Im starting with replacing the carb, only because its difficult and I ran across an NOS unit for cheap, AND all the vac lines look brand new, possibly recently replaced. Dealer who sold to me, specializes in older collectible cars on ebay, has quite good feedback, so I believe him when he says it ran great for the month they had it before the sale.

ANy other thoughts on why it would die when put in drive or reverse, and not otherwise? Any mixture adjustments or other things I should know about the Kein carb before dropping it in? Anyone done a like for like Kein carb swap on the 81-83's before? Any tricks?

thanks fellas...

 

Automatic or manual? I assume manual based on your posting?

 

Sorry, I knew I needed to include that bit of info and forgot. Automatic.

 

Now Im seeing reference to a popular carb swap to a Weber. Are these Keins prone to issues? SHould I not bother swapping in this NOS Kein I picked up?

 

bump...still working this issue as Ive been away for quite a while and am now ready to dig in again and solve this problem.

I know there cant be many vintage honda enthusiasts wandering this forum, but wanted to bump it up. Will search vintage forums also....thanks guys.

 

If I had a carb that was new from the '80's I would rebuild it. The rubber parts get hard. The base gasket needs to be new, not just unused. Also, didn't cars of that era have lots of vacuum lines? Check them all. Also they may be several caps or plugs on vacuum ports. Get a vacuum gauge, cheap. I have several. At least four. I have no idea why I have so many. Check things like plug wires to distributor caps to egr valves. See if you local library has a repair manual for a Honda from that era.

Let us know what the cause is when you find it.