Carb? Please Help!! 89 accord LX.. just bought it...

[hisherlx]

Just bought a 89 accord lx, carburated (sp) automatic. Sometimes< when i start it, it shoots up to 2000 rpm, and after a couple of minutes, i can manually kick it down to about 1000.. 1200. i know, high. The guy from the car lot says it is probably the carb. It seems rather gutless to me.. struggling to get to 55, then is fine... when i come to a stop, sometimes it drops down to 800, while in drive. (it also shifts rather hard when i go from P to D or R., not while it's in motion) I love this car, but am baffled. I've read through the other carb links, and am still lost. The boyfriend wants to put a weber on it, which is fine.. but what else could it be? Please, if anyone has had this prob, or has any ideas, we would love to hear them, before we get in toooo far in over our heads.. lol... Angie

[Tailfin]

It can be dealt with, but if you ask me, the boyfriend has the right idea. I have torn apart one of these carbs piece by piece with factory service manual in hand and still had issues. Your particular issue is from the fast idle cam. It's a little circular sort of doodad with little steps on it, which the throttle arm rests against. You'll see a little rod in the area that goes to a diaphram, with a couple vacuum hoses attached to it. Those hoses control the vacuum to that diaphram. When the engine warms up, coolant washes over a thermovalve (little thing sticking out of the back of the intake manifold--driver side, I believe for this thing), and then vacuum sucks on the hose from there to the diaphram, which pulls that little rod, getting the fast idle cam out of the way of the throttle lever, lowering the idle speed w/ engine temperature in effect.... Then the marble drops into the bucket, the man does a backflip...wait...no sorry...too far here :-D.

Anyway, that's where to start looking for this problem. It's supposed to idle high at first, but after it's warmed up it should be down at least under 1000. So you want to check the vacuum hoses to that diaphram (if it's like the one I had, an 88, it's the only diaphram that's black plastic), the diaphram itself for any breakage/leakage, the thermovalve (you can test it by putting it in boiling water then try to blow through it...it should block off different passageways when heated), but watch for coolant spilling a bit if you go after that.

I personally prefer the vacuum removal as suggested on this site...and I just removed the fast idle system entirely and opted for a happy medium of an 1100 idle or so, but even then, I had some other picky carb issues... So give it a try if you like, but if you guys have the cash on hand and are mechanically savvy enough to put a weber on...please do--you'll sleep better ;).

[hisherlx]

thank you so much. you are so helpful. the boyfriend had an 86 lxi, and knows about injected stuff. but this is all new for the both of us. YOU ROCK!!!
kipp has been a member here for awhile, and i can see why!!! thank you.. will keep in contact and see what unfolds... lol...:wave:

[MessyHonda]

yeah in your state is legal to put on a weber...i had to switch out 3 carbs into my car till i got it running good enought for a smog check in california. they are not nice to work with when you dont know alot about carbs...i noticed that some carb cleaner and seafoam helped calm the carb down a bit.

[bubba g]

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

http://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53700

Some idle stuff^^, I would try some adjustments after looking for vacuum leaks and stuff sticking.

[2oodoor]

Sounds like you have a motor or transmission mount broken too.. having the car idled up so high and putting it in gear like that is very hard on those mounts and the exhaust system.
Like Tailfin says, and like I did, I just removed all the fast idle and choke hardware and wired the choke butterfly open and that cured 95 percent of my runaway idle problems. Starting it was easy considering there was no choke, about the same thing I do now with the weber I finally changed to... pump the gas about three times and start it.

It is really agrivatting to remove all of that air cleaner assembly every time you want to tweak on the carb.

[cygnus x-1]

Just bought a 89 accord lx, carburated (sp) automatic. Sometimes< when i start it, it shoots up to 2000 rpm, and after a couple of minutes, i can manually kick it down to about 1000.. 1200. i know, high. The guy from the car lot says it is probably the carb. It seems rather gutless to me.. struggling to get to 55, then is fine... when i come to a stop, sometimes it drops down to 800, while in drive. (it also shifts rather hard when i go from P to D or R., not while it's in motion) I love this car, but am baffled. I've read through the other carb links, and am still lost. The boyfriend wants to put a weber on it, which is fine.. but what else could it be? Please, if anyone has had this prob, or has any ideas, we would love to hear them, before we get in toooo far in over our heads.. lol... Angie

The fast idle on cold starts in normal. But it sounds like the carb linkages are cruddy and sticking. First blast all the linkages with carb cleaner and work them around to free up any built up gunk. Then spray some down in the carb barrels with the engine running and work the throttle a bit. This helps clean out the varnish that tends to build up over the years.

It also sounds like maybe the TV cable needs to be adjusted. TV stands for throttle valve. It's a valve inside the transmission that actuates when you press the throttle down hard to make the transmission downshift for better acceleration. I'm not familiar with the adjustments of this for the Accord but there are old threads about this around. And I think it might even be in the stickies.

A Weber swap is a great way to go but involves some commitment of money and time.

Good luck!

C|

[2oodoor]

yea the struggling to get to 55 part sounds like the TV cable could be partly to blame. Do not adjust it yet not until you have the carb a little better because the tune up on the car does affect the accuracy of the adjustment in regards to best shift points and throttle position... believe it or not

[hisherlx]

thanks to all of you.. Kipp's gonna try to check all of these little tips out. it surprised me how tricky these great cars can be.. lol.. i'm sure we'll be back soon.. reading along.. thank you again!!!!