"The Mothership" - 1998 Civic - Maintenance Log

[ctag]

Today was supremely disappointing.

A bunch of parts arrived for fixing up the motor mounts and shift linkage. I suspected that a loose motor mount was causing a 'clunk' sound when engaging the clutch, but after fixing up the mounts: the clunk persists.

I also got in a new bushing for my shift lever, but after swapping it in, the shifter is even more loose than it was before

 

[ctag]

I installed the shift lever ball seat incorrectly Actually I did it wrong back in post #101 too, but also this time.

Went back out, took the dust cover off and properly seated it in the little retainer. Put everything back together. Shifter is still really loose, but the action is noticeably smoother now (due to fresh grease more than new parts, really).

 

[civteck]

Loose side to side? Mine is the same way cause i drilled the pin at the trans.. that bad ass blue em1 build thread has the solution i asked him about it ill look for the post. It would def fix my shift problem which is not into or out of gear but side to side movement.. you should check it out.

Sent from my boujea ass phone

Found it, it was from downstar

 

[ctag]

It would def fix my shift problem which is not into or out of gear but side to side movement.. you should check it out.

Thanks! Yeah, the play is side to side. I'll have a friend move the shifter while I look under the car and see if it's that pin.

Found the product page: http://downstarinc.com/Shop/dyno-designs-tyrannasaur-tightener.html
Honestly, that looks like something I might buy anyway, just to not have to deal with the b***h pin any more

 

[mymmeryloss]

It would def fix my shift problem which is not into or out of gear but side to side movement.. you should check it out.

Thanks! Yeah, the play is side to side. I'll have a friend move the shifter while I look under the car and see if it's that pin.

Found the product page: http://downstarinc.com/Shop/dyno-designs-tyrannasaur-tightener.html
Honestly, that looks like something I might buy anyway, just to not have to deal with the b***h pin any more

Any luck of finding your rattle?


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[ctag]

Any luck of finding your rattle?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Not yet

 

[ctag]

Yesterday a friend helped me look at the shift linkage again. Everything there is solid, the looseness is coming from inside the transmission Oh well.

Also found that the driver side CV axle is going bad.

 

[ctag]

I've wanted a steering wheel cover for a while, something that will help prevent the material on the wheel from degrading more over these blistering Alabama summers.

First, clean with a hodge-podge of detergents and soaps:

Fit the wrap. At first I thought I'd bought the wrong size, but eventually it stretched to fit around the wheel.

Sew by threading the needle through the existing cord in the wrap. When I did this back with my blue Del Sol, I did it wrong and punched the needle through every hole, took waaay more effort!

Done!

Is it perfect? Nope. I just couldn't keep the knots at the ends clean, and the zig-zags are all different sizes. But it is better than it was, which is good enough for me

 

[civteck]

I have a dress that needs hemmed, you interested??.. nice job i f**kup tying my shoes...

Sent from my boujea ass phone

 

[mymmeryloss]

I've wanted a steering wheel cover for a while, something that will help prevent the material on the wheel from degrading more over these blistering Alabama summers.

First, clean with a hodge-podge of detergents and soaps:

Fit the wrap. At first I thought I'd bought the wrong size, but eventually it stretched to fit around the wheel.

Sew by threading the needle through the existing cord in the wrap. When I did this back with my blue Del Sol, I did it wrong and punched the needle through every hole, took waaay more effort!

Done!

Is it perfect? Nope. I just couldn't keep the knots at the ends clean, and the zig-zags are all different sizes. But it is better than it was, which is good enough for me

Man. I like that. Where did u get it?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[ctag]

@mymmeryloss Thanks Picked it up from SleezeBay.

For $10 and a couple hours of install, even if it only makes it through one summer it'll be worth it.

 

[ctag]

Swapped the transmission today. Original transmission out of the bay:

So the original MT has been excellent and I'm still very grateful that the rebuild went over so well, but after a year of driving I want to crack it open again and see if I can make shifting smoother (like it was before the rebuild) and maybe crisper (like other Honda's I've driven). So I rebuilt the temporary MT with some eBay parts and got it ready to be used again.

