Hello from Norway

Hi everyone!

My name is Nima and I’ve gotten good use of your forum since the beginning of this week. I own a wagon myself since mid-December’19, which is a daily driver and nothing more. I’m a bit late to the wagon-party, but I hope others are still passionate about these quirky cars. I’m already having fun driving it and it had fulfilled it’s purpose well so far. More than anything, I’ve never experienced such body roll in the corners before. IOW, it has already charmed me.

I’ve got the 1986 4x4 Shuttle (not RT) with the 1.5l carbureted Engine. My wagon has seen better better days, but it's still a decent ride. The picture is taken from the best angle... Of course, it has its share of battle-scars like most other Wagons. But what’s not to love about an ugly duckling like this? 3rd gen gang!


Comments

  • welcome to the site and yeah still passionate about wagons and yes the body roll is ridiculous haha. not to many people are active here but still can find good info mostly people are on FB,IG now a days. any future plans for the wagon

  • edited January 2020

    Here’s a summary of status quo:

    I’m thinking of putting on an undercoating to protect against rust for a while. Lanolin Oil is popular here at the moment and I’d like to cover the underside and crevices as much as possible. Some rust repair has been done, but it’s not pretty. I discovered that recently. But overall it’s fine, since it has lived its life in a mountainous region of Norway where they mostly don’t salt the roads.

    I’m also looking around for ways to seal off rust that has appeared on painted panels of the car. The steel is thin, so it might be better to do this sooner rather than later.

    Third, I’ve bought some nice high level brake lights that I’m about to connect to the cars wiring system, although I still have to gain understanding of how it’s wired up in the rear. Looking around for diagrams or pictures of a bare bone Shuttle with it’s wiring looms visible or a diagram. My Haynes manual doesn’t cover anything other than the connections and doesn’t show the routing within the car.

    Fourth, I need a new upper seal for the front windshield. It gets whet inside when it’s raining heavily... Thought about sealing it up with silicone temporarily to protect the car from lingering humidity in rust prone spots around the windshield.

    Fifth: I’m happy with my 86hp for now, although I wouldn’t mind a little bit extra. Reliability is 1. priority, so I’ll choose my projects responsibly. A bit stiffer suspension wouldn’t hurt, or just a front seats with some lateral support. The car rolls the point that I need to support myself against the cornering forces with my left foot on the ground. The seats don’t have much lateral support, so if I can fit gen 4 Crx seats, I might just buy a set used for 50$ for that added comfort.

    I appreciate any feedback if you have any :) I’ll make a thread about this car and use the forums for what it’s worth. If I can find a relevant fb group I might participate there as well.

    This is basically a where I’m at. I’ll take my time looking for threads which delve into these issues and topics. Where there isn’t one, I might start one. I’ll try to check the forum once a day if it’s active.

  • Nima, welcome to the site!

    Regarding your points:

  • Thanks for the good answer, @superhatch.

    That was some good info. I don’t know how much struts will change the body-roll, but I’m curious about the road feel. It might just feel a bit more planted. Luckily, the head of my local car club is an ex-Honda mechanic who worked on the cars throughout the 80s, so I’ll ask him for some advice about this too. I live with salted roads too, so I’ll see if I can find any por15 dealers or equivalents around me.

    Speaking of engines, I managed to find a zc1 engine against all odds, but it’s apparently a wrecker-engine with low compression. When I say “Wrecker” I’m rather thinking of a car-recycler, since I doubt there are many people here who stockpile cars outside in the yard on the same scale as in the in the US. It’s an engine from a first gen CRX, which they didn’t get in the US. Not all European countries got them either though, so they’ve apparently become a bit rare. I would have opted for the later zc; aka the d16a9, which isn’t uncommon, but I’m not sure wether the bell housing bolt pattern is identical and if it utilises the same motor mounts. The cams have apparently different profile, but that doesn’t have any practical implications for me.

    The PGM-FI system is also a big challenge, since my carby car is analog, but also because of something like my instrument cluster, which has a choke light instead of the PGM-FI light and a rev-limiter that goes red 500rpm too early. I doesn’t seem like the clusters swap between different Civic models (at first glance in the manual) and I’d like to keep the old one because of it’s 4wd symbol+chassis that lights up when you engage 4wd-mode by pushing the button. So I might see if I can repurpose some of the functions and what kind of obd standard the ZC motor uses and it’s compatibility.

    Also, speaking of 4wd, the engagement is actuated through a vacuum hose that I think connects the the intake side of the engine. If this is the case, I might have to get creative and see what pressure levels are necessary to toggle it and if I can bypass this issue by connecting the v-hose to the air intake before the manifold. Interesting issues pop up with this car! I’ll keep you posted on these things once I make a build thread. Then I’ll add this info and more to try to make it useful and easier to read.

  • I'm not a 3rd gen expert by any means, but I think all the RT4WD stuff in the US was all based off a viscus coupler and we didn't have any choice in when it was engaged. Cool that it was an option for the EU market as well.

    The ZC1 sounds like a nice upgrade if you could get it to work. Low compression could just be rings which would be a cheap fix, and it would allow you to put in new bearings and gaskets as well. All pretty easy work.

  • Well, I’m crossing my fingers. I’m probably going to buy it for the experience anyway, so I’m not too worried about it being a disappointment. I just discovered a guy on Redpepperracing who has done this swap with just as much work, but with a nice result. Their site is up and running again btw.


    here’s the build thread: http://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=54464&view=&hl=&fromsearch=1

  • Those DOHC ZCs are great little motors. I had one in a 4th gen wagon and I was surprised at how much quicker than 125hp it felt.

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