89-LX Carb A20 Taking a slide.....

[zwolf]

1989 Accord LX with a carbureted A20 'n' 5-speed m/t, bought it in March. My girl drives it to n from school.

For a month, it runs nice and smooth, just not a single thing wrong about it. Good power, smooth idle. One wierd thing: You push the A/C on-off button, the car dies. Start it back up, it runs no problem, and does not run wierd.

One week ago, it gets the stumble: Starts fine, hot or cold. Idles fine hot or cold. Rev the engine up, it spins up fast and smooth, and comes back down smooth, nor rebound or surging. Get it on the road, and try to accelerate more than a little bit, and it clunks and dies, or all-but-dies.

So I garaged it, and start spending money:

Replaced both fuel filters. Test drove it. That was not the problem. Replaced the Oxygen sensor, test drove it, and that was not the problem.

Did an ignition tune-up, and slid straight into hell: I replaced the ignition coil, the complete distributor, including igniter module, the dizzy cap and rotor, the radio condenser capacitor by the coil, the plug wires and the spark plugs.
All the replacement components are Bosch, the Dizzy is a factory HKM reman of a Hitachi D28.

Now the car wont start. Timing light shows Cyl #1 and 4 getting a spark pulse but not #2 and 3. New distributor. Old Distributor same story with either one. New coil / old coil, same problem with either one. I checked the T-belt. All teeth intact, and fairly new. The Cam Gear is not pointing up straight with the crank at the timing mark for #1 TDC: The cam is about 10-12 degrees behind (after) dead-center. I will slip the belt and set the camshaft right and try again, but what do you guys all think?

What did I maybe miss or mess up?

First I will set the timing, and purge the cylinders and change the oil, then try to get it to run again. I will replace the fuel pump next, and then the ECU, the EFE controller and the other control gizmo for the solenoid valves next to the EFE box.

Or what? What am I not seeing? Any help is much appreciated...

Tx/ Zwolf

[carotman]

Bosch components aren'T the best when it comes to Honda. I would check that area.

[Oldblueaccord]

Might be the wrong cap and rotor or just the wrong rotor. If you have spark on 2 cylinders and not on two I would look there first. If not I'd swap back to the old distribtor and see what that does.

Im wondering with your original problem if the fuel pump is going out.


wp

[Blkblurr]

the original problem seems like a vacuum leak or a clogged cat. On the missing spark are you sure it's not sparking? did you change the plugs? did you take the plug from a working cyl and put it on a bad one?

[A20A1]

Did you check the ground wires, especially the one by the thermostat housing... if not that then maybe a fuse inside or inside the engine bay blew.

[LX-incredible]

Sometimes a timing light won't pick everything up. Check for spark visually either by using an old plug, or by inserting a piece of metal in the boot and holding it close to a ground. If the wires, plugs, cap, and rotor check out and you are only getting spark on 2 cylinders I would check the reluctor. The reluctor is the four-toothed thing directly under the rotor. One chipped tooth on the reluctor would result in a weak or nonexistent signal from the pickup coil in two cylinder positions.