89 accord d4 light not on

[narunetto]

Hey, I have an 89 Accord I came into possession recently and I've noticed while doing normal and freeway driving the RPMs are pretty high (3000ish @ 70) and the D4 light isn't lit up on the dash when in that gear. Every other gear works, including D3 and seemingly putting it in D3 doesn't do anything.

Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[POS carb]

if it flickers on when changing between N and D3 then the shifter cable alignment is wrong.
If it doesnt come on at all then the tiny bulb in the dashboard is burn out (more likely) or the selector switch in the shifter is not making contact (less likely but does not affect the shifting)
D4 is gears 1-2-3-4
D3 is gears 1-2-3
D2 is only gear 2 (for starting on snow/ice or downhill engine braking)

[DBMaster]

All the lights are simple incandescent bulbs. When I had my 89 accord the D4 bulb burned out twice. Replacing it is involved; you must remove the entire gauge cluster and disassemble it. The third time I replaced the bulb with a small LED and resistor. It stayed lit for the remainder of the time I owned the car. Alas, I wrecked it in 2012 after driving it for 23 years. The D4 bulb burns out because it is the one that is lit all the time while you are driving the car. My current vehicle, The Mazda3 I bought new in 2012, has a multi-segment LED to indicate "drive." It is distinctly different from the lighting of all the other gears.

[narunetto]

I was figuring maybe the light was out but those high RPMs are what kinda lead me to think it wasn't just that. Is it normal to have such high RPMs at freeway speeds? Also, I forgot to say when in D4 I can kinda move the shifter up and down and it makes a clicking noise, but doesn't shift into N or D3, is that normal?

[DBMaster]

3,000 RPM at 70 is normal. I wouldn't worry over the shifter thing. I am almost 100% certain your D4 light bulb is burned out.

[JJ'sAccord]

3,000 RPM at 70 is normal. I wouldn't worry over the shifter thing. I am almost 100% certain your D4 light bulb is burned out.

even my 5 speed M/T is around 3k at 70 (roughly speaking) no need to worry about high RPM in my opinion.

[narunetto]

That's good to know. I normally drive a Honda Fit so the RPM is lower at high speeds. I am now maybe dealing with a carb problem from related videos and stuff i've read. The battery died in the car after trying to start it 2 times and it wouldn't crank over and start. Got a jump and finally started and now it hasn't died since.

Usually when it does starts it doesn't sound like the ones in the videos I watch, it kinda just makes a half second sound and then starts up.

I've heard that a lot of people replace the carb with a Weber one but also say it has emissions problems, I live in Washington state so I probably wouldn't be able to get away with that.