1987 Honda CRX SI. Annual Road Trips Since 2009 & Counting. No Rebuild, Restoration, Modification.

CrustyRedXpress...  Love the "CRX" buried in ur avatar..      Been a long ride.  Glad she's held up...

The 3rd 2023 Road Trip got altered.   Flew to NYC last month to pick up a car for my daughter and drove it back to TX.

I tried as hard as I could to keep her in a CRX.  When a little girl, she'd sit on my lap and we'd drive around the neighborhood.  As soon as her feet were long enough she practiced on the manual transmission.  Little kids always seem to be happy behind the wheel.

drivers

We did parent taught drivers ED together in this car.  Some of the best conversations on those trips..

And she drove off in the CRX the first day as a licensed driver.

I didnt expect to get her into a CRX, but she bought a Civic -- I'll take that...   A family friends neighbor was moving.  Little old lady.  2017 w 17K miles kept in the garage.   Was worth the trip to get her in this car.

Been pretty quiet on the car side of things.  Took the dremmel to the alternator w the cracked case (MadMaxCRX#3 108k).  Once I began the cut the housing away, it popped right open.  The theory of corrosion of the aluminum appears to be the case.    The aluminum housing and stator base both appeared to corrode creating interference like water freezing in a cracked sidewalk.. Forcing the coil to warp a little and crack the case.  Lesson learned for me, when the alternators rotor begins to drag, pull out of service and replace.  Thinking the same issue caused BeaterCRX#1's original alternator to lock its rotor.    Both of these alternators were used in northern, salty environments.  Guessing this accelerated the issue.

On last fall's Michigan trip, had to drive in the rain for 3 days toward the end of the trip.  As I rule, I don't drive this car in the rain due to the water leaks.  The carpets were pretty damp after unpacking.  Pulled the carpet aside to dry out after the trip.  I knew I had compromised seams around the floor board.  Shined a flashlight from underneath. Can clearly see the light coming through at the pencil tip.  For now, I'm going to use windshield sealant to reseal the seems.  The cars been stored relatively dry the past 20 years and barely driven in the rain.  I'm sure this has gotten a little worse over the years from humidity.   I need to look at this closer.  I've been having some strange interference issues with the door.  Assumed hinges/door strikes.   Maybe its more??

ROAD TRIP 2024 will kick off in February.  Heading to Florida again.   2000 miles ish.

Oil's changed.  Need to address water leaks, remove/wash the  carpet for the musty smell, inspect the drivers tie rod bellow as a small crack was starting, figure out the drivers door interference w the door jam.   And was getting a little humming from the drivers front wheel bearing area.  Not sure if my attempt to straighten the axle was a good choice....

In reply to greasemonkeyreborne_5x1gs :

That alternator has definitely seen better days.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to greasemonkeyreborne_5x1gs :

That alternator has definitely seen better days.

Sad, it was a good alternator when I put that car in storage back in 2001.  The corrosion in the aluminum just kept on expanding w time and humidity.

16th ANNUAL ROAD TRIP:  DALLAS TO PANAMA CITY.  FIRST TRIP OF THREE PLANNED FOR 2024

Visiting family on this one.  Another 2500 miles or so.  Good news is my daughters taking time off work to do the trip w me.  Be our first overnight road trip in the CRX together.  Looking forward to it!  Trip will be in the next month or so.  Working around the weather.

Beginning work on the car since the last trip.

On the way to Michigan the drivers door sagged enough for the bottom corner of the door to crack a hole into the lower plastic rocker sil garnish.   Hinges are well worn on that side and the striker is due to be adjusted.

Door sag of the hinges w the door just popped open.

Wear on the door striker w door closed.  CRX owners, don't let it get to this point or risk damage to the lower sil.  Pix is reference for future.

Door striker after adjustments.  I inverted the striker to eliminate the wear on the metal.  I'm sure the internal door latch in worn as well...  Raised it up as far as it would allow.  Got about 1/8".  Also brought it in a little closer to the interior.  Hoping to reduce wind noise of the upper window when 18 wheelers pass me on the high way and other wind gusts.  Slightly adjusted the passenger side as well.

At a later time, I'll either replace the hinges or shim the bottom hinge to make up for the sag.

The car has had a musty smell when closed up between drives over the past 20 years.  Was horrible after the floor boards got damp from last falls 3 day drive in the rain last fall.   Pulled the carpets.  Soaked w warm water/detergent in the bath tube.  Repeated the cycle over and over until the water was clean and the sand stopped accumulated at the bottom of the tub.  Then soaked in a vinegar solution to neutralize the mold.   Finally soaked in "Downey Un-Stoppables" so my daughter won't complain about the old car smell.   Drying on the fans right now.  Plan to reinstall later today.   

I wiped all the exposed metal/deadener/plastics w a vinegar solution to neutralize mold on the surfaces.  Last Time I pulled the carpets out was back in 1993 when I bought the car.  When my friends bother-in-law left for the Navy, he spilled a strawberry shake on the passenger seat and floor.  It sat in the garage for months until I bought it.   To come full circle, MadMax spilled another strawberry smoothie on the passenger side carpet last summer (no cup holders).  I knew this carpet had to come back out for a good cleaning.

