You might also ask around at the Honda forums, some popped up when I googled ‘Honda cvcc forum’.
i’ve been told about the bushings wearing out. however, this is a problem that manifested it’s self over 2 days. no long drawn out almost running time. the mixture screws do work, but no amount of adjusting will fix them. (so far as i know)
I have heard several horror stories about the carb that honda used during those few years. hard to adjust ect…
i’m young (16), inexperienced, broke, and everything else, just one dog and one wife short of blues, it was free, it got 42 mpg when it ran, whatever.
One piece of info that might interest you is that this problem manifested it’s self after on a trip of 400(x2) miles. right in the middle. You may be shocked with wonder of at someone who would take an 81 honda civic on a trip greater than 15 miles or so, but there i was. what can i say, it’s my car, i love it. it has 212,000 miles on it and was abused greatly until it passed into my care. I have excelled in the area of wiring, but now have great issues with the carb.
These pictures are not entirely accurate as some changes have been made since, but you may understand to a greater extent the reason i have to fight for (or with) my car.
Fully functional, easily fixable.
"I don’t think a Weber is a good idea for this car. It works for almost every other car built in this era, but not the CVCC engine. "
I put a DGEV on my '81 Accord with CVCC and it worked just fine.
Understood…I was 16 once as well and you dont want to hear about the S%^$t I used to do or the risks I used to take…LOL…Ah youth…it is wasted on the young…NO? I’m only 39 now…but time surely does FLY MAN…
So you are saying that…while in gear and cruising…you can stomp the accel and it immediately responds? This is the accel pump test basically. If it works, great… But there are a lot of other things going on here too.
If you are having surging at speed it leans toward IGNITION PROBS to me…why are we focusing so strongly on the carb…many ignition issues DO appear to be fuel related…Just making sure we are on the right track…and like I said those systems worked surprisingly well with little to no adjustments needed… If she ran good at one point then suddenly went awry…I would check the fuel pump integrity, fuel filter…vacume… Then or RATHER FIRST…I would look into my ignition system…Distrib cap, rotor, plugs wires. Grab some new plugs…new cap and rotor…and set the timing… see what you get.
*** LOVE that Wood dash by the way…Reminds me of the FUR JOB I did on my 78 Toyota Celica GT…covered the entire dash in thick Gray FUR…lol…I loved that car
Well, now you’ve got me wondering - might it be an ignition problem instead? Maybe bad plug/wire/cap? And the vacuum hose issue could still be it, a hose or fitting might have cracked…
SURE it could be an ignition issue or vacume…ignition is far more likely to suddenly crop up on you tho. When the engine gets hot a crack could open up in the coil or distrib cap leaking voltage to ground… It presents itself very akin to carb issues
I say get the car hot and malfunctioning…AT NIGHT…look under the hood IN THE DARK DARK DARK…and look for fireworks… Better yet…grab a metal coat hanger and straighten it out…then hold one end an move the other near the plug wires…cap, rotor and coil…if you get a jolt…you found the issue.
You have some quick and easy things to check for us…do so and let us know what you get… If she hasnt had a proper tune up, then there would be no money wasted in Plugs, cap, rotor and maybe wires if the wires shock you…if they do then they def need to go… so give her a nice tuneup and see what you get
YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!
once when i was messing with the carb with the engine running it zapped me. we’re not talking a little zap, like static electricity, but the full blown 30k volt type zap. i’ll look into it.
the reason i figured it is carb is because it will work more or less well depending on how i turn the float screws. i also found that if i run it without an air filter it would barely run, but when i put on the filter and pan and all that it would capture the vacuum or something, making it run better.
also, it had millions of problems but upon replacing the carb with a different used one it ran great. ran smooth, idled, power…
JEZUZ MAN…I think you may have found it…Did you forget to tell us this? LOL… If you got zapped then you have some Tune up stuff to do… Read my post and give her a proper tune up including wires…YOu can grab a set in the salvage yard…maybe 2 sets… If they leak voltage you will know it rather quickly… just run your hand over each wire and be prepared to get a zap…if you dont then the wires you found are OK.
I am sticking to my guns on the ignition system issues…these need to be tidied up before trying to proceed.
When you say it runs better WITH the Air filter on…then this is saying that she is running too lean WITHOUT THE FILTER… WHen you install the Air Filter it acts as a sort of choke…making the carb pull more fuel instead of air.
Tune up and let us know… It leaves too many things out in the ether to try and troubleshoot when we now know you have voltage leak…That MUST be cleared up before proceeding… When you replaced the carb you may have moved the wires out of the way of a place to arc against… thus making it run better, smoother etc… But if its leaking any voltage anywhere…that must be remedied ASAP before continuing.
That only happened once.
So… just as a hypothetical question, why would it run without power, only little surges. why would it happen suddenly. why would it idle but not anything else. why would it change.
oh, and, by the way, once i stopped my car, (for about the 28th time that day) and messed with the float screws. after that it ran perfect for about 2 miles (through town) full power away from lights and such. it was awesome! and then it quit again. i discounted it, but the wires would explain such a phenomena.
