I have a carburated 1988 accord LX that I bought brand new. Ran great until 3 years ago. There is something wrong, I have been through 5 new alternators now. The RPM on cold start is insane at over 2000, hard on my engine. Alternators are not charging the battery. Once it starts in the high RPM mode it will not kick down nor will shutting it off and restarting. Honda techs are having no luck and say they have adjusted it as much as possible, still the same issue.

HELP!!

When you replaced the alternator did you replace the battery? Have you tried a different battery?

I am a programmer and have almost zero technical knowledge of automobiles, but I have had alternators go on a couple of my cars. The first time the car's battery had a wonky cell so it was "Never charged" causing the alternator to run like mad and burn out.

Try cleaning all of the grounds; i.e. battery, engine, and frame. Remove any paint so the connector grounds through the eyelet, plus the bolt. Make sure everything is cleaned with abrasive cloth and apply dielectric grease. Ditto for cleaning the connectors to the wire coming from the alternator. For the carburetor, you likely need to have the fast and low speed idle rpm adjusted. If the mechanics know what they are doing, it shouldn't be a problem. It may need to be cleaned and rebuilt.