89 Accord Struggling and Stalling at idle

[George89]

Hey guys wondering if anyone can give me some advice, I've owned this 89 Accord LX for years and I love the car but after running perfectly fine for the better part of a year, it just suddenly started to give me problems after I drove it to work, shut it off, came back and cranked it to find this newly developed problem.. don't you just hate that?

Anyways, it's drivable I've driven it for 5 days with this problem, all I really do is give it extra gas to keep it from stalling out, if I know I'm coming to a stop I throw it in N and pump the gas lightly I drive standard too, so working gas pedal and brake pedal in this fashion isn't hard for me although this car is an Auto tranny.

It has a real rough idle, in N will stutter and put struggling to stay alive. I avoid coming to complete or almost complete stops while in gear. A couple years ago I had a flooding problem and found a mechanic out of state who knew Honda Carbs, he did a minor rebuild and the problem was float related. If it does stall it cranks right back up and I just have to give it extra gas. I'm just happy the fast idle still works in the morning, because its getting colder here and that functionality is mucho important. Once it drops to what its supposed to be in regular idle though, it will stall if I let it, Neutral has become my best friend with this issue, I've checked vacuum lines and bought some new NGK plugs and some new wires that I'll be replacing soon just to rule out a possible misfiring cylinder.

If its carb related again.. I wonder if there's anything I can do to raise the idle? I drive 3-4 miles on bumpy roads. I know there are several screws on the carb, I definitely don't want to change the fast idle settings which I believe are on the passenger side of the carb by the fast idle cam. It seems to be running lean it used to run too rich (flooding) I'd love to take it to that mechanic again because he knows which screws to tinker with and which vacuum lines to unplug/plug up when doing a quick rig adjustment he's just far away from my home and busy I'd want to call him and make an appointment for him to have at least an hour to check it out but its a little inconvenient at the moment. Plus he doesn't like messing with them anymore I can tell although he has helped me out. Also could my PCV valve be bad?

Edit: Car has 126k original miles, replaced fuel pump twice in the past 40k miles as well as fuel filter. Only run with Non-Ethanol Gas since over a year ago.

[Dr_Snooz]

I'd start by looking over the ignition system. Test the coil and if you haven't done a tune-up recently, do it now. After that, download the manual (http://geminiwebhosting.ca/1989AccordServiceManual.pdf) and spend some time reading through the carb section. There are a lot of electric solenoids, vacuum pots and actuators that can go bad and cause all kinds of problems. The manual contains tests for each control that is worth doing.

[George89]

Thank you, I will be replacing my spark plugs and wires this weekend, as for the coil how exactly do I test it? I will look this up also..

[George89]

Update: Replaced plugs and wires no change still wants to stall out once fully warmed up w/o giving extra gas. I believe one or more of my solenoid valves are bad will be looking for the parts, specifically Frequency Solenoid valve C and the Idle Boost solenoid valve.

[George89]

Was able to work on it today! I removed the top breather box as well as some hoses and lines and gazed upon the 89 Keihin carburetor and its ridiculous vacuum hose jungle for emission regulations in all its grandeur. Anywho, I removed the primary slow-mixture cutoff solenoid valve and tested it with success it retracted each time I gave it ground which was several times. Reinstalled and checked all my vacuum lines taping the ends of a few that were splitting. Went to crank her up, immediately fired up fast idled, and once it was time to drop to idle speed after warming it died.

Soo I decided to screw with the idle adjustments, raised the breather box with a long wrench and tweeked with the Throttle stop screw, Adjusting screw A and Adjusting screw B until luckily I found an adjustment that kept it from stalling out even in gear with my foot on the brake! Its a little rough in gear while stopped (shaky around 750 or so rpm) and a little high in park or N (1100 rpm) which is fine by me as long as its not stalling all the time like it was. In fact the couple times I had it adjusted by a mechanic who knew what he was doing, it was always a little high in park a 25 year old carbureted engine with the original carburetor just will not run like new! Ever again! lol but thank you for all the advice, I now have a basic understanding of the idle screws and there adjustment effects having studied the service manual as well.

[a20adam]

Mine did the same thing. I took brake cleaner and sprayed all the vacume lines while the motor was running. And the idle picked up. I did a little digging and spraying and found a leaky vacume line. I replaced it and it runs fine now.