My 1991 civic lx crapped out a while back. I was driving at low rpm around a turn when the motor started firing randomly, continuing while the power was completely lost to the car. When I tried to restart, the car would crank but no go. I have looked into other posts on this site which lead me to believe the main relay works, as I do get gas in the cylinders and the cel turns off. I do know that the car has no spark. I have bought a new coil, though the old one reads at about 10k ohms, and new cap, rotor, ignitor and so forth. I am puzzled, and frusterated.

Sounds like the internal distributor sensors are shot. Buy a genuine Honda distributor housing and install your new ICM and coil. Don't go with any other brand. It should then fire right up.

So, after anxiously waiting a week for my new complete distributor I have hit another bump. Although the car would crank last week with the old distributor parts, this week we have no crank... or it tried, the starter was glowing orange for a second then arcing and then began to smoke. I believe the starter may have become internally fuzed, but would like some suggestions and a new course of action into what I want to call an evil machine.

Here's how to replace the old starter motor:

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cars-trucks/faq-how-troubleshoot-repair-maintain-hondas-selected-other-vehicles-46563.html#post219985