The sunroof drain tubes shrank and popped loose back in 1993.  Water would come down and accumulate around certain floor board.  There was a little rust forming.  I cleaned it out and smeared oil/grease along the seams behind the seats and covered w duct tape.  Peeled it bad up and all looked pretty good for 30 years.  

I knew I had a split in the seem and water would leak in from the front tires while driving in the rain.  Chipped the drivers side sound deadening material away and its worse than I thought.  I believe my rockers are still good.  Not reconstructing this yet.   Going to wire brush away the rust, treat w muriatic acid and seal up w a special flexible body putty I've had from another job.   The treatment leaves a phosphorous coating.  Not a long term thing.  Just want to neutralize the rust somewhat and deal w it later.   I had bought another CRX here in TX w an accident free 150K shell in great condition (CRX#8 in 2005).  If this car becomes totaled or the rust just isn't worth fixing, then that's plan B.

Car on the far right is "Plan B"

Treating the floor board rust and searching for water leaks..

Drivers side rust hole/seam failure just under clutch pedal.  Chipped away the rust.  Wire brushed the metal down.  Treated w Phosphoric acid.  This is not a 100% fix.  Later on I'll prep properly and weld in sheet metal.  Appears the rocker panel looks good.  I've used this acid treatment for years on body work having great luck w rust not coming back or coming back very slow.  Goal here is to neutralize the rust.  Since I dont drive in the rain much and never see salt, I'm good w this for the time being.

Passenger side after same treatment.  Area is smaller, but a rust bubble up on the rocker wall I don't like.

Not having the time to weld it up.  I used a Loctite polyurethane roof/flashing sealant for the time being.  I primed and painted the affected areas.  Let is  cure.  Then applied the poly coating the interior rust.  I laid down a .070" sheet of EPDM rubber, then cut 2 layers of roof flashing to dress the top.  Since the floor board flexes a little if pressed in just the right spot, I needed this to give a little.  I'm sure there's a better sealing product.  Reached out to some body working buddies to query better products for semi flexible seams.  If you have a good recommendation, lmk...   This seal  seams to be good enough to prevent water infiltration for my trips if I need to be in the rain temporarily.

Since I needed to know the condition of the body...  I removed the lower drivers sill.  It was cracking from the last trip and needed to be repaired anyway.

Good news is the rocker looks fine.  Car spent a couple years in New Jersey, then Kentucky, then w me in Michigan and back to NYC.  Car was undercoated by a PO before I got it.  I'm happy w the condition considering how many years this car saw salt in the 1980's-90's.

Peeled the front drivers fender well liner back to remove hardware for the sill removal.   Looks clean in side here as well.  This view is the wheel well side behind the clutch pedal.   The pen points to where one of the 4 sunroof drain tubes comes out.  I need to open up the interior at both wheel wells and and confirm the tubes are clamped and tight.  These tubes leaked before and i had fixed them back in the 90's.  Issue might have come back allowing water to sit in the floor pans.  Another issue might be A-pillar leaks around the windshield.  I need to replace the cracked windshield  I'll have my glass guy pull the shield and I'll do the bodywork then if needed.

In .attempt deaden the sound a little more, I laid down a thin layer of carpet on the floor before reinstalling the original carpet.  There wasn't factory deadener over the hump where the exhaust runs.  I have some spare fire wall deadeners from parted cars.  Going to see later if I can double layer the fire wall to quiet the motor a little while on the highway.  Difficult to talk on a cell - noisy.  The carpeting and interior smells great.   Will monitor the floor boards if I have to drive in the rain looking  for water infiltration down the road.  I"m sure I've got unresolved issues somewhere

Finally installed the dangling fog light switch from 2 years ago.

Raising the drivers door striker pushed the door back into alignment and worked great.  But the latch drags too much from loose hinges and sage.  Have to really slam the door.   I did some calcs and figured I needed about .045" shimming on the bottom hinge set to lift the door about .250-300".  Cut shims out of roof flashing.

Works great.  Ball point pen shows shims.   Door closes nice wo drag.  The bottom hinge really was loose while I was doing the job.  At some point, I'll need to pull a good set of hinges off a passenger door of of lower mileage car as they are reversible to rebuilt.  Going to add .010" shimming the passenger door while I"m at it.

Prepping for the Florida Trip......

The car's front left wheel area started making a slight humming noise half way through the last trip to Michigan/New York. I was concerned I might have messed up restraightening that axleback in October causing either the outer joint or wheel bearing to prematurely fail.   I had started an axle rebuilt post of RPR a while back.  I'll update that w the detail and theory behind how I've been collecting the least used Honda OE axles that have never been rebuilt.  The remanufacturers  regrind the races, remove the surface of the hardened steel,  install larger bearing yielding joints that will ultimately fail sooner.  So I'm not a fan of remans.    Since Honda NOS axles are no longer available, that leaves chinese after market axles.  I've not heard good reviews of these chinese axles either.  IMO, its worth the effort to rebuilt the best used OE axles I can find.

RPR axle rebuild post:  (to be update shortly w procedures and data collected on some 30 axles sorted through)

  http://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/index.phpshowtopic=59435&hl=%2Bsteering+%2Brack#entry580243

the spot I straightened the axles last October.   Bending caused from axle impacting torsion bar support here.

