Have I got a good one for you or at least me. car had sit up for 5 years. dad gave to daughter. she drove it for a week and she said it just died. towed it to my house. the cap and rotor were all coroded, changed rotor cap plugs and wires, no start, checked carb getting fuel. advanced timing way past the stops (took bolts out)and it started. turn distributor back to normal and idled fine, drove down the road about a mile and shut off just like with key, towed back to houseput reman. dist. in, no start. tried either, turning dist. every which way still no start, was cold outside so pushed in garage, played with it somemore after about 45 minutes it tried to start, turned distributor way advanced and it started, turned distributor back to normal and started car several times ran fine, let care sit in garage overnight next morning you guessed it , no start. turned on heater in garage and let warm up in there, sprayed either turn distributor andwanted to start and finally did.I can turn dist advanced and it will startthat is when its 60 degrees outside,when i turn dist back to normal where it runs fine it wont start. and wont start cold no matter what.

 

Hi new member,,,remember to start out by reading the forum posting rules ..I moved you over here..you posted in the wrong forum...

 

I would put a timing light on the spark plug wire and see if there is adequate spark to flash the timing light when the car is not starting.

I am not familiar on diagnosing a carb problem. I know that you should check that all of the vacuum hoses are in good shape.

Also check that all ends of both battery cables are clean and tight.

If you go to the DIY section and open up the online manuals thread, you can get a shop manual for an 86 accord (should be the same as an 87) from one of the sites linked in there. It will have instructions on how to set the timing properly.

 

Awwww, these flashbacks are starting to hurt.[sm=noooo.gif]

Check the vacum advance diaphrams on the dist,one is a cold start advance and the other is for normal advance under vacum. be sure they move the plate in the dist under 'manual' applied vacum.
Top tech tip; take the vacum lines off the metal tubes, not the plastic fitting on the advance unit.
Another real winner is the hot air door diaphram on the breather 'snorkle', usually that vacum hose gets destroyed taking it off the fitting.

Okay, now to top it all off the dist also has mechanical advance weights, you should be able to grab the rotor and twist it about 10-15 degrees, and then it will spring back in place.

 

sorry wheelbrokerang, i guess i got a little bit ahead of myself.

 

thanks pahonda, there are quite abit of vacuum lines on this, I did go over them and they looked to be weathered but not rotted, I did however spray carb spray around the hoses and did get a change of engine idle, so vacuum lines are probably a good place to start. there is no timing mark on the cover i dont know what happened to it but its gone. believe it or not there is a vacuum diagram on the hood and it looks to me like everything is in place. I'm getting good vacuum to the advance unit.

 

yes i did put a timing light on each wire and it flashed.

 

thanks for your reply hondadude, everthing seems to be ok in dist. I know the timing is advanced during startup, but Im turning the dist. to where the base for the bolts is past the bolt hole. I can tell you one other thing, the very first thing I did was to look down carb and pump accelerator and fuel was squirting down the barrel, but when I pulled the spark plugs out they were dry as a bone and I mean Ipoured at least a pint of gas down the carb all together and the plugs were never wet, thought something maybe restricting flow through the intake, after sitting five years in a pasture who knows. but after blowing air back through the spark plug out the carb I figured that was clear.any ways the air cleaner was on it with filter,when I got it.all thoughIdidmanage to getplugssoaked eventually. also I checked the fuel it looks ok. Im not understanding and and maybe headed down the wrong path already, but why would it start and run for 20 to 30 minutes then you turn it off and it will not restart, maybe it will maybe it wont. i will do somemore checking tomorrow or the next day and get back with results. thanks everyone for your time and help. Paul

 

it starts and runs now as long as the timing is 40 degrees advanced, I still havean erraticmiss from the timing being so far advanced but now I dont understand why the timing has to be so far advanced to start?