This is my first post on the forum. I hope I'll have something to offer to the group in the future. For know unfortunately, my 91 Civic DX will not start. It cranks but won't turn over. Its been kinda cold, in the high teens and low thirties.

I tried to jumpstart. Still no start. So it's not low voltage.

I checked all my spark plug/distributor connections. I did notice my #4 spark plug wire was a little loose, but it seemed OK. Besides, it still should have started if that was all.

I checked my Chilton's. It said to check the ignition coil resistance.This required lifting my distro cap. The tower lead on the ignitor coil housing looked like it had been melted or ground up! Very weird. Don't know what to make of it.

The primary resistance was 0.7 Ohm. Out of spec. I *think* I read the resistance across the secondary (terminal A and tower), but got reading of infinite (OL). Its supposed to be 15-22 kOhms. In honesty, I had trouble identifying the correct terminals. The photos in my manual are only of the pre-88 models.

So, it LOOKS like a bad ignition coil and Maybe a bad distro rotor.
I've ordered a new ignition coil already, but what do you all think?

 

Sounds to me like you have the problem nailed down pretty well. When I read the first bit of your post I automatically thought 'distributor.'

I'd swap the rotor and coil, and if things look fishy you can swap the cap too.