I wanted to isolate the noise.  So I pulled the drivers axle (axle pulled was an NOS when installed 30-40K ago and still felt very tight -- thinking now this was not the problem) .  And started the axle science project.  I pulled 25 years worth of axles collected.  The past 10 years, I've purchased only used OE Honda axles from the yards w original OE boots/bands.   Goal was to hopefully find low mileage original axles to rebuild somewhat close to new.

Got them sorted, labeled with the purchase history, known mileage,  noted OE vs aftermarket and serialized each one for ease of future location from stock.  I'm expecting to get 3-4 really good sets of axles out of this pile.  2 major observations noticed:  1) the longer drivers axles outer joint appear to wear out faster than the shorter passengers outer joint. 2)  The inner joints part number also match the Accord's inner axles (heavier car w a larger engine).  Appears the inner joints wear much less.  I believe they were manufactured better since used on Accords.  My archilles heel is the drivers outer joint.   The outer joints don't pop off the axles per Hondas design.  I think rebuilders used presses back in the day??  I think I've found a way to remove good outer joints on a passenger shaft, then  replacing that good joint for the more worn drivers outer joint.    more to come on this later.  It'll be a destrutive process.  Thats also why I collected all the axles.

2 months ago. I didn't think I was going to have the time to sort through the used axles.  I went to  the local parts store.  They ordered in 3 reman axles for me.  I bought the one w the smoothest joints (assuming never been rebuilt) with the least amount of rotational slop.  

I placed all these axles on the vise measuring/recording outer/inner joint rotational slop. (detail in the RPR post to be updated shortly).

This is the set up i use to measure joint slop.  I measure the slop at the end of the pliers and convert to axial degrees.   I start w NOS Honda axles.  These yield about .35 degrees of slop per joint or .7 Degrees per axle.  I use my  original 259K OE (2.85 degrees total axle slop) as the high end range.  Realistically, the best used OE axles I can find are between .9-1.3 degrees over the entire axle.   

To my surprise, the reman axle I bought 2 months ago measured near best of the 30 axle group.   So I opened the reman axle's inner joint to see if its been reworked to a crappy hand machined interference....

To my surprise, the bearings  were smooth and all measured the same.  This pix shows the inside of the inner tulip.  Can see the surface blemish where the roller bearing contacts.  Rubbing my finger over the surfaces, I can't feel a thing.  This inner joint was a lightly used original OE joint. 

Next step,  removed the grease out of the outer joints.  Surprisingly, about 10 drops of water came out of this reman joint as I was removing the grease.....   disappointing.    Solvent cleaned them, blew compressed air,  inspected races/balls best i could as I couldn't disassemble.  This joint looked great as well.

Rebooted/greased this reman axle w Honda NOS plus added honda bands.  Appears this was a really good original OE axle acquired by the rebuilder I got it from.  Its now installed in the car.   I'll see what this trip yields w this noise issue the cars having.

The rebuilder spray painted the entire axle w metallic gray paint.  Used MEK to wipe off most of the paint.  They even painted over the polished sealing surfaces of the inner shaft interface to the transmission.  Note the pencil point.  I really don't want contamination circulating around my tranny oil.   Lastly, their axle was bent.   Took me several hours to work it back to near perfect straightness.  Not happy with this rebuilder.   Too many flaws and sloppy craftsmanship.   It was a excellent base axle.  Worth the effort to me.  All corrected now

Took a couple days to sort through the axle stock, qualify and document.  Replacement of the axle took 1.5hrs.....    I'm not saying I'm doing it  an efficient path.  But knowing its OE quality, tolerance and metallurgy - its worth it to me

Walked in my son's room.  Here's a screen shot off his computer screen of my car from his summer adventures w his buddies.  He had fun.

Plastics repair time! 

I pulled off the drivers plastic sill (rocker) panel to inspection for rust in the rocker area a few weeks ago.  The sill panel cracked 2 years ago near the gas filler when I pulled her out of a 45f garage and drove it in 0F winter freeze storm.  The rapid thermal contraction cracked my door caps and lower rocker sills.  Common problem.  Not to mention 36 year old plastics.

Years ago back woods hunting in Michigan, I drove through a large puddle/bowl down a 2 track.  Placed a patch on the outside to hold it together and prevent further cracking.  fortunately, this never cracked the whole way through.

This last October trip, the drivers door sagged and  punched a hole into the sill via the door corner.  To the lower right of the hole, there's a crack starting at a 45d angle downward.  This same 45d angled crack is on the passenger side as well.  Must be body flex taking its toll on the aging plastics.

When I removed the rubber bumper guard trim, the plastics broke more.   Using the 3M 2216, gluing it back together in stages.   Used wire to hold in place while it cured.

After refitting the final piece, used modeling clay to fit check clearances between the sill panel and unibody.

Used Saturn S series front door skins to rebuild the CRX sill from the back side.  Went overkill and really beefed up this area.

Cut long strips to reinforce the length of the interior sill as well.  Parts a bit heavier now w the additional plastic and glue.  But its pretty solid now.  No interference w the body.  Was running out of time for the Florida trip.  So stopped here.  Will pull it off after the trip to reinforce some other areas.

