Help!

[Shirako]

Ok, today my was stalling I hit the gas to try and get just a little farther since I was like 50 feet from my destination and my engine started shaking violently and making strange clicking noises, someone looked at it for me and said it sounded like the clicking was coming from the valves and that it is probably my timing belt, could this be my problem or could it be an ignition problem? The car starts and drives but with little power and stutters alot. Sorry if this has been posted before but I dont have the time to search around. :mad:

[lostforawhile]

it's possible that your timing belt slipped,do you know how to check your timing marks?

[Shirako]

Not a clue lol, I left it at my work parking lot and since its sunday all the mechanic shops are closed (my mechanic is right accross the street lol)

[lostforawhile]

in that case might as well let them look at it. it sounds like it slipped a few teeth.

[Cant Stop]

definitely , how long have you owned it? and have you ever had the belt changed? usually it should be changed around 75k if you dont remember changing it then maybe it is time since it does sound like a timing problem

[Shirako]

I bought it at 119k miles it now has 135k, never had it changed, bought it just never had it put in, huge relief that it should just be that...lol

[Shirako]

Ok...the belt has been replaced at some point seeing as its a goodyear timing belt...and it looks in good shape, now that I had the car towed to my house and took of the cover, but when its running theres a reallllly bad burning smell coming through the vents and around the engine...noting that the engine starts to stall and is now somewhat hard to turn over...any ideas? :mad: :pc: :sad2:

P.S. there is that clickin sound coming from somewhere....no clue where from though.

[lostforawhile]

is the engine burning smell coming from the motor itself or is it an electrical smell?

[Shirako]

I can't really tell, but the battery died (go figure, something else broke lol) but someone told me it could just be the distributer and that these cars have a tendency to have dist troubles, could this be it?

[lostforawhile]

if your battery died i might start looking for an electrical fault that could have killed it. look at the alternator wires for burning and check the starter wires for shorts and rubbed spots. that would explain your electrical fault. when did the battery die? after the burning smell? maby your alternator burned up internally, they can burn up and because they are still turning the stupid light never comes on. that's what my money is on.

[mr eff]

even if he does have a bad alternator, would that still cause valve chatter and poor performance? it seemed like a good guess that the cam timing somehow got off, or that the distributor is messed up.

could be worthwhile to get a dizzy from a boardmember for like 30$ or whatever and try that.

he did say valve noise? or just some sort of clicking? ... ah hell, i give up! heh

[lostforawhile]

i was refering to the burning smell right before the batery died.

[88Accord-DX]

If you know how to do it, adjust your valve clearance & check your timing, a timing light would be benificial. Plug the vacuum advance when checking timing. Here a thread on adjusting the valves.

http://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?t=39319

[Shirako]

Burning smell was the day beforethe battery died, I went to try and start it but it just had no power, and yea there were some sort of clicking noises every so often.

[lostforawhile]

yea maby you've got too different problems i would say one of them is elecrical

[88Accord-DX]

I would charge the battery at Autozone for free. Then start the car, pull the negative cable off the battery and see if it stays running. That's an old school trick to see if the alternator is bad. (not good for the ECU)
If it stays running, your alternator is good, if not, your alternator is bad. The clicking noise might be that your valves need adjusted. I would check the timing with a timing light since you have no power as you said, after you see if the alternator is bad. Then check on the dizzy.

[shepherd79]

there could be multiple thing that can cause that:
1. check your compression in the cylinders. if gasket is blown between cylinders it would feel like the car is running on 2 cylinders and it would shake like crazy.
2. something is wrong with your ignition. may be it is not getting full spark.
3. timing belt could have slided over.

every problem can be identified if you have proper tools.

