psud3ity's Rusty pile of RT4WD rust
psud3ity
New Wagonist
Hey guys, got my wagon today.
1988 Honda Civic Wagon RT4WD
Lets just say the body is ROUGH.
Pictures tell the story there:
Just picked the car up a few hours ago, but the non-bodywork issues I've noticed are as follows:
Doesn't want to go in gear with the car running. Shifter doesn't find home. Not sure if that's just a stretched shifter cable like the previous owner said or a clutch hydraulics problem.
Belt squeal, bad.
AC needs a new belt put on for it to work
Power steering hardline cracked from off roading
Temperature gauge is erratic, but car isn't overheating... strange
Check engine light according to previous owner comes on, but doesn't stay on long enough to pull code. Perhaps o2 sensor?
Want to find answers to these problems, and figure out how to fix the body rust. There's alot of panels involved. Trying to decide whether I want to find a cleaner shell and swap things over, or fix this one.
1988 Honda Civic Wagon RT4WD
Lets just say the body is ROUGH.
Pictures tell the story there:
Just picked the car up a few hours ago, but the non-bodywork issues I've noticed are as follows:
Doesn't want to go in gear with the car running. Shifter doesn't find home. Not sure if that's just a stretched shifter cable like the previous owner said or a clutch hydraulics problem.
Belt squeal, bad.
AC needs a new belt put on for it to work
Power steering hardline cracked from off roading
Temperature gauge is erratic, but car isn't overheating... strange
Check engine light according to previous owner comes on, but doesn't stay on long enough to pull code. Perhaps o2 sensor?
Want to find answers to these problems, and figure out how to fix the body rust. There's alot of panels involved. Trying to decide whether I want to find a cleaner shell and swap things over, or fix this one.
Comments
I'll be honest, I haven't looked, and I'm fairly afraid to look. If the underbody and frame arent rusted, I'm going to start planning repairs on body panels this fall. Otherwise, it's gonna be time to find a shell to transplant the RT4WD into.
I'd like to sort out the small mechanical issues at this point:
Belt Squeal (cheap easy fix, do these have an idler pulley?)
Shifting issues - Doesn't like going into 1st gear/ reverse with engine started. It's perfectly fine if I put it in gear, push the clutch in, and start the car. Not sure what i'm dealing with there. Previous owner said it's a shifter cable issue, and I've seen stretched cables before, but that usually from my experience affects 1,3,5 or 2,4. Then again, it's a 6 speed transmission, and I'm not sure how the cable/cables are laid out.
I've been reading a bit and it seems like it's either the cable tension, or a bending pedal assembly, or both. I'll go grab a picture of what it looks like down there and perhaps you guys can shed some light on what I'm dealing with there.
It's really annoying to drive the thing without that pedal working properly, what $$ am I looking at on a repair/replacement, and what's involved?
What civics can I exchange pedals out of I wonder? I can't imagine it being a wagon specific set of pedals. Cheap local junkyard fix would be nice.
Other bad news, 3rd gear seems to grind pretty solid. Feels very pronounced. Hopefully changing the pedal out will help, but I fear that it's on it's last legs. Might learn something about transmissions if I can find the parts I need on the cheap.
Gonna try and give her a good cleaning on tuesday, including the engine bay, which looks like it's completely covered in mud. I can't stand dirty engine bays. Makes working on the car that much more annoying. I have a friend going to a somewhat local junkyard soon and he'll be on the lookout for any body panels/parts I can use. That door bugs me, I'm just hoping I can repair damaged areas and find some decent body sections to weld in. I've decided this car is the one that will teach me how to weld.
Just wait till you see how many wagon specific parts there are... Might want to start looking for a shell...
Just wait till you see how many wagon specific parts there are... Might want to start looking for a shell...
That door really bothers me, and the quarterpanels really bother me. But I want to have my prelude up and running before I start digging into that mess.
To complicate matters, I live at an apartment complex right now, and don't really have a good place to work on my car besides my parent's garage that's 3 hours away, minor stuff I can get done like changing the pedals out, but bodywork isn't going to fly. I'll be moving soon though, hopefully to a place more welcoming of car repairs.
JOMO
Probably would be,
Either way, the mission here is to have a car without the reliability issues presented by a turbo h22, and I feel I've accomplished exactly that, minus a few small fixes. The bodywork is really not nessacary, but I'd like to get it looking clean. Not looking to dump a pile of money into it, just looking for a car that runs and drives. If I happen across a junkyard wagon or some good deals, I'll pick up some body parts and install them, plus it'll give me the oppertunity to learn to weld and fix some of the rusty panels that aren't too far gone.