I had collected 4 front door panels off 96-99 Saturn S series cars at a junkyard.  The 3 1/2 panels left over in the pix to the left (silver/white).  I try to buy my plastics up North as less heat and UV damage is assumed.  These I got here in Texas.  Purposely pulled silver and white as those colors reflect UV the best.  Before i pulled these off the cars, I used a pair of pliers to bust a corner out of the panels.  As long as the break was a "tear" and not a "crack", they're good!  As i cut strips off the door w the recipocating saw, I purposely broke sample areas of the material.  The areas tore and turned white as I yielded them.   So these used panels are great repair material to use.   GM still has some of these panels NOS in stock.  I happened to find an NOS panel on ebay and just got it in for 1/3 the price.  Its the grey primered one to the right in the picture.  I'll save this one for when i need the strongest repair.

I mentioned this before Honda made their body panels out of ABS/PC engineered thermoplastic.   I cant find any spec data from past articles for Honda.  Dow Chemical made the Saturn door panels from 1990 to 2005.  Apparently it was Pulse B250 from 1990-1999.  And Pulse b270 from 2000-2005.  Both materials are ABS/PC.  The change in 2000 increased the thermal dimensional stability by about 30F to help correct panel warping in the sun.  And to maintain better dimensional stability.

ABS/PC is pretty tough trying to bend it by hand when its fresh material.   I'm pretty sure the The Honda and Saturn materials are a 99% CTE match.  This car sees ranges of 115F-0F here in Texas.  This point is critical to me so the bond won't also create additional cracks in  another spot or break apart from thermal cycling.   3M 2216 I had tested and used over several military programs.  Good stuff.  Flexes a little w temperature.  Its the best way to repair these panels I can think of.  Correct matching repair material and a super strong aerospace epoxy. 

While i had the 2216 out, I reinforced the fan resistors I bought this past year as well.

The dampening material over the coils was cracked out of the box.  As these age from use, the white material flakes off.  Hoping to keep this together longer.

Corrected the batch.  2216 doesn't conduct electricity.  I did the best i could to keep it off the coils anyway.

Cars ready for the trip.  All back together.

A post I did years ago on RPR about Honda plastics.    http://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=45417&hl=plastics#entry580541

Another post I did on Hondas panels.    http://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=45357&page=2&hl=plastics#entry580374

These haven't been updated in years and lost their original images.  I'll update them when I can w the new findings.

17th ANNUAL ROAD TRIP: DALLAS TO PANAMA CITY.

Clocked 2256 miles.  Now at 303,756 miles.   Cheapest gas was 2.79 in TX, most expensive $3.89 right on the beach in Florida.  My daughter and I spent several days on the trip.  Met up w my brother in Florida.  Had a great time.  Glad to get the opportunity to take a trip w her.   

Car drove great.  No issues.  Getting some tire vibration.  I rotated the tires before the trip.  Noticed some excessive wear in some areas.  Had to have come from over loading the car on the last trip to Michigan and NY - distorting the suspension.  I had replaced the rear axle a while back and noticed a little pull from it.  Its time to get the alignment checked.  I'm assuming I'll need shims for the rear spindle.  No rain.  Don't know if the floor boards leak after sealing w urethane.  But not looking to find out.

Drove the coast line back as much as we could.  Stayed over in Mississippi on the beach.  Had an awesome dinner on the water during a sunset.

I guess this is a jeep thing...  Hanging around the beach and got "ducked".  Someone left these wrapped on the front wipers.   Has the Martigra flare.

Then a quick stop in the French Quarter of NO.  Last time this car was here was 1994.   That was a 2 1/2 week cross country trip back in the day.  Nice to come full circle.

I was looking back at the Redpepperracing post I started back in 2009.  Apparently, my first road trip started in 2008 after the car was resurrected from storage to live its second life.   Brings it to the 17th annual trip, not 16th.   Looks like its been on around 27 out of state road trips since 2008.  Spending way too much time on maintenance.  But only had her towed once bc I ran out of gas thinking it was the main relay.

I'm sure they're be another Michigan/NY trip and Denver trip later this year.

CV AXLE JOINT DISASSEMBLE AND OBSERVATIONS.......

Brief summary posted below here on GRM.   More detail in the attached link on RPR.  RPR won't be updated for a few more days.

 https://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59435&hl=%2Bsteering+%2Brack#entry580243

INNER SHAFT JOINT

This is the inner joint housing of a remanufactured axle I took apart in 2020  (far contrast to the inner housing that was perfect in the preceding posts from a couple weeks ago).   Can see where the reman company ground the outer race.   I see little wear over the section my pen is pointed to.  I assume it wasn't in service long.  Doesn't look that bad considering  they did the resurfacing by hand as noted by inconsistent grind pattern.

This particular slot of three was ground the most and had a slightly over sized needle bearing in it (.005" over).  This bearing marked w twistie, (twistie is holding the bearing together as I removed the circlips to disassemble) wouldn't fit in the other 2 slots.  Issue here is the bearing wouldn't slide all the way into the housing slot it was machined to fit and sticks right at the point you see it in the pix.  Their grinding wasn't done in parallel.  Interference would cause excessive grinding of metal, shortening the life of the joint.

