Car stalls after I cleaned the carb

[Rich3077]

Hiya,

Car is an all stock 1986 Accord.

Today I cleaned the carb..all I did was give it a good spraying down.
I did not touch any adjustments.

Now my car runs like crap. It stalls when I am stopped at a red light
and sometimes also when I slow down enough to make a turn.

I thought maybe I stirred up some dirt that did not pass through, so I cleaned
it again using seafoam with no effect.

I have also taken it for a nice freeway drive for about 50 miles to try and blow it out with no effect.

Any advice/suggestions on what the problem may be?
Would spraying down the carb be enough to burn out the 02 sensor??

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.


Thanks
Rich

[A20A1]

Hmm, you might have a gasket leak... the cleaner could have loosened dirt covering a leak in a gasket and now it's open.

The O2 sensor is near useless... it won't cause stalling even if you disconnected it.

Where did you spray the cleaner? you may have got some inside the float bowl... actually you want to clean out your float bowl... and refill it with fresh gas by priming the carb.

hmm If you give me like 10 hours I'll probably have a how to for cleaning the float bowl by then.

Also you might consider replacing the fuel filters if you haven't already.

[Rich3077]

A20A1, Thanks for the reply.

I sprayed carb cleaner in both sides of the carb, and gave the outside a good
cleaning... choke..linkage ect. I am now cursed with it being dark outside and I have no garage so I will have to tinker with it tomorrow. Actually I got kind of carried away
with the cleaner so a leaky gasket is a possablity.

Since my last post I have dumped a can of seafoam in the gas tank.
Earlier I only put it through the PCV valve and oil filler cap.

Heh.. tomorow it is going to the shop because a couple of weeks ago they changed
a metal pipe ( water manifold ? ) and they had to remove the intake manifold to put it on... and now I have a leak at the manifold.
( BTW thanks everyone, I found that problem from reading old posts ) So they are going to put a new manifold gasket on. He is gonna see the smoke caused from the seafoam and assume my head gasket is blown. :)
He is also gonna do the water pump, timing belt and oil seals under the timing cover.


My trustly old Honda has been trouble free for about a year.. and now it seems to be falling apart on me all at once.
One of my major problems is that it gets dark so damn early in Michigan now.
By the time I get home from work I only have an hour or two to mess with it.. thats
why I am sending it to the shop.


Peace
Rich

[A20A1]

well shiaaaat... :D I made one anyways. lol
http://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?t=5350

I added it to the rebuild how-to

[Rich3077]

Thanks for your help A20A1.

It gives me faith in humanity to see someone go out of their way to help someone else.

I am pretty bummed right now.. the wife NEEDS the car to get to work.
I have a borrowed car.. and the owner is nagging hard for its return, and rightfully so.
Wife is new on her job so time missed will probably result in her being fired. I have already missed a couple of days of work myself so I could drive her. ( she can't drive
my car because its a stick. )


Good O'le Murphy's law.

Peace
Rich

[POS carb]

try the following:

1) get a vacuum gauge, it will make things so much easier
2) get the car idling by turning up the idle speed, just use the idle control dashpot on the left side if you can't reach the idle stop screw in the back. Once you have a semi-stable idle going start spraying the carb cleaner around where the manifold meets the cylinder head/valve cover, then along the base of the carb, then at the vacuum hoses, then all around the sides of the carb; what you are looking for is any changes in RPM which would indicate a vacuum leak. Propane works better than carb cleaner for this but can be a pain in the butt unless you have a portable container or long hose. If you can't find any leaks like this and you are POSITIVE all the lines are still plugged in then go for the mixture screw...

also does your car run normal at other RPMS? Is the slow mix solenoid still connected and recieving power? Disconnect and plug the EGR vacuum hose (not the valve) to make sure it's not that.

[Rich3077]

Car is still not running correctly, but I thought I would post an update.
A20A1 was right.. when I cleaned the carb I created a leak at the carb to spacer and/or
spacer to manifold gaskets.
I found the leaks by spraying a small amount of starting fluid around the areas.
I can not find the gaskets locally so I will need to order them online, and add a few more days to the car not running. I the meantime I have made the leaks a little better
by spreading gasket dressing around the areas. This is the stuff that stays soft so I can wipe it off when I am ready.

Thanks to reading old posts I have also discovered another problem. A few days ago
my Tach stopped working. I assumed that it was a faulty cable, but after reading
I think the problem is probably the coil. The car just started stalling when making a turn also.. and in another post someone said replacing the coil solved the same problem for them. The distributor is not making any noise.

I will get this car running if it kills me, and it probably will.


Peace
Rich

[Rich3077]

Okay I got my intake and carb leaks sealed and I still have the same problem..
I am going to take my problems to the correct forum now.

Thanks


Peace
Rich