I may have moved the wires, but that wasn’t the main problem at the time. the problem consisted of the seals being old and worn/dried out. it was dripping gas on the heat shield. It still got like 25 mpg, but (for some strange reason) it scared mom, so i had to fix it.
I’m sure that you know that gas doesn’t burn unless it has a spark. Mom knew this too, but she was afraid of it nevertheless.
I won’t be home to work on it until later, (like tomorrow), but I’ll try to get back to you all on this.
“I put a DGEV on my '81 Accord with CVCC and it worked just fine.”
Circuitsmith: Did you ever tear the engine down after running this carb for awhile? If the two larger barrels that feed the regular intake valve runs too rich, it shatters the lands between the first and second rings on the piston in the vicinity of the piston pin. The webber doesn’t have the separate barrel to feed a rich mixture into the pre-combustion chamber.
Have you checked the vacuum advance? As any car of this era ages, the diaphragm in the vacuum advance rots away. This upsets the fuel air ratio and retards the timing, a combo that could cause the symptoms you are experiencing.
If it is the carburetor, the problem is most likely in the main jet for the small barrel. The small barrel feeds a rich mixture into the pre-combustion chamber where the spark plug is located. The main barrels feed a lean mixture to the main combustion chamber.
The spark plug tip length is critical as the pre-combustion chamber is so small. OEM plugs only.
Honda Blackbird pretty well summed up this carburetor, its the only one that ever had me cry UNCLE. I even conquered the carburetor that was used on the Mitsubushi three valve engine of the era. Similar to the CVCC but a little simpler. The main combustion chamber ran rich and the third (small) intake provided extra air for swirling the mixture.
If I remember correctly the way to adjust the float screws is to turn counter-clockwise 1/4 turn at a time until the engine floods and dies, then turn 3/4 turn clockwise.
And you just gotta get a manual (or two). Ebay is your friend:
And here’s the factory manual:
Theres really no point in us providing any further theories UNTIL you get a proper tune up/ any High voltage leaks repaired on that engine. There are far too many factors that are in play esp when you have a voltage leak somewhere…whenever you mess around under the hood you could be changing the angle of the dangle of the wires or moving something or another out of the way…where usually it would arc… Hell sometimes you can take a hard turn and items would be displaced and thus be put in a position to arc out. YOU MUST…remedy the ignition system…Also get the timing set properly.
Like Keith mentions…your vacume diaphragm on the distributor could be rotted… The quickest and easiest way to test this is to run a length of vacume tubing right to the Dashpot on the distributor…and put the other end in your mouth…draw a vacume and then put your tongue on the tube…it should HOLD a vacume and suck back on the tip of your tongue…if it doesnt then the diaphragm is compromised and NOT WORKING… Do this test to see if we need a new dashpot. This affects your timing and engine run qualiy more than you know. The diaphragm does NOT however mess with your fuel mixture at all tho (other than a lean out due to vac leaking)…they are otherwise unrelated…but anyway…you have to tell us what you got with this test and after you do a FULL TUNEUP…
You got some testing and concrete work to be carried out…DO IT and inform us of the status… We will be here waiting for your response…
While its dark out…start her up and look for fireworks under the hood…YOu need it to be dark… Bring a straightened coat hanger w you or a long screwdriver SOMETHING metal for you to test for any electrical high voltage leaks
Blackbird
“(other than a lean out due to vac leaking)”
Thats what I meant.
Yup…I thought you did Keith
Don’t dismiss the carburetor just yet. A marked improvement with the air cleaner in place will increase the suction through the carburetor venturis and possibly force feed the engine fuel that it would normally not get.
Try this. With the engine running use a fingertip and close the choke flap varying degrees (halfway, 3/4, etc) while revving the engine by hand. If it smoothes out you can almost bet this is due to the carburetor.
If it points to the carburetor the top should come off and the float bowl should be examined for water/debris.
And of course, for reassembly purposes you might take a few pics or diagram as an aid seeing as how Honda used most of the worldwide supply of vacuum lines on these cars. 
This era of Japanese cars had garbage carburetors and the Hitachis were even worse than the Keihins. On one of the older Subarus I had I ditched the carburetor, made a 1/4" thick adapter plate, and put a 1 barrel from a Ford 200 inch 6 cylinder on it.
It worked better than a Rolex watch.
I haven’t checked the vacuum advance diaphragm yet, so that’s one thing i’ll try (when I get home)
The other thing is that there are only about 12 or so hoses that go into the carb, and i know the placing of each one by heart, having removed and replaced each one countless times. Now i’m just waiting for mom to finish teaching her physics lab so we can go home and mess with it all… So, until then, Bye…
I agree with OK as usual…dont dismiss the carb YET but CERTAINLY and PLEASE get your ignition system ironed out FIRST…then we can go back to the carb if need be…
OK is trying to determine if you are suffering from a severe LEAN OUT condition with your carb… All good things to check… YOur ignition system integrity has my panties in a bunch tho…so get my panties unravelled and fix up the system …then like I said we can return to the carb later… You will need to do the tuneup anywho…just based on what you told us about getting shocked…so it MUST get done eventually…the sooner the better IMHO