Honda Repair: 97 Accord SE Stalling problem, hello bill, shift indicator

Question
Hello Bill

About a month ago, while driving my 97 Accord on the highway, the shift indicator light would suddenly go out and the car would shake slightly.  Within a few seconds the light would come back on.  This generally happaned when i drove over a bump, but not always.  It also generally happaned a few times in a row.  The rest of the car would be working fine, stereo etc.  I think that the car was momentarily stalling.  I took it into the shop and they diagonoticed it as a bad coil, and replaced it.  This did not fix the problem.  Since the coil was under warranty, and they have had bad luck with this particular part, they replaced the coil a second time.  The newer coil did not fix the problem either, So i think that something else is going on.   
Last week, I was driving to work on the freeway during rush hour and the car I hear a ticking sound that seemed to be coming from the    steering column.  the tach started jumping around erraticly and the engine stalled.  All check lights on the dashboard were lit.  Luckily i was in the right hand lane of traffic and was able to pull over without any incidents.  I turned on the emergency lights and tried to restart the car.  No luck.  It was making the cranking sound, but was not enagaging.  After about 6 tries it started again and I was able to make it to the closest exit (about a mile).    A few blocks after exiting the highway it stalled again.  Same erratic tachometer and ticking sound.  This time it took a while to restart.  Afraid of flooding, i compressed the pedal fully and it started again.  I was able to drive the remaining few miles to work (via residental) and afterwards a co-worker followed me home without incident.  I took it into a different shop but they were unable to diagnose it because it was running perfectly.  In fact, it has never  not  performed when it is in the shop.  The new shop suggested that it may be a bad distributor, but were reluctant to replace it because I would not be able to get a refund for the part if they guessed wrong.  They suggested that i check for spark the  next time it stalled.  
Yesterday, it stalled again when i was at a stopsign.  My girlfriend was driving and she was able to get it to start again before i had located a screwdriver from the trunk ( hence i was not able to check for spark.)  

I am wondering if this is not a problem caused by a bad ignition switch.  I know there was a recall on them for my model.  I called a honda dealer and ran my vin and was told i was not affected by the recall( i also ran it myself on the honda website; same result) The recall id is 02V120000.  In the past, my key has slipped out of the ignition when the car is running.  i realize that the ignition tumbler is a separte part connected to the switch, but thought it might be related.

I really do not have the money to simply replace parts ad hoc until the  thing works again, but this seems to be my only answer.  I am would like to go home for the holidays with this vehicle, but am wary about taking it out of town.  Thanks for all your help.
Sam  

Answer
Sam:
The worst kind of problem to have is an intermittent one. You may have a bad ignition switch, it could be the distributor or it could be anything in between. Until the part fails consistently (it probably will happen at the worst time) you can either replace parts until you find the right one or try and diagnosis when it fails. Other than that you can leave it with a mechanic and let them drive it until it fails. Honda does have a history of bad distributors, but I would not replace it until I know it is bad. I would not travel with a vehicle like this, its bad enough being stuck in town, much less out of town.
Sorry I can't be of more help.
Bill