another quick question:

if you found oil in the distributor, and later on the bearing failed, could you estimate the time or mileage between these two events? thanks.

also, i took a look at a pic about the TDC/CRANK/CYP sensor that shows a section through the distributor and it seems that there is a seal in the distributor wall through which the distributor shaft passes, and the bearing is in the wall towards the viewer, hence has no "bearing" on the oil sealing... problem is that I cannot post the pic, but it should be in the helms manual;

jafro, or anyone else, could you confirm or infirm this? thanks again.

neko

 

It wouldn't surprise me if it only has an oil seal, but I think it still has a bearing. If just my oil seal went, the distributor wouldn't go crunch snap crackle pop as you rotate it. If it's just an oil seal, there's nothing to prevent lateral thrust on the distributor's shaft, or to prevent engine vibrations from tearing up the points. Seems to me like there should be at least one bearing surface on it, otherwise the shaft that's inserted into the head wouldn't have oil holes in it. The "bearing" is probably just a smooth surface that has a specific clearance for oil (like a cam bearing in the head), and not actually like a roller bearing or anything. I couldn't get mine apart to be able to tell you for sure. The oil seal may be the bearing, but when my distributor seized, there was no oil in the cap. I assumed the oil seal was still good.

What page is it on in the HELMS manual? I have a PDF, but the table of contents are illegible.

As far as how long it would take... It all depends on how much oil there is, how hot the distributor gets, and how much friction is involved after it's hot.

Mine went fast. I ran it at 3000 RPMs for 9 hours non-stop driving home from Atlanta the day before, and it heated up pretty bad. It started to go 60 miles from home after stopping to get gas. The ECU threw a bunch of codes with a CEL that I diagnosed as a distributor while driving (thanks to my girlfriend cramming a paper clip in the ECU connector) and it got us home. It didn't make any noises until the next morning when I started it. I took it straight to the shop and it seized when I got there and shut the engine off. It welded itself to the shaft when I shut it off and it cooled.

If you just drive the car to and from work or school, it would probably not fail anywhere close to as fast as mine did. I'd say that long highway trips are a bad idea until you get it fixed because it will get hotter that it will on short trips, and more likely to leave you stranded in a bad situation.

 

it is page 11-62 in the pdf for the 92-95 civics (in pgm-fi section).

there is an oil seal and a roller bearing (this is my reading of the picture), but in two different parts so, unless the oil getting in messes up the bearing i hope my problem with leaking oil should not affect the bearing; i might be wrong here since the oil may be hot, etc, but if there is so much of it, the sensors should go down before the bearing!

the seal is the smooth surface that serves as a first guide for the shaft (to the right of the picture), exactly as you are saying, the second one being the bearing itself (at the left); i find your explanation for the oil clearance, lubrication, etc. perfectly reasonable and true!!!

or, maybe there are two roller bearings, but they are represented differently in the picture...

however, i didn't find anything related to the distributor in the manual (besides the TDC/CRANK/CYL sensor); is there anything about it? any other info on the web? i do have a haines though

as for me, i use the car for now to commute to/from work (20 miles one way) -- it's still cold here -- brrrr

thanks a lot. looks like it's time to get a new distributor housing
neko