I have a 1990 honda civic hatch 3 door twin carby 1.5 l, bought it second hand and it has 223000 kms on it. It worked fine for couple of day then just stopped. When key positioned to start it turns the engine and the fuel pump is operational. Fuel is getting into the cylinder.
Then I took the ignition lead out and place it near the shocker mount bolt and found no sparks when ignition turned on. Did some wiring checks on distributor and isolated the fault to the capacitor inside the distributor. I don't know how to remove the capacitor or even if it possible to remove it. It has an ignition module E12-117 hitachi, I am very close to change that which is worth approx. $200.00 but just want to be sure that it will fix the problem. Distributor itself is $450.00 which is a large amount of money to spend on this old car. So your help will be highly regarded.

Also the results of the wiring check was-- the resistance across the capactor is .59 Ohms which is a short in my opinion, it should have come open circuit as capacitor is open for dc.

The problem is likely with the ICM and/or coil. I recommend replacing them every 200,000 km or 10 years, whichever comes first. You may want to search your local salvage yards for a replacement distributor, including ICM. Buy a brand new coil, however.

Thankx, funny thing is the ignition coil, igniter and coil are in one piece. So changing the distributor will help? Cheers