My old 86' needs a break every 1/2 hour when driving on Hwy. Weird???

Ok, this is a bizarre problem with my old (sentimental) accord. It's got 270K on it, carb version. When driving on the highway for extended periods it'll just slowly lose power to the point where I'm going only maybe 30 mph max. I'll pull over, pull the spark plug wires (checked to see if they were loose, acted like it was running on less than 4 cylinders) plug them back up as normal and the damn thing will run like a champ again. After another 1/2 hr or so, same thing, pull wires, plug up and she runs strong again. Should mention that it never gets hot during this process and never does this during around town driving.

A friend said that my car was building up an electrostatic charge and by pulling the wires it negates that charge. Sounds crazy to me, anyone have any idea what I'm talking about or have any suggestions how to correct it?

Thanks for the input!

How old are the wires and what kind?

check your plugs wired cap rotor and ground straps also give the carb a good cleaning

I thought it may be the wires also and replaced them with factory Honda wires. Plugs are changed every year and cap and rotor are relatively new as well.

also you may want to check for any vacume leaks

A similar thing happened with my mom's car only on the freeway. We never could figure out what was wrong, but it only happened when it was low on gas.

Also, you may think that doing that to the wires is fixing it... try pulling off the road one time and letting it sit for a few minutes, then try to start.

It could be so many things, like a dirty fuel tank, dirty fuel filters, loose venturi in the carb, bad spark plug/wires... I'm just naming a few.

When you loose power, when does it happen? Low on gas? Does it buck and jolt while slowing down? If it does it's probably fuel related. If it doesn't buck, my guess is ignition related.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by GhettoAccord

A similar thing happened with my mom's car only on the freeway. We never could figure out what was wrong, but it only happened when it was low on gas.

Also, you may think that doing that to the wires is fixing it... try pulling off the road one time and letting it sit for a few minutes, then try to start.

It could be so many things, like a dirty fuel tank, dirty fuel filters, loose venturi in the carb, bad spark plug/wires... I'm just naming a few.

When you loose power, when does it happen? Low on gas? Does it buck and jolt while slowing down? If it does it's probably fuel related. If it doesn't buck, my guess is ignition related.

---

Thanks for the replys guys. When I lose power, it's usually after maybe 20-30 minutes of interstate driving. Happens when with both cruise on or off. It'll just slowly start to lose power, like it's dropping HP. Usually it will take about 2-4 minutes to go from 75 down to about 30 mph. You can have the pedal to the floor, it just won't go. It doesn't jerk or buck, it's actually pretty smooth, just no power. So I pull over, do the ol' pull the wires trick and wala, she'll start right up and run back up to 75 again for another 20 minutes or so.

I drove from Paducah to Nashville one time. (140 miles) Had to pull over like 6 times I think, was a pain in the ass. I guess it should be expected with a car with that kind of mileage though.

It's not to be expected with a car of that mileage. I've got 240,000 and going strong. Jared has about 350,000 on his and others have in the 400,000 range.

I'm out of ideas though. I'm sure someone will have some more input for you.

Good luck :)

I had something similar happen when I was driving from New Mexico Back to New Jersey. It only did it twice since I had had the car. We never could figure out what it was and its been awhile since I have had the car. Sorry I couldnt be of more help. I only had it happen after filling up at one gas station on the way back to jersey and the way back here.

On old fords the ignitor would get hot causing the car to slow down and die,

Maybe the ignitor on the car is getting hot and when you stop, it cools enough to start. Just a new idea.

I'd probably start looking at another dist. to see if that's the prob. Like 2 bolts and easy swap. I'm sure someone has one round here.

Mike

How old is your coil?

Check your ignitor. My friend's 87 lude had a similar problem... would lose power and outright die. He'd take a piece of ice and put it on the ignitor for a minute or so and vroom, it's come back to life for a while. We replaced the ignitor and had no troubles after that.

I've actually never changed the coil. I looked in the Haynes manuel and they mentioned an ignitor for the 84-85 model but no mention of an ignitor on the 86 and up. How much are they? I'll check into it though. Thanks for all the help, god knows this car needs it...ha