1987 LX Accord has weak / intermittent spark and won't start

[theokengineer]

I have an 1987 LX Accord with 300,000 miles that has weak / intermittent spark and won't start. This happened a couple of times when the weather was real humid. The car wouldn't start in the morning 7 months ago but finally did in the afternoon when it warmed up. Not sure that is related to anything but now it won't start at all. Here are the clues:

Starter turns over strong
Have fuel going into the carb but even putting in starting fluid does nothing
Pulled plug and have compression and spark but spark is slow (it fires about half speed)
Regapped plugs - no affect
Found crack in distributor cap so I replaced it and the rotor - no affect

Thought I would test the coil, but the check I have gives resistances at 70 F. Does anyone know what they would be at 50F? I could just take if off the car and warm it up in the house I guess.

Any help would be appreciated.

[skong]

I believe you have symptoms of a bad main relay, cold weather is not a friend of the main relay, im only about 75% sure, lol



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[Jafir]

I believe you have symptoms of a bad main relay, cold weather is not a friend of the main relay, im only about 75% sure, lol



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Carb cars don't have a main relay in the same way that lxi does. And my experience has been that the main relay doesn't like hot weather.

I would think coil or igniter, coil being more common to fail than the igniter.

[Dr_Snooz]

x2 on coil and igniter. Just pull the coil and take it into the house. The test for the igniter is on p. 24-9 of the 1986-1989 Accord Master Manual available here: Honda service manuals - The 3geez Wiki

Let us know what you turn up.

[theokengineer]

I checked out the coil per the manual and it had two open circuits. I was going to just buy one but a friend has the same coil so I tested his and it had the same readings but his car starts so I put his coil in my car and it started right up. Not sure why I got the bad readings during the check out, but the coil is definitely the problem. Thanks to all who provided help.

[Jafir]

I've had the same issue with coils and igniters, from all makes and models. Tests good but be bad or test bad but still seems to work.

I'm glad you got it sorted out.