[Shirako]

How about hooking it up to a compute to run diagnostics? There should be a place real close that someone suggested? the only tools I have is a screw driver and ratchet set, lol oh and the all mighty gator grip! lol

[Blkblurr]

even if he does have a bad alternator, would that still cause valve chatter and poor performance? it seemed like a good guess that the cam timing somehow got off, or that the distributor is messed up.

could be worthwhile to get a dizzy from a boardmember for like 30$ or whatever and try that.

he did say valve noise? or just some sort of clicking? ... ah hell, i give up! heh
A bad alt can cause his problem because the voltage gets low enough that his spark is weak. It can also cause the fuel injectors to fire improperly. Easy to check for this by charging your battery overnight then start the car to see how it runs. Do a voltage check at the battery as well to see if the alt is working.

['89AccordLX(Rus)]

How about hooking it up to a compute to run diagnostics? There should be a place real close that someone suggested? the only tools I have is a screw driver and ratchet set, lol oh and the all mighty gator grip! lol

Your car doesn't have a diagnostics port. In fact, your DX doesn't even have an ECU, unless a solenoid controller can be called an ECU. For starters, you could get the electrical system checked and fixed. It may be as simple as your battery dying and your ignition system simply losing power. That may very well be the cause of your problems. If once the electrical issue is sorted out and the problem continues, you can check the timing belt alignment. Pictures speak a thousand words:
http://zakm.front.ru/6-16.JPG

Hope this helps. :)

[Shirako]

Damn, thought it did, lol well my ill borrow a battery charge and let it charge and then see what happens after that.

[lostforawhile]

Your car doesn't have a diagnostics port. In fact, your DX doesn't even have an ECU, unless a solenoid controller can be called an ECU. For starters, you could get the electrical system checked and fixed. It may be as simple as your battery dying and your ignition system simply losing power. That may very well be the cause of your problems. If once the electrical issue is sorted out and the problem continues, you can check the timing belt alignment. Pictures speak a thousand words:
http://zakm.front.ru/6-16.JPG

Hope this helps. :)that is an ecu it senses inputs and sets your mixture and other parameters

[Shirako]

...I think I found the problem. well it could be the problem anyway...last time I took of the air cleaner housing I took a screw out of the top of the carb and I dont think I ever tightened it back up (why I don't know) and it may have fallen into the carb could it have done some serious damage or do I just take apart the carb and get it out? lookie http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/2044000-2044999/2044017_16_full.jpg
And I was going to change my valve cover gasket and I ran into a little problem, the nut is all stripped, does anyone know how to get it off? lol hers a pic http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/2044000-2044999/2044017_17_full.jpg :uh:

[lostforawhile]

:jaw: your motor ate a screw??? uh oh!! very bad very bad. :sad2:

[Shirako]

I'm hoping its still in the carb, and didnt get sucked in, im gonna take out the spark plugs and see if theres any damage....hopefully not...lol

[lostforawhile]

try gettting one of those magnetic pickup tools if it's in there. i hate to say it but if it got in the motor it's probably done quite a bit of damage. That same thing knocked mark martin out of a race once. I always make sure all those screws are locktited. oh thank you for the pics of the interior i used them on the site to show what the interior looked like orginally, with a thank you of course. i would have used my original pics but stream load 'o -hit lost all my pictures

[Shirako]

lol, well I cant see the screw from the top of the carb, but would that cause the burning smell? I mean if its blocking fuel flow in the carb?
And np for the pics, I wanted to take some anyway =p

[lostforawhile]

not sure on the burning smell but if that screw went down the intake into the valves and the motor it 's probably the source of that wierd noise.

[carotman]

My guess is that is then that the bolt smacked the electrode of one sparkplug and just fouled it...

REmove them to see the extend of damage... I sure hope for you it isn't in the engine...

[Shirako]

So then if it just smacked an electrode, where could it be now and how do I get it out? lol

[A20A1]

Did you find the bolt?
It sucks that that happned... sometimes they don't pass through, but maybe yours was small enough to make it past the booster venturi.

I replaced all mine with stainless bolts with hex key heads, they work great.