Need to get mechanical stuff like the pedals sorted, that shouldn't be too hard, Realistically it just needs to run for the moment. Did give her a wash today though. Got most of the mud and grime off of the wagon, Sprayed the engine bay down with WD40 and gently rinsed it, taking care to stay away from the distributor. The engine bay was 100% covered in mud, and now looks a whole lot better.
Good eye, I didn't even think to check. Time to find a used tire place. This thing hasn't earned, nor at this point deserves new tires.
Looks like they're all 185/60/R14, and the rear one where the damage is is a 195/60/R14, not sure if the width of the tire would affect the diff, but either way, gonna see what craigslist has to offer as far as wheels go.
Another thought, since it is 4WD, do all the tires have to be replaced at the same time to make sure tread depth is the same?
Yes, the width does affect the diameter, the 60 in 185/60-R14 represents the sidewall height as a percentage of the treadwidth. A 195/60-R14 has a taller sidewall (and larger circumference) than a 185. Having one tire of different size on either axle is hazardous to the differential on that axle, forcing it to work continuously. Replace the mismatched tire as soon as possible.
Yes, the manufacturers of AWD vehicles all specify replacing all 4 tires at the same time with the same brand of tire. Diameters of the same nominal size tire may vary from one brand to another. According to STE Couplers, who rebuilds viscous couplings for most of the vehicles that use them (not ours), a difference of 1/16 in. diameter (3/16 circumference) can be hazardous to your VC. There is no center differential on our RTs, just the viscous coupling to allow for torque transmission and differences in rotational speeds front to rear. It doesn't like continuous duty either.
I'll look into disabling 4WD until such time as I feel like springing for 4 brand new tires. Sadly, all my tools are 3 hours away from me with the prelude, but I'll see if I can't manage to pick up a cheap socket set and get that taken care of.
Too bad I can't seem to find quarterpanels/doglegs anywhere short of Connecticut.
It's starting to seem like I need to find a donor car to transplant this motor/transmission into. The bodywork is literally involving every single panel on the car, and alot of it is rusted straight through. Provided I can find a clean shell, I may end up parting this car out and doing a motor/drivetrain swap depending what I can find.
Either way, It will definatley serve me as a running car this winter once I get that clutch pedal situation figured out, and then I just have to hope it passes inspection without incident.
I absolutley LOVE how cheap this car is to work on. $11 for a power steering hose and $8 for two bottles of honda PS fluid.
Either way, the problem is at the steering rack, and I created a thread on it, but I may as well post the pictures here as well to document what's going on with it.
There's a hydraulics shop up here I'm pretty close with, so I can have the line made as long as I can figure out the length needed, and fittings on both ends. I can then just secure it out of the way of the driveshaft with zip ties or clips and that should make a decent repair out of this.
When I dumped the PS fluid in, it turned milky white, indicating moisture/ a leak in the line. I'll need to flush the entire system out, which I'll accomplish with a giant bottle of normal PS fluid, then change over to Honda PS fluid afterwards. Was nice to be able to drive around with power steering for a few minutes though. Made some of the negative feelings I've had about this particular wagon go away. Can't wait to get it fixed, but I need to identify that hose.
EDIT: Bam bam has helped me identify the hose successfully as 53720-SH3-A51
Okiewagon1 was nice enough to sell/trade me a set of pedals. Got them today.
Sweet, so, since I won't have time to put them in right away, I decided to do some cleaning:
Wiped them off with a paper towel, and sprayed them down with simple green.
Seems to have went well, then I turned my attention to the pedal bracket itself, rust appears to come standard on all parts from 1988!
I've decided that I'm not interested in adding rust to the car, as it has enough already. Plan is to sand off what can be sanded, then hit the bracket with some rust converter, and spray it with this lovley can of black rustoleum I have left over from painting the exhaust hangers on the prelude.
This is where I left off for tonight... Gonna continue the sanding and probably update with my progress after the prelude is back on the road.
Did Okie get you the steering lines? I have them pulled off, laying on the scrapmetal pile if you need them.
JDMRookie - I'm in State College, but originally from the Allentown/Stroudsburg Area, more specifically Pen Argyl/Wind Gap if you're from the LV.
Still got to swap the pedals on the wagon, probably gonna start turning bolts on the pedals on my next day off which will be monday.
Did find some body panels... Working out the details, might have a road trip to Maryland in the wagon to pick em up.