1993 Accord stopped dead on the road

I was driving my 1993 Accord LX when it sputtered and stopped on the
road last night. After the tow truck ride home, I took off the
dristributor cap and had someone crank it over and the rotor did turn
so at least it was not the timing belt. I can hear the main relay
clicking on and off when I turn the key and I am getting fuel. I took
the (external) coil wire off and held near ground but I was not
getting any spark when I had a buddy crank the ignition for me. Should
I change the coil or is there something else I should check first?
Does the electrical current enter the iginitor or coil first? What
electrical component whould most likely die while the engine was hot
and while I was driving (coil, ignitor or main relay)? Thanks for the
help.....

 

Nick C wrote:

The ignitor receives a low-current, low voltage signal from the ECU and
puts out a high-current signal to the coil primary. High voltage from
the coil secondary goes to the distributor contacts and out to the
individual spark plugs. Every so often people with broken ignitors on
Civics post in this NG, not sure if the Accord ignitor is the same or if
it is particularly failure prone.

 

When was the dist. rotor changed?
Had a rotor with insulation breakdown out on my 88 Accord.
Engine died, but got spark at wires, seems spark was weak with the rotor.
Mech said this is common problem, rotor should be replaced every 60K mi. I
had over 100k mi.
Worth a try.

 

There are specific resistance tests for the igniter with a multimeter.
The tests should be in a Haynes manual, or maybe somebody can post it
for your '93 Accord. You do have to take it off the distributor first,
which can make it necessary to reset your timing afterwards.

dan

 

Have a look at the Rover 216GSi PGM-FI article in the Miscellanea
section of my website below. In particular, the zipfile contains some
debug info for the igniter.

 

if it's like the civic, you can access the two small bolts that hold the
igniter without removing the distributor. just feel underneath or use a
mirror - they're there and the ingiter comes out easily once loose.

 

Check voltage to the distributor. Check resistance in the coil. If
both good more than likely it is the igniter. No specific check on
the component that I know of, process of elimination.