Honda makes/sells an adapter for fuel pressure testing, but it only works with their gauge set up. You could tap into the fuel filter outlet with a kit from the zone or O'Reilly's. I bought the adapter for 97 Accord (from Parts Tree, for the Honda marine application), then added an end to it for my fuel pressure gauge set up. It works great, and even works on my son's 98 Civic. I gave him the adapter after I sold my 97 Accord (it doesn't work on my 99 or 00 Accords).

 

Haven't been able to do much more testing on this in the last week, but started it up this weekend in the driveway. It started no problem and idled in park for 10 mins until it warmed up and that's when it stalled again. When restarting it, I noticed the tachometer jumping all over the place between 0 and 1500 rpms but the engine didn't rev up or down when this occurred. Within a min or so it stalled again and then it gets harder to restart. When it is hard to start, I turned the key to on and can hear the fuel pump. I was planning to swap main relay but now I'm thinking it is spark related with the distributor/ignitor and not the main relay. After I let is sit for 5-10 minutes, it starts up again with no problem and then the pattern is fairly repeatable. Any thoughts?

 

Is your accord a 4-cylinder or a V6?

 

4-Cylinder

 

The tachometer signal is generated by the ignition control module, so the tach jumping all over the place points towards a spark issue.

You'll need to verify to narrow down the culprit. The ignition control module and the coil would be my next places to test.

I think the DX has the external coil, where you should be able to use a test light. Another option is to find a u-pull-it junkyard and get a 96/97 LX/DX ignition control module and coil and save money.

We can give you some tests if you'd like to try them.

 

I did test the ignition coil which is external to the distributor on my engine and resistance and continuity were in spec. Sounds like I need to find an ignition control module to swap out.

 

My 97 Accord LX had the divorced coil set up, but then it was a non-VTEC engine. If you have the VTEC engine, you got the built in coil. I know, as I ran into this issue when trying to buy tune up parts for mine. The cap and rotor are different too, but nobody will tell which is which in the parts description. They do call out the Hitachi version, but don't tell you what it is. Nothing like making your life even more complicated when buying parts.

 

Hi zombiepigs, and all.
I didn't mean to hijack the topic but my 92 accord (4cyl, AT,215k) has the same issue right now. I have a new distributor ready but not yet to replace as not sure if it's the cause. No code was shown. The tach jumped up and down but engine did not rev up down, then died.
Ticktock

 

If you already have a distributor, I would try swapping it out to see if that fixes your problem.

I tried to get to my ignition control module to check out the connections, but the darn rotor screw wouldn't come off and I ended up stripping the screw! I'm going to try one of those screw extractor bits but if that fails I'll just break off the rotor. Nothing is ever easy!

 

We did that on my son's Civic. I don't know who tightened that screw, or how long it was in there, but it wasn't coming out. Once we broke the rotor off, we used vice grips on the screw and got it out. The new rotor came with a new screw, so it didn't matter we weren't able to re-use the old one.