This explains to me why reman axles feel gritty and far from smooth as I rotate them new out of the box.  The inner housing is the simple one to grind.  The outer joint is complex geometry you'll see below.   This is why I sure don't want to use a reground outer joint.   Someone in the shop eyeballing w the grinder.

OUTER JOINT.

The outer joints are not supposed to come apart per Honda.  I'm pretty sure reman companies us a hydraulic press to yield the square cross sectioned circlip holding this joint to the shaft. This particular shaft came from an unmolested HONDA OE joint that was smacked hard enough to crack the knuckle.   Assuming the joint was bad from impact, I took a hammer and was able to whack it off the shaft

Marked the joint components.  Critical to tap on the joint where the 3/8" extension bar is (between the balls).  then the balls pop up enough on the opposite side to get them out w a small screw driver.  They pop out w moderate force.  Also note where the screw driver is....  the first ball has to come out at this casted-in feature of the cage.

The balls actually interference fit into the cage.  See the small divet ground into the  cage where the ball rests. You can see where the ball popped out of the divet and left marks side to side while in use.

Here's a pix of the inner race.  There are 2 distinct wear lines here where the ball worn into the race.  I'd assume over time as this wears deeper, this causes the clicking in the joints as the balls roll in and out of the wear path as the joint rotates???

I know both of these Joints were Honda OE.  The inner was reground.  The outer was virgin.  I found tool markings from Honda's sub suppliers to identify (stamped into the housings)

AFTERMARKET JOINTS.

Searching the net for aftermarket joints a few years back, there were several options  back in the day.  I go way out of my way to steer clear of cheap chinese crap.  Much rather over pay for parts made by reputable companies.    Making sure even the metal doesn't come from China as best as I can.

Heres a Joint from Germany by a company called Lobro.  Now I have no idea the build quality until I install and see how they wear.  From the image, the heat treating is obvious.  Honda appears to have heat treated the entire joint, not just spot treated the inner inside bearing contact area of the joint.  Note in the pix where the pencil points to the circlip.  This circlip has a rounded cross.  So the Lobro was designed to  pop off the axle easily.  The Honda is square and its not designed for removal.

Someday, I hope to remove good  Honda OE outer joints, reverse them and place on the opposite shaft (drivers to passenger and vis-a-versa).

Some car housekeeping....

Swapped the drivers seat belt unit I rebuilt a while ago.  Had to pull up the side plastic liner to get to the hardware

While I had the hatch open, one of the bumper/aligners was jacked a little.  Pressed it down and it popped out.  Slider tabs broke off from age.  A chunk of the tab is the small piece in my hand.  Pen to the upper right shows where it came from.

 I had been grabbing pieces off junked cars for as long as I can remember.  I store the parts in a climate controlled room hopefully slowing the degradation process.  Over the past few years, I've finally been able to consolidate the parts together and create an inventory database.   Now i know what I have and where it is.  The spring launched out as the part popped out.  Luckily was able to find it.

Grabbed the worst of the parts from storage (left).   There's a crack across the bottom in the center of the replacement part, but the tabs looked good.  Laying them side by side, can see the years of impression set into the right side of the part to the right, where the pen is pointing.  I'm sure someone is making SLA's of these by now.  

Its a challenge maintaining an old car w OE parts driven/used so much.   Perpetual repairs.  Metal parts..  fine.  Its the plastics and rubber.  Then exposed to the southern sun or heat soaked engine bay.  Not a favorable condition.

Finally updated what I've got so far on axle rebuilding.

 https://www.redpepperracing.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=59435&hl=%2Bsteering+%2Brack#entry580243

More house keeping......

Proper seal compression for a static seal is around 20%, dynamic is 10%.  At least that's how I use to design using quality Mil-Spec rubbers.  Gives enough to seal while reducing compression set.  Looking at my oil filler cap, the seal probably has 1-2% compression left.   Wasn't leaking but figured replace it anyway.

Seal is just under the ball of the pen.   square cross section w 2 finger ribs.  Had to cut and pick it out.  Was careful not to scratch the oil cap sealing groove.  36 yr old rubber was pretty stiff.  The NOS seal is good and pliable.  I'd assume the new seal in about 25 years old based on when I bought it.  So far, the only NOS OE rubber causing me issues due to age are the CV boots.  I had changed most of the dynamic seals and coolant hoses on the engine/tranny back in 2004 w Honda OE.  And those are still holding.  I'm more inclined to continue using old OE Honda rubber.   I've had some cheap chinese gas powered tools w failed fuel/oil seals within 5yrs of age.  Honda did an incredible job w their design and materials compounding back in the day for these parts to last so long.

Plastic panel repairs....

I'm not interested in upgrading my plastic body panels yet.   But i have to live w the visible cracks until I repaint the car some day.  But each dent and scratch holds a memory from the past.  Adds character.   There's 2 cracks visible right at the rubber molding guard from my repair a few months ago.  One to the left, other to the right (middle crack on top I broke out trying to get the sill off).  

