I just bought a 92 Honda Accord LX, 5 speed manual, 200K miles, with a new head installed. There are some expected problems, like idle loping, that I'm checking on, but this morning a new problem surfaced. After driving 30 hwy miles to work, in rain, the engine started bucking in all gears, after the first stop light. As the car doesn't have the engine splash shield, I thought it might be that the belts had gotten wet, but I don't know if that could cause the bucking.

I pulled over, waited 10 minutes, the car started as usual, the idle loping began after the usual 2-3 minutes, and I drove the last few miles to work with no bucking or other new issues.

Any idea if the missing splash shield could be the culprit, here?

 

Welcome!
Can you see any evidence of water splashing over the distributor cap & wires? Without the splash shield it might still be difficult to get water up that high, but ????

If your distributor cap is old, maybe has microscopic cracks in the surface, then it'll be more susceptible to arcing when it gets even a little bit of water. I'm thinking a new cap (maybe wires) along with installing the splash shield.

 

Thanks, Jim. Wires and plugs are new; I'll get the cap and rotor today. The splash shield is more costly, and I'll have to order it.

 

Any kind of ghetto shield to keep splashing water off the distributor.

You could check this idea as follows:
Complete darkness, turn off all the lights.
Start the engine & watch for arcing (even a dull blue glow).
Spray water from a windex bottle.

If that doesn't make any kind of problem, then we gotta look for other ideas for why it happens.

 

You should be able to pick one up from a junkyard for a lot less money than a new one.

 

There was a time where most cars didn’t have the splash shield and didn’t have rain problems. I would do what JimBlake suggested.