my wife drives a Honda Accord 1991 LX. old as shit i know. anyway, it recently wouldn't start. it would turn over, but it wasn't catching a spark. i couldn't diagnose the problem so a friend(mechanic) came by said a few dif things happened & need to be replaced. ie: distrib cap, plugs, plug wires, new valve cover gasket etc. i replaced all that & it now starts up like it should.

when she accelerates, it stumbles & almost dies before any acceleration occurs, and/or when she comes to a stop sign - it almost dies/sometimes does stall out/die. i know this can stem froma multitude of things...but when i was replacing the spark plugs, one of the plugs fell out of the spark plug socket & through the engine bay straight to the ground. i check out the plug & it didn't seem to be cracked or damaged anywhere, nor the tip. could this 1 plug be causing this problem? also, i noticed one of the plug wires doesn't fasten in completely to the valve where the spark plug is. like it's pushed all the way on the plug but it won't sit properly like the other 3 do. i can add pics to show what i mean about that. so CEL is on about a min or two after starting car now. of course, with this being an old car, you can't get the f'in codes read (grr).

should i go about changing spark plug by spark plug - before thinking it could be the oxygen sensor or something like that?

 

i am guessing it is fuel injected? i can't remember when honda got away from teh carberator

 

yes, fuel injected. it could also be fuel pump?
it drives me nuts not being able to read CEL codes on a car, especially a problem like this. just could be a number of things.

 

i would replace the one plug that dropped

 

if you haven't changed the plugs yet, i would change them out... they aren't that expensive for a set of plugs... and the one spark plug boot that isn't sitting right, is that on the plug that was dropped???

does that model have an Idle Control Valve? that may also need to be adjusted if it is dying during slow down/stop...

 

one way to check spark is to remove one plug at a time. Make sure it's still attached to the plug wire. set it somewhere on the motor as you do not want to hold it even with a glove when someone cranks the motor.

Have a second person crank the motor to see if there is spark. No spark?, that could be the bad plug wire/plug. This isn't a guarantee but a decent way to check the older cars' spark.

Remove the other plugs one at a time and test.

 

well that's what i'm trying to remember. i can't remember which spot i put in the one that dropped

i'll have to check the service manual i just downloaded, not sure about the ICV. it was running a bit rough before all the part replacements but nothing like what it does now at idle/coming to a stop/accelerating.

thanks. will try this when i get home today. i should actually see a spark while cranking, right?

 

yes... and even wth a bad O2 sensor, car shouldn't bog like htat...

 

gotcha. yeah, you're right.
the guy who was helping me was messing with the timing (can't remember why). he just said that's probably the culprit. so will check that out first before i start the spark plug route. thanks again guys.

 

to get teh timing fixed, it will need to be set by someone who is experienced. I can do most things on a car and i won't touch the timing.

 

i was hoping that was something easy my father-in-law could fix.
i wonder how much/long it'd cost to do on this type of car

 

Better to remove each spark plug wire from a plug at a time. When you remove one that doesn't cause the engine to stumble and idle very roughly, it is either the plug or a wire. Now insert an allen wrench of about the same size as the plug's positive terminal and move it close to ground somewhere on your engine (use gloves and don't touch the wrench). If you see a spark,
your wire's Ok. Pull the plug and do the same thing you did with the allen wrench and look for a spark jumping the electrodes (probably won't happen). This is your bad plug.

Other possibilities?

o Dirty throttle body.
o Dirty fuel system, in particular the injectors.
o Timing is off (check for pinging and lack of acceleration at higher RPM's).
o Improper spark plug gap or the dropped plug ground electrode shorting to the positive electrode.
o Crankshaft sensor.

 

damn i love these forums
can get so much information from you guys

 

a timing belt typically costs 3-600 to replace, i am sure it would cost 1-200 for someone to open things up to make sure the teeth are on their marks.

It may not even be the timing, unless your friend was really screwing around in there.

 

im still trying to figure out how to f' up timing without taking off the timing belt?

 

With a distributor cap, your timing could be really advanced, or retarded (I know, but no pun really). Checking it does take some experience and a good timing light.

It would not hurt to change all the plugs. And be sure they are gapped IAW your manual. Also listen to SoutherBoy....

 

unless it was like the old 80's gm's where you can just pull the distributor from the motor and screw all kinds of things up.

 

ya just to clear things up. i think i left that important part out. the other person who was helping took the entire distributor out & moved something around on one end. i'm assuming that's what's causing my problems in terms of timing being off.
so only way to really fix is with timing light + experience eh?

 

As others have mentioned, it definitely seems to be the timing. Adjusting the timing on a vehicle with a distributor is fairly simple, although I seem to recall reading somewhere years ago that some Honda products have the timing marks near the bellhousing as opposed on the crankshaft pulley.

I've never adjusted the timing on a Honda, but for the most part you run the engine until warm, shut off, and attach timing light to the battery and number one plug wire. Restart car and let run for a few minutes. Point light at alignment marks and rotate the distributor in small increments until the timing alignment marks are within specification. Make sure that all electrically driven components such as the radio and heater are turned off.


Terry

 

Timing in the context being used here has nothing to do with the timing belt. A timing belt turns the camshaft at one half the speed of the crankshaft. The timing being talked about here is ignition timing.

On older cars, this was a simple task. Basically, you loosened the distributor yoke, attached the timing light clip over the #1 spark plug wire, then pointed the light to the harmonic balancer's timing marks. Then you turned the distributor until you lined up the degrees BTDC you wanted, tightened up the yoke and you were good to go.