  I pulled the car our of a nice warm garage 2 years ago to play in the snow when it was 10F.  Drove to a gas station.  Took about 5 minutes.  while I was in the car when the gas was pumping, I heard several faint pops and cracks.  I knew exactly what was happening.  The plastic shrinks faster than steel.  It took those few minutes to shrink enough to crack the plastic as the metal wasn't catching up.   And when you get cold enough, the plastic shrinks more than the metal and you get an interference fit = cracked plastic.   I try not to drive the car below freezing whenever possible.  Cold weakens the plastic, then contraction from cold shrinking....  Not a good thing for 36 year old plastic panels.

The door cap cracked also on that cold trip.  There's black electrical tape holding the plastic piece from breaking off the rest of the way.   Will pull the door cap off at a later time and bond that back together and file the edges of the door back to give it more clearance in the future.

DOOR HINGES... -- follow up

Prior to shimming my doors back up to align properly, the door would make a thunk as I'd drive off from body torsion or something.   Guess the door would reset itself in position.  Since I did the shims to the lower hinges.  The noise has gone away.

MOLD/MUST ODOR.....   --- follow up

Since cleaning the carpets and interior,  the car smells great when I open the door after left sitting for a while.  The only pieces I didn't clean are the engine firewall deadner and the rubber/felt deadeners over the rear wheel wells.

Planning another trip to Austin in a month or 2.  Looking forward to driver again as the weather has been really nice here lately.

I've had an observation driving this car over the decades on road trips.   Every now and then, I'd feel variations of airflow near the pedals against my ankles.   Other times it appeared the cabin air diversion mechanism would self adjust from upper vent, lower vent...   on its own.   I had assumed it was a gust of wind or a semi passing by causing drafts around the car affecting the cabin airflow. 

2 years ago when I removed the dash to change out the fuel lines, was lying upside down w my head near the pedals connecting harness and HW....  was moving the speedo bezel around w the climate control attached..  and the actuator motor that adjusts the air direction was sputtering and changing the dampener location on its own (ignition switch was on at the time.)

Last year I removed the climate control (CC) and swapped CRX #9's 129K CC module.   Did several road trips and still noticed the variation of airflow directions while driving.

This past week I'd tap on the CC buttons or firmly hit the CC unit and the actuator motor would move and twitch.

Swapped another actuator motor.  Same results.

I pulled out all my used CC's and only 1 out of the 9 wouldn't budge when wiggling the button or tapping on the CC.   Then I pulled out  an NOS unit and tried that one and it worked perfectly.

I left the original actuator motor in place.  Installed the spare motor on the black towel to the upper left to prevent any obstruction of the arms and vent-door creating drag.  Ruled out wiring, connectors....  The black motor w the golden arms would either twitch/jump back and forth very quickly, or it would move to another position the switch wasn't set to.  This explains why I'd feel the air flow changing while driving....  Hitting bumps on the road would shake the CC unit causing motor to readjust.

Root caused issue to the switches.  Pressing down on one switch, then wiggling that individual stitch side to side would duplicated the situation.  Bad contacts on the switches.  Going through all 9 CC's, not all the switches did it.  Condition only happens on the switch that is on and lit up.  Some of the older, higher mileage CC's did this condition on all five switches.  The "Recirculation" switch doesn't do it,  Its a different design.

This will be a abbreviated repair version.  Need to put together a more detailed post on RPR and attach the thread here later.

Tore down the CC to get to the switch CCA.

Desoldered the switch rail (bent out the tabs holding each switch in place).  A real PITA

Pulled apart the switch rail to find 10 mini springs and a long ribbon spring (see the tiny 10 springs upper right corner).  Do this in something like a sandblasting booth.  I made a cubby w white sheets.  sheets also dampen the springs if they launch.  Acts as a "catch".   Glad I did as the little springs (upper right in photo) are very small and will fling if not grabbed firmly w tweezers.

Inside of switch assy.  There are 6 contacts total per switch..  Notice the fouling where the slide marks are.

Other part of the switch.  This is an indented ball feature.  I don't recommend to sand it down.  I believe the balls need to be there for best operation.

Used a felt polishing wheel on this part.  And 800 grit paper on the black mating part.  Since the base switches are made of nylon, I used MEK (old original blend) to clean off the contacts w/o melting the plastic.  MEK takes everything off.  Picked out the residue left over from using Q-tips.

The buttons pop in and out via a ribbon spring.  This was another PITA as it interferes w assembly/disassembly of the switches w the 10 micro springs.  Removed the rivet and installed the fastener to the right.  Redoing this rivet w the fasteners was another PITA.  That detail will be on RPR.

Pix of the micro springs (2x) per white switch.  I had to destroy another CC just to figure out best way I could remove/instal them.  Made a little hook to carefully slide these out.  Huge PITA.

Dry run test.  Reinstalled the switch bar w cleaned contact, no springs.  spent ten min pressing/wiggling the bottoms and alls good so far.  The 'hi-def" switch on this one is a little tight on tolerance.  Taking it apart again to reinspect, sand the contacts on the black part of the switch for the "hi-def" position.  to see if it can be made better.

