hello all,
I bought an '88 Honda Accord LX four speed from a private party some weeks back, it drove fine when we checked it out. When I drove it to work one night, after warming it up, whenever I try to stop at a light, the engine dies. I had to keep it in neutral and rev the engine just so I wouldnt have to keep on restarting it. Now, whenever I start it to warm it up, the idle goes real high, sometimes going to 3000 rpms and then it idles down to about 1000, then goes to a little below it, then goes up again, and finally when I rev it a bit it dies. This is my first Honda and my first stick shift, so I'd appreciate any thoughts. Thanks.

 

Lots of things could go wrong in a carb of that age. Kinda hard to diagnose online, you might have to find some old guy with a grey beard to check it out. lol

Check the hot air door diaphram,[breather snorkle] and the vacuum advance diaphram on the dist.
Next remove the breather, plug all vac. lines on the passenger side of the carb.
Check that the fuel level is visable in the carb sight glass. [drivers side]
Next thing to do is start the engine and check the choke pull off Diaphram.
top front passenger side of the carb, pinch off both vacuum lines going to it and be sure the choke plate opens.
I've also seen misadjusted idle boost and let downs hold open the lower throttle plate, as well as the throttle plate hanging open because the shaft/Carb is worn out.
As a last resort you can try to STUFF IT;
Rev it up to around 5k RPM and slam your hand over the carb opening.........DON"T LET IT STALL.
This uses engine vacuum to pull gas thru all the jets to clear things out.

 

I would verify the choke is working correctly. It should be closed when cold after you push the gas pedal down and open about a ¼” or so after it starts and be fully open after it warms up. Hold a rag over the carb when it warms up and see if it smoothes out and stays running. The rag trick tells you the car is running lean if it corrects the problem.