The first transmission swap took a crazy 3 day weekend. The second one (at the end of the rebuild last year) took a weekend. This one just now took 6 hours It's a lot easier when you know what you're doing!

The temporary MT is a lot better than it was last year. The rebuild got rid of all the shrieking bearing noise, and shifting is a lot better, though 3rd gear grinds now. but it's filled with 10W-30 engine oil, so that's probably not helping.

Post op note: Check the alignment dowels before trying to install a transmission. We struggled to get the temp one lined up for a while before realizing that one of the holes had a dowel on the engine side and transmission side

And an update on the clear coat degradation, it's getting worse on the passenger fender:

I may try cutting it out and spraying on a new layer, like I did with the door. Not sure yet.

 

[ctag]

Today I set a goal of ordering the rest of the hardware needed for the transmission rebuild. So I sat down and figured out there's nothing to order haha.

The main part of this rebuild is to swap the synchros out and see if shifting is improved. I would also like to see if there's any way to remove slop from the shift linkage, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope. I did notice that despite grinding gears, the shifting action on the temporary transmission is a lot crisper, so I may try replacing the "retainer" bearing balls and springs, but those can be accessed from the outside of the housing, so why do it now?

Not quite ready mentally to dive in to the project yet, so I went out and wasted some time assembling my new hydraulic press:

 

[ctag]

Got to breeze through a car show yesterday.

Just an incredible interior, this car looked amazing:

Studebaker!

And the event was supporting a local police organization, so they brought some wheels too:

 

[ctag]

I think today is the closest I've ever come to being unexpectedly stranded by the mothership. Went out to my car, started it and the engine revved way up and then down to almost stalling before leveling out. Then the CEL blinked on. Tried driving and every little bit of load brought the engine to a near-stall.

Parked back in my office parking lot and started investigating. CEL blink code was for MAP sensor malfunction. Got a multimeter from the office and determined that the map sensor was faulty. Has +5V power and ground, was outputting a pretty constant +5V instead of the expected 1~3V.

Once I'd determined that the problem was the MAP sensor, I decided to just gently drive home since the perceived risk of engine damage was low. But after going a few blocks I realized low RPMs were unstable and high RPMs were better, so I hopped on the interstate and made it the rest of the way.

Now I'm kicking around trying to decide if buying locally is worth it. $60 or something for OEM replacement, $20 for sleezebay clone.

 

[ctag]

Eventually made up my mind to buy a sensor locally and get the car running, but by that time most places were closed, so I paid the $80 to get one from the only auto parts store open to 10pm.

Car is running well now

 

[ctag]

I've been debating where to put this post for a bit now. Finally settled on this thread because it was a trip with the Mothership, not my Magna.

Last weekend I went to TriFest 2018 -- the first Triumph Owners Motorcycle Club rally at "Two Wheels of Suches" in Georgia. I've never been to TWoS, but wanted to go check it out after listening to some members in my local riding group. So when I heard TriFest was happening there it seemed like a good opportunity to visit. It was a 4 hour drive to get there, so I opted to leave my bike behind and drive my car just to check things out.

As I approached the lodge, the last twenty miles of road turned into a roller coaster of twisties that I had enough fun navigating just with the car. I'm pretty sure I need some more riding experience before tackling the area with a motorcycle.

Eventually I reached the lodge, and found a busy scene of bikes arriving and departing.

As the afternoon wound down, Sean and the Triumph Owners club set up a couple grills and a raffle table.

People brought their bikes down from the parking lot and set them up by the campfire before gathering 'round for Sean to address the club.

Even though I didn't bring a bike with me I'm totally in love the with the place, and it made for an excellent weekend camping trip.

