My wife was driving home, stopped at a traffic light. When she started going through the intersection the car died. Tried restarting but would not start. Acts likes it wants to start and turns over , but won’t. Replaced the distributor cap and rotor, but still not starting! Battery is good. Anyone know what else I should check for? Need my car running!!

 

Does it sound normal when cranking? If it spins fast without the sound of compression in the cylinders, then maybe a timing belt failure.

Otherwise, it's lack of fuel vs. lack of spark.

Spray some throttle-body cleaner (brake cleaner) into the throttle body & immediately try to start. If it starts and runs for 1 or 2 seconds, then you know the spark is good and you need to figure out a fuel problem. If it doesn't run, then you need to figure out a spark problem.

You started with the distributor cap presumably you thought it was a problem with the spark. Why did you start there?

 

Thanks Jim, tried the brake cleaner, but car would still not start. Checked all fuses & relays, even replaced the fuel pump relay under the dashboard. Ran electrical test and had electrical current up to the distributor plug,but not the other side. Took the distributor off and noticed that one of the pins had a crack and piece missing, so I replaced the rotor & distributor cap. Still won’t start, think I might have misplaced the plug wires on the distributor cap and did not TDC the rotor since I had to turn the motor over to get to the rotor screw.
Anyway to find a diagram of the order/position of the wires,and the correct way to do the TDC?
Thank you for the help. Mark

 

Is this a 4-cylinder or a V6 accord? If you have a 4-cylinder, google CD7_CD9.pdf. That will give you the 94 shop manual which is almost identical to your 97. There are some slight differences between your obd2 accord and the obd1 94/95 accord, but they are very minor.

Here are the 4-cylinder instructions.

Checking the firing order is the quickest check. The engine rotates in the direction your tires rotate when driving the car. Looking at the engine from the driver's side of the car, the engine rotates counter-clockwise. From the passenger side of the car, the engine rotates clockwise.

Follow the #1 spark plug wire to the distributor. The #1 cylinder is the driver's side cylinder (farthest left looking from sitting in the driver's seat). When looking at the distributor from the passenger side of the vehicle, start at #1, and going clockwise, the next wire would be #3, then #4, then #2. The overall firing order is 1-3-4-2 on your engine.

As for getting the car to TDC, there are 2 routes to ensure you are at TDC. Disconnect the battery.
Route 1. Pull the cylinder head cover and use the cam timing marks to align the engine to TDC.
Route 2. Pull the #1 spark plug wire and put on a compression tester. When the pressure starts to rise on #1 you are starting the compression stroke. You can use timing mark pointer on the timing belt cover with the marks on the crank pulley to get the car to TDC. You can also remove the tester, then use a long screwdriver or dowel and stop hand cranking when the dowel/screwdriver begins to lower.

Here are some videos on route 2 with some variations.

Watch starting around minute 8.



This is using a vacuum gauge.

 

Thank you PAhonda, I will give it a shot and see what happens. Mark

 

If the distributor cap is OEM, there's usually a letter or something at one of the 4 wire sockets. That's cylinder #1 which is at the drive-belt end of the engine. Then the firing order is 1-3-4-2. Not sure if aftermarket brand distributor caps are marked like that. Got a photo of your cap?

 

Jim- thanks, my distributor cap has the letter A stamped on it where one of the plug boot goes. So, that will be #1. Thank you for the information.