88-91 civic distributor update

interesting data point for the td-01u distributor:

after my igniter failures, i decided to replace the condenser. fiddly
job to do, but an interesting result.

before, the car worked fine with the new exciter back in the old
distibutor. it started ok, ran ok, no real problems, but while i was
waiting for the new ignitor to show up, i was borrowing the [same model]
distributor from my 91 crx & using it on my 89 civic. there was a
significant difference in performance between the two distributors, even
though both were timed correctly. the difference is that the crx has
/no/ condenser!

so, i replaced the condenser on the 89, & suddenly, it now performs just
like it did with the crx distributor! more power, quicker starting,
quicker response, much better gas mileage. i had not anticpated that
result. usually when a condenser fails, the party's over, but i guess
in this case, it was failing gradually & starting to leak a little too
much current for performance to be optimum. could explain the premature
igniter failure too.

some day, i'll get around to replacing the oil seal. anyone know the
number for the central bearing? may as well replace that as well while
i'm in there.

 

Interesting events.
I guess I beter check the capacitor
in my 91 Civic and a friends 90 civic.

So the CRX operates without a capacitor/condenser
at all?

I think the cap is only there for RFI suprresion, without the AM
BCB would be difficult to listen to. Heavy wide igniton noise
pulses.

Terry

 

I knew somethin didn't sound right with your
situation. I'm glad u figured it out!

t

 

unless it's located some place else, yes.

doesn't seem to be the case here. my radio was completely unaffected by
using the condenserless distributor.

 

thanks!

 

I will have to pull the cap from mine and see what happens.

Terry