ED Distributor issues

[EDCivic]

Dang the old girl (ED Civic) has stopped...literally. Been having this recent intermittent problem when it won't start on a few occasions but if you leave it for some hours it's all good until just a few hours ago it completely died at a set of traffic lights. The problem is that there is no spark. Thinking the coil was bad I bought a new one and changed it and must admit it ran sweet....till today. I rang our local automobile service (RAA) and he also confirmed no spark so he disconnected the old Mongoose security system and still no spark so I had the car towed home. Fortunately I happen to have a spare distributor which I installed and it still won't start. in shear desperation I put the original (oil leaking) dizzy that was built with the car and presto it started !!! Thought no way perhaps it righted itself, which it did in the past, so to confirm I put the previous dead one back in and nothing ie no spark...swapped it over back to the original and vroom (though the tacho does the odd bounce) ! So I have what I thought were good dizzies that don't leak oil but just don't work and the original which works but spews oil down the side of the cylinder head arghhhhhh ! So question is what is broken in the 2 leak free dizzies...guessing the igniter unit ? Seen Super Cheap sell them for Super Expensive price...$173 or a "new" dizzy for $239 or are these stoopid questions..

[ECU-MAN]

Sounds like the ICM is at fault.

[EDCivic]

Sounds like the ICM is at fault.

...as in ignitor control module ie go for the new dizzy ?

[dove grey 64]

The new non oem replacements die fast.
I think you can fit all the old good bits into the new housing, or just replace the seals in the old one.

[EDCivic]

OK now the original dizzy is dieing out with buggerall spark. This is all far to coincidental to have 3 dead distributors now ie one that died a couple of days ago, another "spare" that didn't produce a spark, and the original one. What is going on ??? Time to spend dollars and get it to someone who knows what they are doing.

[hanzzi]

OK now the original dizzy is dieing out with buggerall spark. This is all far to coincidental to have 3 dead distributors now ie one that died a couple of days ago, another "spare" that didn't produce a spark, and the original one. What is going on ??? Time to spend dollars and get it to someone who knows what they are doing.
I also have a similar problem. Did you find a solution?

[EDCivic]

Yes and no. It's a case of either buying a "new" after market one (approx $250) or as I did take another risk and took one from an imported wreck (looked like an ED Wagon) that had only done 100,000 k's and after 2 months all is still good. The problem I have is that though our car is in extremely good condition for being 25 years old and with 422,000 k's but you still run the risk of buying an old distributor that can die in an instant. as we experienced. I did find an ex Honda mechanic who took all 3 dizzy's and made one "good" one. Went well for 3 months and one day instantaneously died 5 k's from home. Good luck !

[Daveho1]

keep a spare coil and ICM in the glove box

[dove grey 64]

keep a spare coil and ICM in the glove box

This. I keep a whole spare dizzy in the boot