I have a 1993 Civic DX 2-door with the 1.5L engine. The car starts and runs, but the distributor sounds like a blender trying to chop ball bearings, so I'm guessing it needs to be replaced. This repair looks to be fairly straightforward, as in:
1) tag the wires and connectors
2) remove wires and connectors
2) unbolt the old distributor
3) bolt in the new one
4) reattach connectors.

Any tips or tricks or gotcha's I should be aware of?

Thanks.

 

Well all I can tell you is tagging them is pointless. What I can tell you is that if this is your engine:
| (4) (3) (2) (1)|
On your Distributer the Firing order is 1342, On your distributer is an A and a C, 1 goes on the A, then co COUNTER CLOCKWISE with 3 then the 4 should be on the C and then 2 is last. From what I rember when you look at it 1 is the bottom right, 3 is top right, then top left is 4 and bottom left is 2. Enjoy

 

its a simple job.

Three bolts, 2 plugs which can't be mixed up, and the spark plug wires.

 

I had that problem once too. Worn out bearings. Too bad they aren't easily changed themselves! No need to tag the wires, just transfer each wire one by one to the new cap so you don't mix them up (even more important on a V-8). Take a sharpie and mark a spot where your dizzy and head line up, Like drawing a line from one to the other. Then when you put the new dizzy on you can see about where the other one was so your timing will be close if you don't have a timing light. Does that make sense? The plugs and sockets to the dizzy can be tricky to disconnect. You have to pull the plug and socket off the metal tab as an assembly by depressing a plastic tab on the plug/socket. Then you can work on pulling the plug from the socket. I make stuff sound confusing but I cussed a bunch at that plug once before I figured it out.

 

I had the same problem a few years ago but didn't replace my dizzy assembly. I sprayed some wd-40 where the bearings are and it hasn't made that aweful sound ever since. There is a gear mechanism inside where the bearings are. I'm just going from memory here.