Idling Problem

[moldy]

Hi Guys

Not sure if this problem is timing related or something else. When my car is idling, it seems to skip a beat every now and then. I never have a problem at high speed, or even any speed, just when the car is sitting stationary. any revs at all and the problem doesn't happen.

Could it be a sign that coolant is mixing with the oil? or maybe the petrol I use, since now i need to add the valve protector. I have a 79 honda civic.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

moldy.

[EuroDude]

Failing Distributor - dunno if the 1979 dizzy's are like the modern ones, but change the dizzy cap and see how that goes.

Bad spark plugs causing miss fires. Replace the sparkies.

Bad spark leads causing too much resistance. Get them resistance-checked.

Dont know much about carbies, but I would imagine cleaning the carbie with carbie cleaner may help. Or try a fuel additive that cleans out the fuel system (one thats designed for carbie engines)

[moldy]

I recently changed the distributor cap and rotor. But the problem has been happening both before and after I did that. The spark plugs should be ok, I am pretty sure that they were changed about twelve months ago.

Not sure about the leads, or the carbie. I might give the fuel additive a go. See if that makes any difference.

Thanks Mate.

[EuroDude]

no worries. check the spark plugs anyway and make sure they are a brownish colour, and maybe give them a clean or replace them if they are crusty or a different colour.

If the spark plug leads are still the original, you might wanna change them after 27 years of usage.

how many km's has it done?

[moldy]

Thanks Mate, I will check the plugs and leads. I don't think that the leads are the original though, they are blue and yellow, and i have a sneaking suspicion that in '79 things were still in black and white!!

There are about 38,000 km on the clock, but it's anyone's guess how many times it's been around. I'd say that 138,000 would probably be right, but i guess it could be 238,000. Who knows!

[EuroDude]

oh its only got 5 digits? lol it could be up to 938,000
RTA records can tell you.

[moldy]

It used to belong to my grandmother, then sister, now me. So I'm guessing that it is at the lower end of the 100's of 1000's. But not really sure. It runs pretty well anyway, just a few things that need fixing. Like that thermoswitch that you and some of the other guys posted on.

Just trying to sort out some of the bugs with it as cheaply as possible, so that i can hang on to it for a while longer. it cost me nothing and has treated me very well, so i plan to look after it if i can!

[ECU-MAN]

change the points and make sure you set the gap correctly as this will affect the dwell angle.

its a good idea to change the capacitor at the same time as well.

measure the resistance of the leads including the coil lead, they all should be bellow 20K, less than 10k to 13k is what you really want.

make sure your float level is set right and also you may need some one experienced to adjust the idle mixture screw to set the idle mixture.

tappet adjustment is imprortant as well.

[moldy]

thanks mate, i will do as much of this as i can myself. i am very new, but keen to learn. i have the haynes manual, so should be able to tackle some of the stuff around the distributor pretty easy. will get someone else to help with the complex parts.

appreciate your help,

moldy