96 Accord sputtering

I have a 96 accord. It keeps doing the wierdest thing, the speedometer will drop out, i believe due to the sensor. But when it drops out the car will idle terribly, between 0-2000 rpm. It will keep sputtering uip and down. It is really wierd. it only happens when the speedometer drops out on me. I changed the head gasket and sparkplug gaskets this weekend just to be sure there wasnt any oil leaking into the sparkplug chambers... that went well. no oil. but keeps on running terribly. Can anyone help on this???

Not necessarily so weird. Given that the speed sensor is one of the inputs to the ECU, it wouldn't surprise me if the motor misbehaved too. I'm surprised you went to the huge trouble of changing the head gasket without (apparently) replacing the sensor first.

Actually it was the vavle cover gasket. it needed to be done anyway. I took it over to a shop where they do swaps on imports and performance. they said that it was probably the sensor being bad that was causing the car to idle badly, I was kind of in a rush, i wanted to ask them if i just diconeccted the sensor all together would that temp. solve the problem??? what do you think?

I don't suppose so. The ECU needs all its sensors to work in order to operate as designed. Why don't you just replace the sensor?

My 1990 Accord does the same thing, it sputters up to 2000 RPMs.
I have replaced the rotor, cap, wires, and plugs with no avail.
I have not seen any error lights so should I also consider it to be the speed sensor?
If it is not the speed sensor, then what could it be? How could I diagnose the problem?

Thanks a bunch.
Dave

Yes all that sputtering is very frustrating. I had the same problem on my 94 did all the wires, distributer, and all sensors were ok the problem (that was finally found) was the idle air control valve (IACV). this controls the engine idle and if ignored your car just starts to die out. You can get used ones for around $40 and up. But new will cost you $200.

Ohh also to help diagnose the problem. check to see if your ecu is throwing a code. Under the dash on the passenger side should be a little clip with 2 wires feeding into it. Just use a wire or paper clip (anything metal) and connect it into both sides of the wire clip and watch your engine light. How many times it flashes is the code. long flash counts as ten and short ones count as one.

I will try that out and see what code I get. Thanks!