[lostforawhile]

cool, I thought i was the only one who did that. been putting them all over the engine. I figured if something breaks i can fit a lot of things with a set of hex keys. just like a crotch rocket bike. It looks like that screw will def go down the carb,not good news, tested it with a spare carb. if it didn't go down the primary it went down the secondary. :sad2:

[lostforawhile]

So then if it just smacked an electrode, where could it be now and how do I get it out? lolyou could try taking the plugs out and using one of those magnetic pickup tools, the long ones on the telescoping handle. i'm just afraid it might have broken off a piece of a valve or something.

[Shirako]

Well, I pulled all the spark plugs out and in the 3rd pluge from the left, the electrode on the plug was bend onto the terminal here are some pictures...
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/2044000-2044999/2044017_18_full.jpg http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/2044000-2044999/2044017_19_full.jpg
http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/2044000-2044999/2044017_20_full.jpg http://memimage.cardomain.net/member_images/4/web/2044000-2044999/2044017_21_full.jpg
Should it still be where that bad plug was?

[lostforawhile]

ouch, i would say it made it in there. do you know what i'm talking about those magnet pickup tools? the skinny ones that telescope? that would be your best bet for getting it and hopefully most of the debris out. what i'm worried about is metal shavings getting in your rings and scoring the cylinder walls. :uh:

[Shirako]

I'll get one tomorrow, advance auto has a good one, hopefully nothing bad happened :(

[lostforawhile]

i hope nothing bad happened eithier

[Shirako]

One more thing, upon closer inspection of the hit plug, the insulator seems to have been knocked out, does this matter? the way its going im going to have to take off the head myself lol (never dont anything like it before)

[lostforawhile]

it's starting to sound like it, i'm not sure what kind of damage might be in there,is there anyone close by from the site who could help you? i'm sure there is a thread on here all about how to take the head off, you are in for a job. if you weren't so far off i would help you.

[Shirako]

There is someone, dunno if they could help me or not, but with all the spark plugs out, if turn the key, think the crap would just fly out the holes? lol

[lostforawhile]

if you know which one it's in, try the pickup tool first to get the metal debris. have someone turn over the engine by turning the crank pulley by hand while you look in the cylinder until the piston is near top dead center. then try getting the metal debris out, after you do that take a shop vac, attach a piece of metal tubing small enough to fit in the spark plug hole to the end of the shop vac hose use duct tape or whatever you need to do to make it work, you are trying to make a very small vaccume pickup tool. try sticking the end of that tube into the spark plug hole to suck up the debris. make sure the tubing is long enough so it doesn't accendentially fall in.

[Shirako]

Well I ran into an unexpected problem...my landlord(who is a mechanic) had the magnet in the whole and told me to tap the key to crank it a little bit....well the damn tip fell off! so he left saying he was going to get another magnet and never came back...lol so i'll find out whats gonna happen maybe tomorrow lol
I just can't win can I? lol if it's not one thing its another.

[TheWatcher]

Well I ran into an unexpected problem...my landlord(who is a mechanic) had the magnet in the whole and told me to tap the key to crank it a little bit....well the damn tip fell off! so he left saying he was going to get another magnet and never came back...lol so i'll find out whats gonna happen maybe tomorrow lol
I just can't win can I? lol if it's not one thing its another.
This is sounding more and more like an episode of the Simpsons. Almost waiting for Homer to say "Doh". :)

Peace.

[A20A1]

Are you saying you cranked the motor with the magnet inside and ate the magnet?

[lostforawhile]

http://re2.mm-c1.yimg.com/image/1080396456

[kyleeatsrocks]

so....

what happend?

[Shirako]

Havent been able to find someone to help me :( i'v never done something like this before and tools are somewhat lacking...lol I have one more person to ask before I ask my landlord to use his tools, one way or the other I need to get it fixed, I miss my 3g alot... :crying:

[lostforawhile]

Havent been able to find someone to help me :( i'v never done something like this before and tools are somewhat lacking...lol I have one more person to ask before I ask my landlord to use his tools, one way or the other I need to get it fixed, I miss my 3g alot... :crying:if you weren't so far out i would help you you're just half way across the country

[Shirako]

Just take a vacation out here ;)