As I left this morning I came across three Corvettes with hazards on by the side of the road, with one person standing and staring down an embankment on a sharp 90 degree turn. I parked and walked back to see what was the fuss, and found an S2000 lying about 30 feet off the road. It was destroyed, with both the front and rear smashed in, and it was back behind some trees that it shouldn't have been able to fit past. Just as I got there the driver was being helped up to the road. He looked a little banged up, but otherwise OK, so after checking that his friends who stopped had things under control I went on my way. The rest of the drive home was uneventful.

 

[ctag]

Next weekend I'm going to visit Atlanta. It's no bigger of a trip than the jaunt over to Two Wheels of Suches, but I'm challenging myself to do any lingering maintenance on The Mothership in the next week.

So far my list is:
* Fix clutch pedal squeak (Like, top priority)
* Change engine oil (it's time)
* Fix brake pulsing (more on that below)
* Rebuild and reinstall original transmission (hoo boy)

So the brakes pulse. I hate it, because only a few months ago I replaced everything: drums, shoes, rotors, pads. So I must have done something wrong or was missing some alignment tool because they pulsed from day 1, though I only really notice it when slowing down from highway speeds. Today I dropped the car off at an auto shop that's conveniently across the street from my office. They called back in the afternoon and told me that my only option was just replacing the brakes :-/ I opted not to do that. I'm frustrated that it looks like I just have to live with this not-good braking.

Also, if I'm going to make moves on that transmission swap at all, then the swap has to happen Sunday. And the Hondabond that seals the case needs 24 hours to set... So I need to do the rebuild... Today. Yup, I'm doing the rebuild today. Wish me luck

 

[ctag]

The transmission rebuild is done. Took just over 24 hours. But as I was moving the civic into the tent, I hurt my back so no transmission swap is happening today I'll stick with the temporary one through the Atlanta trip.

Once again I failed to check tolerances and limits. I didn't do that the first time either; I think it's because I don't really understand if I'm making the measurement correctly, and if the tolerance is out of spec I don't really know what I'd do about it

Notes from the rebuild:

• 30mm socket for countershaft nut.
• Countershaft nut *has* to be replaced next time.
• There was yellow-black grime on the inside of the case, and maybe a couple mg's of metal filings stuck to the magnet.
• I didn't clean anything, except to wipe down where needed.
• Having a hydraulic press was awesome
• Having my own bench vice and impact driver was awesome
• I put way too much hondabond on the case last time. This time I tried to use a little less.
• The carbon-synchrotech synchros looked great. Just a little worn, nicely broken in. No chunks missing.

On a few of the gears I oiled both the old and replacement synchros, and then manually spun them on the gear with my hands. I couldn't tell a big difference -- which I'll take as a good thing -- but the carbon synchros did seem to brake the gear pretty evenly as I pressed harder, whereas the OEM synchros would eventually bite down and pretty much stop the gear. I'm hoping that that is the difference which caused the "clunking" feel while shifting which drove me to this second rebuild. In any case, I'm hoping that it hasn't been so long since I last drove this transmission that I don't recognize any change

Ok, at this point you know the drill: pop the thing open, kick off the old synchros, slap on the new ones, slam it all back together.

Get a clean work area:

Start making it a dirty work area:

Get a nutcracker and split the case open:

Make it a really messy work area:

Yadda yadda yadda

I was doing this part blindfolded:

Aaaand, done!

 

[ctag]

Today was pretty long. I borrowed a friend's trailer to go pick up a desk. Some time after getting home, I looked outside and saw tail lights in the driveway... My taillights? Sure enough, the Civic's brake lights were stuck on, even with the key removed from the ignition. I spent a little while frantic, thinking that the trailer harness had shorted and was holding the lights illuminated. A friend quickly set me straight that the brake pedal switch was probably broken, and sure enough the little plastic bumper for the switch was busted and on the floor of the car.

I took one of those little plastic bolts used for trim panel, and jammed it where the bumper used to go. That seems to have fixed it for now, but the battery needs to charge before I can start the car again