electrical short?

[Cat3]

hi,

my 89 honda accord sedan DX is acting up...
and i'm afraid the car is going to catch fire...

here's what it's doing...

I deliver pizzas for a living... which requires a lot of very short trips... turning the car off and on many times per shift...

now... while i'm driving... at seemingly random times, the tach just drops to zero... and i have to coast to a stop and then restart the car...
while i'm stopped, i notice an "electrical fire" smell...
which leads me to believe that this problem is caused by an electric short somewhere...

I just recently replaced the alternator with one bought from autozone... and the car works fine otherwise... and the battery light doesn't come on... so i'm thinking it's not the alternator... but... i'm not ruling it out...

like i said... there doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to the engine turning off... and it doesn't stall out or anything...
like if i'm stopped when it does it... i sometimes don't even realize it's turned off until i try to accelerate...
also... i don't know if it'll help any... but here's another thing i noticed that kinda seems to maybe in some way be related... though it could just be coincidence... because i do make a lot of turns while driving through neighborhoods.... but... i've noticed that sometimes when i turn the blinker on, it'll die...
though like i said... it might just be coincidence... because it only coincides with the blinker thing sometimes.... actually... more often than not.. it doesn't. But i thought i'd mention that just in case.

Has anyone here ever had a problem similar to this?
or maybe have any suggestions on things to look at?
I rely heavily on my car, as it is my job to drive... so it is imperative that i get this problem solved quickly...

Also... visually, there aren't any clues to what's happening... ie: no burned wires or black marks from sparks.

And... is it possible for something like this to happen if it simply needs a tuneup?

And usually, the first time i start the car when i first get in it... it dies.. but the second time i turn it over, it stays on.
And when i'm out driving and it dies... the first time i turn it over it starts.

I'm trying to give as much info as possible...
i guess i'll restate the car's basic info..
89 accord dx sedan, 5spd... 102,600K miles on the engine...
it is carbed... and does need a tuneup... but i don't know if anything tuneup related would cause something like this.

Thanks for your help in advance!!
my email is [email protected] if you want to send a reply directly to me.... though i will be checking this thread frequently all tonight... and early tomorrow.

Again thanks!

-Reuski

[A20A1]

possibly the distributor or a missing loose ground wire.

Hows the other stuff like coolant and oil levels?

[Cat3]

oil and coolant is fine... the oil needs to be changed... but the level is fine.. just checked it yesterday.

interesting point about the ground wire... that's a good suggestion... i'll check that out tomorrow...

and as far as the distributer goes...
i'm not too familiar with the way they work....
how would that be causing this?
I know when they get moisture in the cap... it can cause problems... but... i don't think it's moisture related...
and aside from that problem (moisture) i don't know anything else about problems the distributor causes...

thanks for fast reply by the way

-Reuski

[A20A1]

the stators misalligning... or corroded wires to the igniter

[Cat3]

well...

i took the distributor cap off today...

it looks pretty good in there.
nothing like the hayne's picture of a bad situation...

there's a tiny white line... that looks like the beginning of a crack on the rotor(?)... and the little metal strip that's on there has a little discoloration right at the edge...

it looks pretty good overall though...

however.... it looks like there might have been a gasket at one point on there... and it's pretty much completely gone...
and my valve cover gasket needs replaced.... and leaks a little oil at a time... which has gotten oil in there...
not a lot... but some.
i guess that could be a problem...

i wiped it all out with a rag...

what do you think?
could that oil be causing this problem?

or is it likely something else?

-Reuski

[Jareds 89 LX-i]

It could be your ignition switch, possibly from turning it on and off so many times. Mine acts weird every once in awile if it gets cold, sometimes it will die right after I start it, but then restart right away no problem. Some electrical cleaner seemed to fix it though, as it hasn't happened since.

[Cat3]

would the ignition switch cause it to die while driving?

or just at startup?

[A20A1]

hmm... yeah I was having a hard time starting my car one day it wouldn't turn over or nothin... I thought it was the battery but I jiggled the key a bit and it started right up.

How heavy is you key chain? may have just vibrated enough to shut the car off.

[Cat3]

well, that's an unexpected probability... but i'll check that too while i'm at it...

thanks for all the help guys... and the lightning fast replies...

-Reuski

[Cat3]

ok.... here's what i did today... and hopefully it'll do something for this problem... if not fix it.

i changed the distributor rotor, cleaned the connection for the ignition module.... and replaced the coil... as the old one was reading too high on the "secondary" according to two different autozones...
if the ignition module is bad.... then that's 90 bucks i don't have right now...

i didn't get around to checking the ignition switch though... i was supposed to be at work an hour ago as it is...

if it's still doing the same thing tonight... then tomorrow before work, i'll look into the ignition switch. i did however, while it was running, jiggle the keys around in the ignition... to see if it would turn off... and it passed the test. but that doesn't necessarily mean everything's ok.

again, thanks for all the help.

hopefully it'll work fine now... but...

oh yeah... do any of you guys know if these cars are supposed to have a gasket for the distributor cap?... it had one on there that was falling to pieces... but the new caps they had at autozone didn't have one... and they looked at me like i just escaped from the nut house when i suggested such a thing.

so now it doesn't have one... but it does have a pretty decent sized gap all the way around, except where the two screws hold it down, as that portion has a lip that fills the gap.

well, i need to go get ready for work now...
thanks again!

-Reuski

[Cat3]

well...

it's still doing it....

i wonder if that oil that's getting in the distributor is causing this.
does that sound like a likely option?

[DanG86LX]

Did u find oil in high voltage area (rotor & cup)? If u did u might have cleaned it.
Also could be not enough fuel to carb like clogged filters or low FP output. Next time when it stalls don't crank again. Remove air box and inspect gas level in the float bowl. Push accel. pump few times and look for a stream of gas coming out near primary venturi..

[Cat3]

yeah... the oil was way up in there behind the rotor even...

i wiped up what i could... but there was still some... though not nearly as much.

it needs a new valve cover gasket pretty bad. I don't work tomorrow... and if it doesn't start raining... i guess i'll do that... then clean up any oil that's run out and onto the engine and accessories.

Maybe if it looks like something i can do myself... without the help of a trained mechanic... i'll look into taking the distributor completely off and cleaning it out really good.
Any precautions before doing that? Like, "make absolutely sure you do this...."

Also... some more info...

When it happens... if i have my blinker on... the blinker will stop blinking. but the headlights and radio stay on.

I'm not sure if the car has to be running for the blinker to operate though... I'll check that in a little while when i leave for work.

Thanks for all the help guys!
keep it comin though... this problem is still a headache.

-Reuski

[A20A1]

you want to mark the distributors position with a scratch in the metal from a flat head.
just mark the distributor side and the head side, that way you can reaalign the two when reinstalling the distributor.

[Mike's89AccordLX]

I used a china marker but the flat head screw driver sounds like a better idea (more accurate).

[Cat3]

Hey,

Well, i've been running an experiment, and the results so far have been conclusive.
Was testing the possibility that the lighted car top(Domino's) might be the culprit... and so far, It's looking like it is.
I haven't plugged in the sign in a week and it hasn't happened since. I'm gonna give it more time, to see if it continues to be this reliable... and maybe after another week or so, i'll plug it back in and see if it starts dying again. It's strange that the sign would be doing this... because i've been working there for almost four months... and it just suddenly started doing this recently.

-Reuski