Crazy Tach

[1987HondaAccord]

Hey,
I was starting my car today when I noticed the tach was jumping all over the place. It was jumping between 1k and 2k while it was cranking. I have noticed that the tach will jump a little when the car is on sometimes. Is this a problem or is this something that can just be ignored. Should I designate several hours of my precious time to figure out what the problem is?
If anyone is out there that has had the same problem and solved it, it would be great to hear how they did it.

Thanks for you help

[AccordEpicenter]

Your distributor is going bad. Just open the hood and listen to it, it prolly sounds like a bunch of rocks are in it.

[njpeter]

was due to a bad voltage regulator, shortly after I got the car the alternator crapped out, after replacment the tach behaved. Get a voltmeter on it, you don't want trouble in this weather

[AccordEpicenter]

bad voltage regulators are rare, but do happen. I would still bet its ur distributor, particularly if the distributor is making funny noises.

[1987HondaAccord]

Ok. I stuck my head under the hood and there was a quiet, almost unnoticable noice coming from the distributor. It sounded like there was a little stone in there that was getting hit around. So, How urgent is it that I replace it? What performance upgrades/replacements are there and how much do they cost?

Thanks for the help!!!

[mindlos]

Take off your distributor cap and see if you have any red dust in the housing and under the cap. Or any historical evidence of it for that matter. Means the bearing is shot hence the noise. At its worst it would cause some erratic timing/firing. If you dont have this then I wouldnt worry. I had this recently and I could clearly hear the rattle standing up with hood open and had some fresh red dust. I'm sure a good one probably makes some noise if you put your ear to it but I dont know how much.

[SiCReX]

FUCK mine does the same thing while its cranking but after the engine starts it runs fine and the tach doesn't jump around at all. are you sure its the distributor?

[AccordEpicenter]

pretty sure... ive replaced 2 distributors and both sounded like shit

[Tref_LXI]

Yeah i had the jumping tach for about 200 miles, then my engine blew up. I doubt thats the problem, but I just thought i would tell you what it could be.

[1987HondaAccord]

Originally posted by Tref_LXI
Yeah i had the jumping tach for about 200 miles, then my engine blew up.

Thanks, now I feel really confident driving around...

[mindlos]

BTW, is it only the tach jumping when the car is running or is the engine skipping around with it, if you can tell from the sound/vibrations?????? I'd hate for you to worry too much just about the gauge....

[1987HondaAccord]

it was just the guage... the engine feels smooth. It misses, or has a little roughness at idle though.

[meohmy01]

ok. mine started to do the same thing today. the destributor was replaced like a year ago when the old one cracked in half. my engine sounds like crap but im not sure what it is. also there is a new leak from around the destibutor is there any way that oil leakage could have an effect on it?

[AccordEpicenter]

probably not

[meohmy01]

ok. then do you know what might be causing it?

[meohmy01]

hello. the car is still doing it. it bothers the hell out of me.

[meohmy01]

i opened up my distributor ca and it is full of red dust. the cap itself had a lot of wear where the rotor strikes it. like 3/32 of an inch. is this norman? could it affect idle?

[mindlos]

Was your distributor replaced with a NEW one a year ago? As to what you do really depends on whether your timing is jumping around. If the engine does not hiccup and gallop as a sign misfiring I would wait a little. But that just being budget conscious. Seems a distributor should last way longer than yours did before the bearing started going.

You should also clean the points on the cap and rotor. They usually accumulate some crusty oxides. If the points are severely worn then you might get a new cap and rotor. If you are in line for a new distributor then dont waste your money on a cap and rotor only to get another shortly later with a new distributor.

[meohmy01]

well i didn't own the car when that was replaced. so whether or not it was new, used, or reconditioned is beyond me. but i would hope it would last longer than that. but this also wasn't the first replacement distributor on this car. my cousin owned it for 3 years or so and replaced it twice.

[meohmy01]

i have a new problem now. i accidentally over reved it. like up to 7500 or so. i started it with my foot on the gas and forgot to take it off before it reached redline. now when you hit the gas it like studders and sounds like a lawn mower. when you are starting from a stop it will stall if you haven't reved it up enough. i took the cap off again and it had some water in it could this be a sourse of the problem? isn't there suppose to be an o ring for the distributor cap. it must have gotton wet from me rinsing out my engine bay.

[MrBen]

Maybe.

[meohmy01]

that's all it was thank god.but the tach is still all freaky.

[MrBen]

Perfect of example of why not to redline it

[meohmy01]

i always redline my cars. of course the redline on the 94 is 7200 so it can get confusing switching from car to car.