More to come.  Next step is to reassemble the unit "pre-solder".  Since I sanded the contacts and removed the corrosion coating.  Will apply silicon dielectric grease.  The sanded surface will create abrasion and allow corrosion.  Assuming silicon will prevent that.   Once this checks out, then I'll do the final assembly and call it a day.

1 of 9 of my used units work properly.  Not that this is a show stopper to driveability.  Probably only does it while driving so you'll never hear it.  I'm sure it'll fail the motor eventually.

Part number for the front portion of the Climate Control unit is 39301-sb2-972.   This part was long gone 18 years ago when I was looking for one for a restoration project.  I had bought it for the face plate at the time to do a concourse restro.  The alternate number I was able to get was 39301-sb2-013.  Faceplate and CCA same, but the signage is different.  Made a good "golden test unit".

This climate control design is only specific to the 84-87 CRX.  Civics, accords and preludes of same era have different design.

I will never need this level of detail on CRX climate controls, but I appreciate you posting it nonetheless. 🤘🏻

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I will never need this level of detail on CRX climate controls, but I appreciate you posting it nonetheless. 🤘🏻

LOL,  I doubt many CRX owners would even need this level of detail either...

I've been creating repair modules when working on sub assemblies over the years.  Keeping the information accessible for restoration of  several  CRXs in the near future.  One will be a concours, others moderate restorations.  The records will follow with the cars.   Also helps me to recall what I did.   There is a method to the madness, or purpose....  

The Climate control reassembly has been on the back burner while working other projects.  

Climate Control Phase II:

There's another abnormality with this unit I had fixed back in 1998.  Back then (1995), my A/C worked great.  I swapped a leaking radiator on this car.  I went to run the AC.  It came on for a few seconds and just shut down.  Was in NYC at the time, didn't need AC so didn't bother working on it.  Moved to Dallas in 1998.  Hot as hell, so needed AC working again.

About 20 hours of testing the electrical components narrowed the issue down to a fried Climate Control.  Issue was caused by swapping connectors  in the picture above.  Unfortunately, Honda didn't color code or make the connectors unique - other than one connector being green, while both mating connectors were white.  By swapping these, it sends full amp current through the sensing ground wire (I believe it was black w a blue strip - wire).  Same wire that goes through the AC relays/diodes, hi/lo pressure shut off, idle booster, relay timer, evap cold/freeze shut-off, fan switch, climate control and finally ending at the ECM.  It was a challenge to ID and fix.  One connector is part of the base engine bay wire harness.  The other connector is the dealership add-on AC specific harness.  Apparently, they can't be crossed

What gets blow is the Climate controls Amplifier CCA pictured above.  I can't figure out which component gets damaged.  Inspected the solder joints and components w a glass, I just can't tell....  I just know swapping this CCA fixes the problem.  Now finding a CCA that isn't already blow is the tricky part.  When I figured this out on CRX#1 back in 1998. I just drove the car w the assembly connector hanging out.  Kept pulling used CC's from the junkie until I got one to work.  Then, later that summer of 1998, CRX#2's AC didn't work.  I replaced a damaged suction line on that one from a soft front end collision it had before I bought it.  That one had a new hood and header panel.  So i figured the radiator was new as well.  And sure enough the Climate control on CRX2 was blown (PO's repair shop swapped the connectors).   Went to the junkie and played musical parts til one worked.

When the CC gets blown by swapping the connectors, the AC button still lights up "green" when depressed.  So you think its a refrigerant issue.   It affects nothing else other than turning on the AC.  The wiring scheme is the same for same era preludes, civic and accords.  I'd have to assume this issue is common to the era.

Its a common issue.  I've never seen any posts on this topic other than what I've done over the years.  I"m really not sure how others have solve this.  Its a cheap car, so no one probably cared about AC.

After I complete the the reassembly of CC and verify its all good w the switch fixes, I'll create the CC repair module and share it here for the CRX restoration guys out there.

The other week one of these broke off.  I had searched for these 20yrs ago via the Honda parts systems.  No luck.  I thought they were listed as "discontinued" even back then.  So I gave up and just grabbed them off junkyard cars.  Once Honda places a part as "discontinued" , it drops off the "dealer locate" system.  That prevents dealerships from selling those parts overbought on their shelves back through Honda's dealer locate system.  Dealerships are allow so many "dollars" worth of inventory or "piece parts" returned each year to the main wharehousing system.  These small parts get lost through the system.  Then they get tossed.  This process might have changed today, but its what I dealt w acquiring parts for my projects 15-20 years ago.

Googled the P/N last night for kicks,..  and someone was selling a set.  Got them this week.  Saving for the concours car. 

