1983 Accord Hatchback - Newbie needs help with the carburetor!

[Saavedro88]

Yesterday I traded an 88 4WS Prelude SI for this 1983 Honda Accord Hatchback. I thought I was getting the better deal, as the owner stated that the Accord was running perfectly. As soon as I saw the car, I could tell it was misfiring terribly, and smelled very rich, but I proceeded with the trade anyways for a myriad of reasons.



Since that time, I have been scouring the internet for ANY assistance I can find for these carburetors. What I do know is that this car has a re-manufactured carburetor on it, and in the paperwork that came with it, it states that the carburetor will need to be set up before use. I have no idea if the previous owner did anything with it at all, other than just plopping it on there, so what I really need is a baseline. What can I set this thing to to get it to run properly? What is a good general "base" or "standard" setup for each screw? For example, I have heard that the screw on the front of the carburetor under the throttle cable anchor should be seated, then unscrewed 1 and 3/4 turns, but when I do this, the car dies out and will not restart until I screw it all the way back in again.

Can anyone tell me PLEASE what to set all my other screws to? Thank you in advance!

[Dr_Snooz]

Man, you traded a 4WS Prelude for that? Those 4WS' are rare as hens' teeth. You must have wanted this one bad.

Anyway, you're dealing with the notorious Keihin carb. It's like going to battle with a Gorgon. You can win, but brother, it's not likely. The first thing you want to check is the float adjustment. Fortunately on that vintage Keihin, it's relatively easy. With the car warm and idling, you want the fuel level to fall in the middle of the site glass on the side of the carb. You adjust the floats with the big brass screws on top of the carb. Beyond that, you'll want to set idle speed and idle mixture (and about a zillion other things). The idle speed should be a fairly obvious black, plastic, screw knob on the back of the carb. The idle mixture will be a screw somewhere on the carb, I don't know where. Sorry. That screw controls the fuel mix at idle only. If you're smelling rich at idle, you want to adjust that screw until you don't smell rich anymore. You can geek out on all the three turns out, 1/4 turn back, take your right foot out and do the hokey pokey, or simply use your nose to tell you when the idle mix is right. Your nose is about as good a sensor as you can get.

Those few adjustments should get you reasonably well set. It's been a long time since I dealt with one of those Keihins, so someone else is gonna have to chime in with other stuff.

Good luck. (You'll need it)

[Saavedro88]

At this point, the accord isn't running at all, so getting it to idle isn't possible. Any time we try to make any adjustments to any of the screws, it dies, and all of them are almost, if not all the way turned in right now. I've never heard of a carburetor that didn't have at least some basic "3 turns out" base settings for initial startup.

[2oodoor]

Im assuming you tried sticking a screwdriver in the air horn to hold tbe choke open then hold tbe gas to the floor and crank it, this clears out a flooded engine. It should start up regardless of any settings other than closed float needle or bad fuel delivery ( pump-filter)
Once you get it running it would be a good idea to do a compression check, cam timing check and also once you can keep it running at some unasissted stage below 1500 rpm, move the distributor just a bit and look (using a timing light) how close the ignition timing is to showing any of tbe marks.
Make sure the secondary throttle plates are pulled shut at idle or with no throttle applied.
Sometimes, as well, people install the carbs improperly and may result in massive vaccuum leaks at the baseplate or carb throttle plates (butteflys) contacting the base gasket under there, which could hold either plate partialy open thus by passing any idle circuits.

[Saavedro88]

I cant believe there isn't more information on these things anywhere. I haven't been able to get this car to start for three weeks now, no matter what I do. Its simply DUMPING gasoline in the large hole of the carburetor.

Is there seriously no one that can help me out a little more with this?

[Dr_Snooz]

If it's dumping fuel into the barrel no matter how you adjust the float level, then I'd say you have a sunk float. It's overhaul time. You can try rebuilding it yourself, but you'd be better buying a rebuilt from importcarbs.com.

[Saavedro88]

If it's dumping fuel into the barrel no matter how you adjust the float level, then I'd say you have a sunk float. It's overhaul time. You can try rebuilding it yourself, but you'd be better buying a rebuilt from importcarbs.com.

This is brand new National carburetor. I certainly hope it isn't rebuild time... I'll have to give them a call.

[Dr_Snooz]

Bummer.

[Pulpfunction]

Have you checked to make sure there is not debris in the float needle?

[Pulpfunction]

There is actually 2 floats and 2 float needles in this carb( I just cleaned mine today). The primary one is on the outside and is manually connected to the throttle with linkage. The one in the middle is the secondary and is vacuum actuated. I believe the secondary is a also the idle circuit.

[Saavedro88]

I blindly took everything apart last weekend and found a torn seal in the float height adjustment. Replaced that, and now it will actually run, but still runs like poop.