87 Accord DEAD...Throttle Cable?

[mikeyb827]

Please help!!!

I have a 1987 Honda Accord (carbureted, with manual transmission) that I use as my "work car" (lugging around my pressure washer and painting supplies for my deck cleaning/finishing business). The carb was cleaned out a couple months ago because the car was idling way too high (around 3500-4000 rpms). It only needed minor adjustment, and it's worked fine up until today...

I drove the car earlier to go to a friend's house, and it was immediately clear that something was very wrong with the car. When the car is in neutral and I push on the gas pedal, the engine should (obviously) rev up/accelerate. For some reason, the car is not accelerating properly when I press the gas pedal. Sometimes it revs up just like it should, and sometimes there is absolutely no response. Other times there will be no response until I've almost got the pedal to the floor, at which point the RPMs will fly up.

With the clutch depressed, the car will go into each gear without any problem, but when I let off the clutch (in gear) and push the gas pedal to start driving, the car bucks and stalls unless the engine is revved up to about 4500 rpms (1st gear should easily engage with the engine at less than 2000rpms, and normally it does). Now, it bucks, stalls, and acts like it's not getting nearly enough power from the engine (almost as if I were trying to drive it with the parking brake on).

Since the car goes into each gear and engages normally (except the bucking and stalling due to the unresponsive gas pedal and failure to rev up), I've pretty much ruled out the clutch and transmission as the problem--although I could be wrong. I took off the air filter and case to get access to the carb, and a small wire linkage hook appeared to be disconnected (and therefore, the carb plate was not opening as it should when I pressed on the gas pedal). I re-connected the small wire linkage hook to a lever that controls the carb plate position, and the plate then worked correctly--opening and closing when I pressed on the gas pedal or let off it. I thought my problem was fixed, until I tried driving the car again. No difference in the intermittently-responsive gas pedal, making it nearly impossible to get the car moving without stalling out. More or less completely un-driveable, and the clutch is taking a beating.

I'm thinking that the throttle cable might need to be oiled or replaced, or perhaps I hooked up the linkage incorrectly. But I'm really not sure if there's something much more serious that's wrong with it. Has anyone had a similar problem? Any advice would be greatly appreciated...The car's parked on the street right now, and needs to be moved by Sunday at 6pm!!!

Thanks again for any suggestions or advice, I don't know what to fix and I really need the car for work!

[Deadhead]

you said that you connected the wire linkage hook to a lever and it worked for a while. Have you looked at it since it started acting up again? It might have become dissconnected again.

[mikeyb827]

I connected the wire linkage yesterday (Friday), as soon as the engine cooled down enough that i could pull the air filter, casing, and disconnect a few vacuum tubes to gain access to the carb. I then put everything back together, and had a friend pump the gas pedal just to make sure the linkage was still connected (it was). I then started up the car, tried driving it, and there was no difference...connecting the linkage didn't fix any of my problems. The gas pedal is still unresponsive most of the time, and the car is still undriveable (it'll stall if i try to engage 1st gear with an RPM level lower than 4500 or so).
I haven't had a chance to oil the throttle cable yet...But I'm really hoping that this will be the easy solution to this problem. I'm stumped about what else could be causing this. Any other suggestions/ideas would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks everyone and have a great weekend!

[jeffcoslacker]

I think it uses a push-pull 2 cable system? If so, one is broke or nearly broken, and keeps jumping off?