87 LX lost power, died.....than started

[vongiese]

Sorry for the lame post - just looing for more ideas before I go rescue the kid.
She has an 86 LX 5-spd and driving home for holiday break - drove 100 or so miles in the rain - got gas - drove 60 miles in the rain - car lost power - she down shifted..but never really gained any power and finally just died. Would crank over fine but not start. She called me and I told her to check coil wire and cap for looseness, etc.
She got a ride from the police to the nearest town and when she and the mechanic (who said he doens't work on Hondas much) returned to the car about 1 hour after it died - it fired up and has been running fine......at least she made it 35 miles to a friends house for the night.
can you folks give me any ideas on what to look for? Other than the obvious - wires, coil, cap, dizzy, fuel filter/pump? most of these items are less than a year old (except dizzy and pump)/
thanks - i may have to go on a rescue misssion tomorrow!

[stat1K]

this might be a little late, but this happened to me, the only thing i changed afterwards was the fuel filter and it's been running fine. and by i mean this happened to me, i mean exactly, i had the car towed to my mechanic and it started fine, and they even kept it for 2 days trying to get it to die and it didn't. another thing might be the pump, only other option from my estimation.

[hyongel]

Carb icing? It's a long shot since she was driving so much, but you might want to make sure the hot air tube is connected up & check the function of the hot air door.

[A20A1]

http://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?t=46572

http://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?t=48568

http://www.3geez.com/showthread.php?t=39778

check some of those threads for ideas.

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[Hondaisok]

My 87 LX did the same thing. It sputtered and then died. Would turn over but not start. I disconnected the fuel hose from the upper filter to the carb, and cranked it a few times to see if I was getting fuel. Reattached the hose and it started up. Has run fine for a few months now. Don't know what the heck it was. Suspect some kind of air or vapor type lock? Float?(the filter had been changed recently) Good luck.

[Michael Cote]

Like Hyongel said. Giving those conditions I'd say it was 99% a carb ice situation. Happens to me often. The heat stove pipe is off or torn or the flapper is probably not closing all the way in breather snorkle when suppose to. When I feel the car loosing power I just pull over and shut it off for about one minute. The heat from engine melts ice/frost from ventury and carb and it starts right up again. This often happens when temperature is a few degrees above or below 32f or 0c on wet roads, in rain or mist etc.

[vongiese]

Well - she hasn't had any more of those problems.... I took a look at it when she got home and looked like the pre-heat tube is intact. I did not a small break in the dist cap gasket.
However, when she was ready to go back to school, she had the car out front warming up when it died. Started it up and it would't idle...it would run fine - no idle. Drove a couple miles on hwy - came back and it idled normally. Pulled it into the garage and pulled the ground wire off the thermostat housing (this wire was loose a couple years ago and was the culpret in a idle problem) cleaned it up and re-attached. Couldn't come up with anything else. Ran fine on the trip back to school (500 miles)....
Another mystery? I have lots of ideas on what to look for next time she's home. One includes changing the fuel filters - don't think that's been done in a while!!
thanks for the info folks!