OK, this one seems to have everyone stumped. I have read a bunch of posts about issues that are similar (especially the one from davidgriswold about his '87 Accord idling rough), and it seems that I may have a few issues going on at the same time. I'm thinking the rough idle and hesitiation may be a combined problem with the float and the choke circuit. But the problems also seem to be related to worn parts and basic maintenance needs. So, here's my take on it, and what I plan to do about it.

As far as the bad mileage, rough idling, choke goes, I am going to triple check (and to be safe, maybe just replace) the vacuum lines in the fast idle/choke circuit. If that doesn't help, I'll replace the choke opener, fast idle valve, and thermovalve A. If those don't do anything, I'll maybe need to replace the choke cover, or rediagnose.

As far as the rough idle problems and gasoline smell, it seems I may be having some problems with the float settings. I will try to adjust first, and if that doesn't work, I can order the kit to replace the float, needle, and seat. When replacing the float kit, is there anything I need to do other that replacing the parts and re-checking the float level?

Could someone let me know what you think about this plan? Thanks again.

 

That's more of a throw parts at it vs. diagnose type of plan but in theory it should work..... Once the car is warm the choke should open up. If it's not then it's lacking a signal from somewhere (possibly the Thermovalve but I'm not certain) that says, "hey, it's hot now!" It could in turn be starving the motor for air a bit and causing a rich situation so you smell gas. Re-do the choke diagnostics in your manual.

As for the carb repairs if you plan on doing them anyway make sure you have ALL the new gaskets that you need and pay VERY close attention to how it all comes apart/goes together, clean your surfaces well before re-assembly, and put a rag or something over the hole into the intake, if you drop something down there it's a LOT of work to get it out, if you leave it you'll ruin some very crucial motor parts....

 

Yea, I realize I'm following a "guess and test" method instead of the "diagnose before replacing parts" rule. I do like the diangostics route, but being that I am not a mechanic, and don't have much time to spend diagnosing, it looks like guess and test for now, until I can really spend some time on this thing. I took the car to my mechanic last week, and he said he didn't want to even attempt to find out what was wrong, although he did say it is most likely a choke problem. His quote was "You have a pain in the %&$ Honda carb" and he said it would probably take more money than the car is worth for him to diagnose and fix it. His solution was to keep my foot on the gas until the car warmed up. Which does work, but doesn't solve the mileage/gas smell issue. Anyways, thanks for the guidance, I'll keep you guys updated on any progress and lessons learned.

 

Well, I did a little more investigating today, and here's what I found:
The float level to the carb is right in the middle of the site glass where it should be, so I think I can rule out a float problem, and I won't be replacing the floats unless I find out otherwise. I am also going to hold off on any carb gasket replacement, since I may be doing more harm than good if there isn't a gasket problem.
I tried to check the timing, but was not too successful. The rubber plug covering the timing hole on the flywheel housing is missing, and I cannot see any timing marks on the flywheel at all. So either my timing is way off the charts, or the timing marks are no longer visible. Not sure what to do with that one. [sm=smiley24.gif]
I'm going to try replacing thermovalve A first, since like sir_nasty said, it appears that something may not be getting the "hey, I'm warm" signal.