Hi everyone!

When at idle, a whirring or 'rubbing' sound can be heard coming from the distrubutor harness. The sound comes and goes at idle, and may get loud. When moving, I don't hear it much. When the sound is heard, the distrubutor harness shakes somewhat.

Power is good, no stalling, starting engine is great -no electrical problems. I took the distributor cap off, and saw that the dust cap was loose, and had been punctured -probably due to the 2" like round 'fan' spinning and hitting it. I left the dust cap off, but the sound can be heard every so often; however, lately, I hear it after starting my car, and it's getting louder, then quiet again. Something must be rubbing it, or causing friction?

Do I need to replace the entire distrubutor harness?
Thanks in advance! <Khanh>

CroCivic91

I'd bet you have a problem with your distributor bearing. I just replaced that bearing about a month ago on my '90 Civic, and my '99 Seat. For a very detailed write-up (with pictures) on solving this problem, check out http://thezcr.com/forums/showthread....ibutor+bearing

The thing with the bearing is this: over time, the bearings wears out, and it starts blocking the rotation of the shaft, rather than making it rotate easy. That causes friction. Friction heats up the shaft, and it usually melts the plastic rotor. Examine your rotor closely for any signs of melting. Melted rotor will usually rub on something, until it melts enough that it doesn't "pass" closely to the distributor cap pins, thus not allowing for spark to happen at spark plugs and stopping your engine from running. You can see pictures on that link i provided, so make sure you go over it closely.

u2khanh

Wow, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! That's the exactly what is happening to me. I'll take it off and replace my bearings. Thanks for your great how-to instructions.
<Khanh>

CroCivic91

I hope you succeed. If you run into ANY problems, feel free to contact me here, or on ICQ or Yahoo...one thing i'd ask you to look out for VERY closely: before you take your bearing off, make sure you mark EXACTLY where it was. You want to mount it AS PRECISE as possible back on. Do the same thing with the sensor plate and the aluminum plate. You want to mount them in the EXACT same position.