Hi guys,

Just picked up a 89 accord 5 spd for a daily beater.

First question is this car carb'ed or throttle body injection? I haven't even had time to really look. It has a large air filter over the throttle body/carb. There is obviously no injectors on the intake manifold, but there are a **** load of vacuum wires going to a box in the passenger side of the engine bay.

The problem I'm having is when cold, it will idle fine at about 750ish RPM. After about 5 minutes of driving, its idling at 2K. There are no obvious vacuum leaks that I can hear. I haven't popped that vacuum solenoid cover off yet and look, but I don't hear one.

What makes me think it's possibly a stuck throttle cable, is lets say I'm accelerating in 3rd gear at a normal rate. I shift at say 2500-3500 RPM... I push the clutch in and let go of gas at same time, the RPMs shoot up to about 4K rpm for a second then quickly fall.

A friend who owned a 92 accord told me this is a "feature" for lack of a better word. I re-taught myself how to shift without "bucking it" because of the revs jumping up. Just let go of the gas, wait a second then shift. It makes shifting much more smoother, but I'm not sure if this was by design or if my throttle is sticking.

Now if the car is idling at about 2K rpm... and I cut the A/C on it will jump down to about 1100 or so.

Other than those problems, i'm very happy with the car. The gas-mileage savings are incredible. It has a slight miss-fire at idle... but I have not given the car a tune-up yet... just plugs and wires. Still want to do the dist. cap and rotor, as well as air and fuel filter.

Thanks for any help,
I tried searching. Unless I just didn't search for the right thing, I couldn't find any relevant info. Just one for an automatic tranny, and the symptoms he described aren't the same.

Jonathan.

 

on the left/passenger side of the carb there is a diaphram with an adjustment screw in front of it; back that phillips head screw out pretty far. [long skinny phillips screwdriver needed]
The idea was to have the throttle plate close slower, but mental midgets often use it to up the idle.
The true idle adjustment screw is a black **** on the back passenger side of the carb.
I'd post an image but it gets really old having work stolen and then posted under someone elses name in photobucket.
So thank tech8 for no image

 

Fantastic! I'll check it tomorrow when I get off work.

I thought it was carbureted but couldn't exactly tell. without taking off the lower part of the air filter housing.

Does this need to be removed to get to the adjustment screws? The big ol' black tin can holding the filter.

What do you mean by this... someone "stealing" your work as in your pics and posting them?
"I'd post an image but it gets really old having work stolen and then posted under someone elses name in photobucket.
So thank tech8 for no image"

 

Ok, well I took the air filter mount off today, and noticed there were quite a few vacuum hoses connected to it. I don't know how you're supposed to be able to adjust the idle with that thing on. If you take it off, you're going to have a high idle because of the vacuum leak.

The screw on the passenger side you mentioned. I did loosen it and it did reduce the idle, however when the A/C was switched on it didn't compensate and dropped the idle to almost a stall status.

Here's something really weird. I didn't think this was possible with a non-diesel car.

For some reason, today it was idling a little higher than normal. About 2500 RPM. I go to shut the car off, and it continues to run. Not normally. Think of the sound effect used in movies when a car is breaking down. Just barely running. Say 150-200 RPM. The ignition is COMPLETELY off. No spark. How the HELL is that even possible?

Before I messed with the screw on the passenger side of the carb, I tried to adjust the black ****. It didn't seem to affect it at all. Which way should decrease the idle? tightening it or loosening it? (looking at the black **** from say the firewall.)

I have to goto advance tomorrow and pick up some vacuum hoses. I think some of them broke when I took off the air filter assembly. Hopefully I can get it all back together.

Soo... how are you supposed to adjust the idle with this black box off and all these vacuum leaks? I tried my best to plug them all, but I don't think I made much of a difference. I'm going to replace the dist. cap and rotor tomorrow, as well as the secondary fuel filter and an oil change. I'll just give'er another shot.

Thanks for all the help so far hondadude,
Jonathan

 

The A/C idle boost is the same type of phillips screw/diaphram on the Drivers side of the carb. It is actuated by a solenoid on the drivers side fender.

When you remove the breather you can plug the vacum lines on the passenger side of the carb. The line on the drivers side is a vent, don't plug it.
there is a slotted screw inside of the black **** for idle adjust, counterclockwise from the firewall view should lower the idle.

The engine dieseling after shut off could be caused by the throttle plate in the base of the carb hanging open. Berrymans B-12 the hell out of the pivot shaft outside and inside the carb. You can hold the throttle open and then turn that shaft with a 10mm wrench to feel for roughness or see if it is hanging up.

 

Got it idling just about perfectly!

Put on the new distributor cap and rotor (MY GOD THEY WERE TERRIBLE) as well as tinkered with the idle and the passenger side screw.

If I can find my timing gun, I'm going to check it tomorrow. I'm sure it's off.

Only issue now is the A/C diaphragm. It's getting vacuum to the solenoid, but haven't gone far enough to test if the solenoid is bad or the diaphragm is bad or if it just needs adjusting. I do know the rod does not move when the A/C is switched. It idles around 550 - 600 or so when its activated. Not a huge deal, but I'm sure I'll be bored to death tomorrow so I'll tinker with that.

I can't thank you enough hondadude. I really appreciate all the help.

I wonder if I can get a tiny little holley or something to put on that sucker to get rid of that rat's nest. That's just flippin ridiculous. Cars before 96 don't get smogged tested anymore. I can't even imagine having to do work on that thing if say the head gasket goes. Jeez that would just be nuts.