[Note, accidentally requested in DIY section and thread was removed, reposing here because I can not find the thread that was moved. If this is a duplicate please delete one of them, I appreciate it.]

Hi All,

1989 Accord A/T carb model.

I have seem many threads around the internet detailing how to remove the vacuum 'black box' and most of the mess of vacuum lines from this car, however many of them have had all of the pictures removed (broken links) which is a critical part of the tutorial. Does anyone have anything saved around here which details how to go about doing this mod?

Thanks you for reading!

 

Can I guess that many of these also reference a weber carb replacement?

Anyway, can't help with saved pic's or links....never thought of doing this to any of my carb'd 3rd gen's.

A way to think about this......you are basically moving the car to a "non" computer controlled fuel system...then if you go all out, many states don't have too many laws on the 86-89 cars, you can take out the emissions side of things as well.

Then. to me since I'm use to them, it would end up much like the 66 Chevelle I have. Pretty sure there is only one real vac line in it, to the dist to advance the timing......even the crankcase vent is just a hose off the back of the block running to open air.

Anyway, did you try searching for a "weber conversion" for this car?

 

Hey Again poorman,

I have searched a few ideas but from what I can find they just say to 'remove everything' which I guess would look ok if you were installing a weber because there will only be ports for what you need and you can get rid of the rest. For the stock carb though I am not sure what I need to keep to let it continue to work.

A little background that you may recall is that I was having some low compression problems on the engine, so recently I finished swapping it and the new junkyard engine has better compression but the carb has been sitting and does not run all too well. Currently it only idles with the choke closed and there is like a 1 second delay in throttle response haha. I was thinking most of the vacuum controlled parts are most likely screwed anyway so to have the least headaches I was considering removing the excess lines and components. Let me know if this line of thinking is flawed.

I don't mind removing the emissions electronic parts because the car does not need to pass inspections any more anyway.

Thanks!

 

With the controls the computer is trying to do, removing "some lines" gets tricky.

What is the idle rpm when it is cold - choke closed?

Do you have the old carb - yes I remember it had some issues (think there was a wire tie on the choke?).

If it will only idle with the choke closed, it is running lean....could one of those thousand vac lines have a leak/disconnected.

 

With choke closed the rpm is close to 400 - about to die. There is no 'high idle' even with the choke closed the whole time.

The old carb is sitting with the old engine. Yes it had the choke problem but seemingly so does the new carb. I tested that applying 12v to the coil with an external device does indeed open the choke, so it seems more that the supply wire is not providing 12v for some reason - but thats another issue.

I am pretty sure it is related to the vac lines but it could also be the timing. We put on another timing belt before installing the engine and were super careful to not move any of the cogs, but the timing might have been off anyway. First time doing this job so not sure if that sounds absurd or not

 

Or it might be the carb to intake gasket is not sealing. Another possibility would be a leaking intake manifold to head seal.
You might try either spraying WD40, or carb cleaner at the ends of the hoses and base of the carb. If you're using WD 40, it'll cause a slight increase in engine speed. Carb cleaner has a tendency to slow the engine down a little. If it raises with the WD 40, you've found your vacuum leak.
Just something I learned from my "carb days" that applies to EFI as well.

 

Didn't get any results with the sprays yet (vac leaks), but I might try again at a different temperature. Today the choke was fixed (the cable was giving flaky voltages so spliced it to the coil power wire). And for the idle just turning the screw next to the throttle cable enough managed to get it relatively stable. Still kind of all over the place though range of ~800 rpm without touching anything, which is kind of disconcerting. There looks to be a bad exhaust leak as well so I will try for that next. Turning the distributor around made the idle speed vary a bit but it still never stopped the misfire sound between 1.5 and 2.5 rpm.

Until next weekend!

 

Check the base timing just to be sure it if in range.

 

Hey Poorman, would you know of a link to a good tutorial on checking that? I can't say I have tried the procedure before.

 

I don't have a link to a video or anything, there might be one out there

High level, there is the "inspection window" where the trans and block "mate" just below the dist. With age/time the marks on the flywheel are hard to see so I would spin the engine to TDC #1 and look though that hole and be sure you can see the marks.

Off the top of my head I can't remember but there are at last two marks on the flywheel. One is 0 TDC and there is another at 15 BTDC. I've used old nail polish - don't tell the wife - to "paint" the marks so I can see them.....remember I'm old and almost blind.

On a carb'd engine, once the car is warm - normal op temp, pull and plug the #2 vac hose from the vac advance- OE vac lines are numbered, if not it should be the one closest to the metal base of the dist where the cap mounts.

Connect up your timing light - be sure in "inductive clamp" on the #1 wire is (belt end of engine) is clear of the other plug wires or you will get strange readings. The timing should be at the 15 mark.

If not. Before you do anything, use a marker and make a line on the dist "ear" to the head, the one towards the front of the car as it is the easiest to see.....this allows you to get back to "start" if all goes wrong, Then loosen the bolts (3 ?), again use the one at the front of the car as your "hold" bolt....it doesn't take much to tighten that one bolt to hold the dist once you've dialed in the timing needed.