88 Accord LX shutting off after warming up

Dizzy shaft bearing isn't it....

Tanner wrote:

I'd do a bit more checking before you bought any more parts. It could be the distributor, but on a hunch, I pretty much doubt it. Are you totally sure you are actually losing spark? How is the ignitor? Radio noise cap? A flaky radio cap can cause problems like that from what I hear. It would be nice if you had a scope so you could watch the spark, etc as it happens. I've had cases where I thought I was losing spark, or say injector voltage, but was being fooled. I went through that on the camry that had the carbon problem. At first I could swear I was losing spark, but nope... It wasn't. But it took some decent test gear to be able to make sure. In my case, I have both scopes, and also a RMS peak reading voltmeter. They really come in handy in a case like this.. I may be all wet, but it still smells like a fuel problem to me. Either that or that nasty carbon keeping the valves open when it gets hot.. Just curious... Thats a 88, so should be a carb... When it cuts out, check the carb for the power valve making a squirt when you move the throttle. If it sprays, the fuel delivery is probably ok. You'll have to look down into the carb to see that spray. Or...As a 2nd quicky option. When it cuts out, spray a bit of gas, or ether, carb cleaner, in the carb and see if it fires right back up. If so, probably fuel. If not, it may be losing spark. Do you have a timing light? If so, it can be used as a spark indicator. Watch the light blink when it runs. If it quits blinking on that particular wire, it's losing spark. If not, the spark is ok.. But make sure not to confuse the engine quitting , with an actual lack of spark. IE: they may happen at the same appx time, and fool you into thinking it lost spark, when actually, it just quit fast nuff to quit sparking. I would think you should get a slow blink even just cranking the motor over. MK

snipped-for-privacy@wt.net wrote: Just curious... Thats a 88, so should be a

BTW, if it did turn out to be a lack of compression due to carbon, it will not start even if the fuel is present. In that case, you should see a "slow" blink of the timing light indicating spark, and fuel at the carb, but still no run. I think the best way to verify carbon holding the valves open would be to do a quick compression test

*before* it gets a chance to cool off. If indeed you saw a lack of compression from carbon, it should slowly return as it cools back off. The problem you are having almost mimics the carbon problem on that camry to a tee.. Not saying it's that, but it sure could be. BTW, if it is carbon, it will appear semi gradual as it warms up. Cold, it will run perfect usually. But as it warms up it will start to develop flat spots in the acceleration, and seem kinda boggy. Then it will start to have little power, and seem like it's slowly running out of gas. Finally. It's kaput, and stays that way until it cools off, and the cycle repeats. What makes me semi doubt your dizzy is bad, is that it conks out at the same time, every time. I would expect a flaky dizzy to be a bit more sporadic, unless it was some kind of thermal problem. I guess it could be, but I sorta doubt it's the problem really. If you lose your timing blink totally, I'd start checking everything from the plugs back until I got to the flaky part. But you'd probably need to do it while it's hot and acting up to find it. Once it cools, it probably won't show up from the way it sounds. MK

Thanks a ton for the advice, reason I suspect it is the distributor is because once it quits I cannot get any spark at all from the ignition coil and plug wires, also the red dust in the dist is accompanied by a decent amount of grease though I don't really feel much play in shaft. Also right before it quits it's running perfecly, no power loss/bogging. Got a used dizzy off of a 3geez.com member for $60 shipped so we'll see how that goes, if not I will look at other ignition components I haven't checked and after that take it to a freaking shop lol. Thanks, will update. Tom

Hope that does the trick. MK