quadnie

So I get a call from a friend who's car broke down today and he had it towed back to his house. He was able to start it to back it up on ramps and then I came over a few hours later to give him a hand.

The car in question is a 1983 Honda Accord with a carb (3 barrel I think), I saw someplace that it was a 1.8 (maybe an A18a1?). All I do know is this car isn't the easiest honda to work on and the reverse opening trunk kinda gets in my way.

The problem that he described was the car died on him and wouldn't start back up. All the other functions seemed there except for the lack of fuel (I assume). First thing I did was replace the fuel filter and then look into the spark system. Coil, Dist Cap, Wires, Plugs all newer.. I disconnected the coil to see how the thing would operate.

One thing I did notice while the car was running in the garage was a loud "click" coming from the fuel pump. I took off the shroud and and avoided a spider to ensure that it was the fuel pump that was making the nice loud click noise every few seconds. I asked if that was normal and he said it has always done that since he bought the car a couple years back.

QUESTION 1: Is that loud click every 3 seconds or so normal for that year of car?

As we were letting it test idle and I'm checking things out I noticed that the clicks kinda went crazy.. no pattern but it sounded like a telegraph transmission. This he said was definately not normal.

QUESTION 2: What is up with the fuel pump making an odd array of clicks?

My best educated guess was that the fuel pump is about to die out on him and I better find a replacement soon. Autozone wanted $63 for a new one, I'm going to keep looking around.

QUESTION 3: Is that car OBD compliant like many of the mid 80s honda cars are? I would assume no since it is carburated.

Does anybody have any answers that they can share with me on this issue? Sorry for the long post but I like to fill in all the details of mechanical problems.

Thanks in advance for your time and any solutions that you may offer for our situation.

-Ryan

OnYx

are you getting fuel at the carb? can you start it when you prime the carb with fuel? there is a way to make the car FI and no its not a 1.8 it is either a 1.3 or a 1.5 SOHC 62 HP monster the click isnt normal so it might have finally died and in that case i belive its a in take pump and you get to pull the tank to get to it. good luck.

quadnie

When I looked at it everything was functioning like normal, I only replaced the fuel filter to be on the safe side.


The person who owns the car isn't very inclined to know what's going on so he wasn't able to diagnose the problem. The car was running fine when I got to it.

No way in hell am I going in over my head to convert this stupid car to FI. For some reason I was thinking that it was sharing the same motor as the prelude of that era, the thing did kinda look like a D15 to me (since I used to work on one all the time).

That's the wierd thing, he said it has always clicked and now that mother has gone crazy with the clicking.. I would assume that the morse code click style is signaling the death of the poor pump.

Nope, it's an external fuel pump, it's underneath the driver side rear passenger seat (2 door car). And I already got to the pump to visuall inspect it and make sure that it was the thing letting off the mad click noise.

Sorry for not including all the info in my first post. Anything else that I can provide to help others accurately troubleshoot this for me?

OnYx

replace the pump i bet the mech. is toast or you have a nie clog from some really really cheap gas. I remember something about this when i had a few of them but i cant remember if it was the way it primed or the pump was taking a ----. and OBD dident start will 92 technically we just dub the rex ETC. with OBD 0 to make it easier on us. OBD 0 = non-obd

quadnie

ahh hah.. I figure that no computer involved since it was non fuel injected. I really am mostly lost with these old *** hondas. It does have an electronic fuel pump and electric radiator fans tho. Here is a pump similar to what I saw underneath for a fair price on egay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...category=33555

I'm going to look around some more tomorrow to see what my options are. Do you think that civics around that year share the same fuel pump?

OnYx

yeah they should be the same they basically share the same motor setup. its kinda like the new K series motor, there prety all much compatable from the TSX accord and civic and integra. i wonder if honda will split them out on there on chasis again...

quadnie

hmm.. I'm getting different part numbers as I browse thru autozone's online catalog. I'm just going to have to load up the dealership software (found at the sticky on this page) and sift thru it to figure this out.. ahh the confusion. I'm just trying to get this thing done cheap for my buddy without him having to spend $60 for a pump at autozone. My biggest thing was the clicking factor.

HMT-Admin

The fuel pump makes funny noises, and sometimes it doesnt start. So you guys think its a fuel pump eh?

Sounds like a pretty half *** diagnoses, Obviously the best way would be to verify what is actually happening when the car does not start, spark/fuel etc. I'm sure there is even a fuel pump relay. These go out all the time on older hondas.

At the shop we would call this a "shotgun diag"

OnYx

well seing im not infront of the car jeff yes its a shotgun diag lol

quadnie

as normal the car didn't act up when I was around (very typical). I disected the ignition system and couldn't find any real problems with it (rearranged some plug wires and moved the coil so the coil wire had a bit more slack.

The only real problem I could see was that crazy clicking sound. I will go ahead and locate the fuel pump relay and purchase it today just cause I forgot about it.

Shotgun half assed diagnosis.. geez no love for my last minute trying to help a brother out self.