1999 LX died again -- main relay fuse is blowing

[Mighty_Civic]

Last week my car died on me while driving. I spent the weekend tinkering with it and finally got it running Sunday night. Now it's dead again. Here's a recap of what i did.

Thursday
- cranks but won't start
- no spark after i pushed it home.
- left it at that for the night

Friday
- went to autozone to buy a new distributor since last night there was no spark.
- got home put the old rotor and cap on. no spark.

Saturday
- finally checked for fuel. no fuel. disconnected the fuel line from the fuel rail turned key to ON. nothing. dry. no fuel pump priming either.
- my brother swapped main relays with civic. no luck.

Sunday
- tested for spark and fuel again. WOW we have spark and fuel though spark is weak.
- checked firing order per haynes manual and online. nothing.
- asked my brother and he had his old distributor laying around so I took the cap and swapped it. no luck.
- checked timing. belt was semi loose. timing marks were not dead on. put everything to TDC. messed with timing some more. got it as close to TDC and tightened up the tensioner.
- one last measuer i decided to put pull the rotor off my brother's old distributor. checked firing order and it started.

i did so much i'm not even sure what the temporary fix was. last thing was the rotor and firing order. so i'm suspecting that is it. this is the first honda i owned so does caps and rotors wear out that easily? they are relatively cheap so i'm thinking i may just get new ones from the local autoparts store cross my fingers.

any other ideas?

 

[RonJ]

Clean (sand paper) and tighten the important ground wire connected to the thermostat housing.

 

[Mighty_Civic]

not sure if this would also result in me blowing my FI E/M fuse.

 

[RonJ]

not sure if this would also result in me blowing my FI E/M fuse.

Are you saying that hood 15A fuse 44 is blowing? If so, does this happen when the key is turned to ON(II)? Or what causes it to blow?

Or is fuse 31 or 13 blowing?

 

[Mighty_Civic]

Are you saying that hood 15A fuse 44 is blowing? If so, does this happen when the key is turned to ON(II)? Or what causes it to blow?

Or is fuse 31 or 13 blowing?

i'm at work and can't see your pics but it is my 15a fuse that keeps blowing. it happens immediately when i turn the key to the ON positon.

after it died the 2nd time i decided to buy a whole new rotor and cap from advance auto. put that in and checked the said fuse. it was blown so swapped it with the horn 15a fuse. started up and drove it home. now the fuse will blow immediately like i said earlier.

 

[RonJ]

I could just waste time if I make speculative suggestions before you specify the precise fuse that is blowing.

 

[Mighty_Civic]

when i can get that information i will. thanks.