On my 90 Honda Accord, I put a brand new distributor in it, and yet its not operating at all when I try to start it........but if I take off the cap, turn my aux power on and probe it with a test light it seems to arc to it. Could this be a short somewhere in my electrical system?

Need more information. Did the car run before you put the new distributor in? Is it a brand new distributor or from a parts yard? What caused you to replace the distributor? You got a spark from where? Now, you need to do some testing. I gather you have voltage to the coil. Hook up your test light to the wire that goes from the coil to the ignitor (WHT/BLU) and the other lead to ground. Does your test light blink when you turn the car over with the starter? Get back to us with results.

On my 90 Honda Accord, I put a brand new distributor in it, and yet its not operating at all when I try to start it........but if I take off the cap, turn my aux power on and probe it with a test light it seems to arc to it. Could this be a short somewhere in my electrical system?

What exactly do you mean "it's not operating at all"? What happened? You need to provide more detailed info.

The car ran up until april of this year, when i went too the Kappa beach party...then out of nowhere it died. Took it to the quiet zone and they said i had a bad battery terminal, so i got it replaced. the car ran for maybe 4 days, and began to buck and hesitate while accelerating until it finally died again. from that point on it never started except once, and this was with the original distributor. thats when i started testing things. I can make the spark jump to the test light, but It wont operate as such on its own. And yes, it does blink when i turn it over. When i put a brand new one in, no go.

I'm a little confused by your descriptions as well, but if you are saying you can get a spark discharge from a plug wire tower on the cap to the test light, it seems it is seeking a path to ground that it isn't finding in the motor for spark to discharge to. In that case, I'd be looking at the grounds to the cylinder head, etc. Or else I just don't understand the problem you are looking for.

Beach party, huh? Salt air and moisture would put the final nail in a bad ground or connector real quick. I'd be pulling connectors apart, spraying with WD-40, and scuffing all the grounds up.

sorry, its kind of hard for me to explain, seeing as im not that much of a mechanic......in general, it seems that everything seems to be ok except the distributor sending juice through to the spark plugs and i have no idea why

see, i never would have thought of that.....cause i actually was driving on the beach