to
require a second distributor housing sometime after about
130k miles/ten years.

See discussions of Honda coils and igniters at:
http://tegger.com/hondafaq/faq.html#startrun

don't put anti-seize on the threads of the retaining screw!  oem factory
uses low strength thread lock.

no symptoms from the igniter in my experience.  one moment, everything's
working fine.  next, she's dead and you're holding up the traffic.  i've
had that a couple of times on the 88-91's.  embarrassing and expensive
to get towed home.  i used to carry a spare igniter.  now, since i was
able to pick up a spare from a junkyard for a great price, i just carry
a whole distributor in the trunk.  i fitted it and marked the position
so if i need to use it, it will be timed correctly.

i don't know for sure, but i suspect that my igniter failures were
related to an ignition condenser problem.  since your distributor
doesn't have one of these things, i don't think it relevant for you, but
mention it for general interest.  my condenser was failing, and spark
was very weak.  i noticed this because at the time of one of my
failures, i had to "borrow" the distributor from my crx, which had been
refurbished with the newer style "condenserless" wiring.  performance of
the vehicle with the crx's distributor was great.  since both coil and
igniter of my old distributor had been renewed by this time, and
performance sucked, i guessed condenser replacement was in order.  when
this was done, suddenly, the old distributor had the car performing like
a champ again!  prior to that time, i'd had to replace igniters every 10
months or so.

Excellent idea if the screw has a Philips head.

Weak spark. Don't change them.

What I would STRONGLY recommend is that you NEVER AGAIN attempt to crank
the engine with the distributor cap removed, or the wires unplugged. THAT'S
what kills the coil.

To confirm: The screw is supposed to come totally free.
Drill and Easy-Out (= screw extractor) it. Easy-Outs are not
always successful, though. You might want to just drill a
hole through rotor and shaft, buy a new rotor, and cotter
pin the rotor into position. Worked on my 91 Civic until I
ended up buying a new housing several months later. A person
here suggested the cotter pin fix to me, having had success
with it on his Honda.

<cmozoo@verizon.net> wrote re a 1990 Civic DX