An RPR member Bobby out of Oklahoma had aquired these a different route several years ago.  He cross referenced these parts to a late 80's acura.  I forget the model.  Probably a Teg.  Acura sold the identical bumper rubber and spring but it was enclosed in a sheet metal assembly that bolts on to the trunk side of the hatch as a unit.  He had shared that w me 10-15 years ago and my local Acura dealership sourced them from their Japanese based wharehouse.  Took a while to get them.  Another route for those doing restorations.  This was the only time I had ever gone through Acura to obtain CRX parts.  I don't believe Honda-Acura parts systems  talk to each other.  At least 20 years ago they didn't

I admire your commitment to your signature. 🤘🏻😎

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I will never need this level of detail on CRX climate controls, but I appreciate you posting it nonetheless. 🤘🏻

Quote for Truth. Absolutely love the level of enginerding in this thread-brings a smile to my face every time it pops up.

greasemonkeyreborne_5x1gs said:

 

The other week one of these broke off.  I had searched for these 20yrs ago via the Honda parts systems.  No luck.  I thought they were listed as "discontinued" even back then.  So I gave up and just grabbed them off junkyard cars.  Once Honda places a part as "discontinued" , it drops off the "dealer locate" system.  That prevents dealerships from selling those parts overbought on their shelves back through Honda's dealer locate system.  Dealerships are allow so many "dollars" worth of inventory or "piece parts" returned each year to the main wharehousing system.  These small parts get lost through the system.  Then they get tossed.  This process might have changed today, but its what I dealt w acquiring parts for my projects 15-20 years ago.

 

 

 

Googled the P/N last night for kicks,..  and someone was selling a set.  Got them this week.  Saving for the concours car. 

 

An RPR member Bobby out of Oklahoma had aquired these a different route several years ago.  He cross referenced these parts to a late 80's acura.  I forget the model.  Probably a Teg.  Acura sold the identical bumper rubber and spring but it was enclosed in a sheet metal assembly that bolts on to the trunk side of the hatch as a unit.  He had shared that w me 10-15 years ago and my local Acura dealership sourced them from their Japanese based wharehouse.  Took a while to get them.  Another route for those doing restorations.  This was the only time I had ever gone through Acura to obtain CRX parts.  I don't believe Honda-Acura parts systems  talk to each other.  At least 20 years ago they didn't

I have a 1992 Acura and only use OEM parts. Here is what I've found:

• Honda US and Acura US parts inventory systems don't talk to each other. 
• Acura US and Acura Canada inventory doesn't talk to each other, assume it's the same for honda
• Many, many parts that are out of stock in US/Canada are available via sites like amayama.com and megazip
• Yes, ebay is really great for small NOS parts

Shoot me the p/n for those bumpers if you can, or run them through Amayama yourself-might be surprised. Again, love the thread.

CrustyRedXpress said:

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I will never need this level of detail on CRX climate controls, but I appreciate you posting it nonetheless. 🤘🏻

Quote for Truth. Absolutely love the level of enginerding in this thread-brings a smile to my face every time it pops up.

Totally

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

I admire your commitment to your signature. 🤘🏻😎

Seems like things just run better w their original parts.  Our GM gets ACDelco, the Ford gets Motorcraft.    And then I my wife thinks I'm crazy for not replacing the water heater, AC, fridge,....   25 years old and those keep running strong w  oe parts.   While our neighbors are on their third replacements.   I think the age of simple and reliable are long gone.  I miss that.

I looked up your MonZora.  Impressive!

CrustyRedXpress said:

greasemonkeyreborne_5x1gs said:

 

The other week one of these broke off.  I had searched for these 20yrs ago via the Honda parts systems.  No luck.  I thought they were listed as "discontinued" even back then.  So I gave up and just grabbed them off junkyard cars.  Once Honda places a part as "discontinued" , it drops off the "dealer locate" system.  That prevents dealerships from selling those parts overbought on their shelves back through Honda's dealer locate system.  Dealerships are allow so many "dollars" worth of inventory or "piece parts" returned each year to the main wharehousing system.  These small parts get lost through the system.  Then they get tossed.  This process might have changed today, but its what I dealt w acquiring parts for my projects 15-20 years ago.

 

 

 

Googled the P/N last night for kicks,..  and someone was selling a set.  Got them this week.  Saving for the concours car. 

 

An RPR member Bobby out of Oklahoma had aquired these a different route several years ago.  He cross referenced these parts to a late 80's acura.  I forget the model.  Probably a Teg.  Acura sold the identical bumper rubber and spring but it was enclosed in a sheet metal assembly that bolts on to the trunk side of the hatch as a unit.  He had shared that w me 10-15 years ago and my local Acura dealership sourced them from their Japanese based wharehouse.  Took a while to get them.  Another route for those doing restorations.  This was the only time I had ever gone through Acura to obtain CRX parts.  I don't believe Honda-Acura parts systems  talk to each other.  At least 20 years ago they didn't

I have a 1992 Acura and only use OEM parts. Here is what I've found:

• Honda US and Acura US parts inventory systems don't talk to each other. 
• Acura US and Acura Canada inventory doesn't talk to each other, assume it's the same for honda
• Many, many parts that are out of stock in US/Canada are available via sites like amayama.com and megazip
• Yes, ebay is really great for small NOS parts

Shoot me the p/n for those bumpers if you can, or run them through Amayama yourself-might be surprised. Again, love the thread.

Thnx for the tips on the resources.   I've used yahoo Japan and rinkya in the past.  I'll look into those you mentioned.   '92 Acura, yes, we'll need some sidebar conversation.  My wife had a '94 Teg I drove for a while.

I had made contact w the nearest Canadian Honda dealership to Detroit.  They wouldn't ship to the states.  I had to drive there for pick up.   What was interesting due to Canadian privacy laws at the time, Canadian dealerships don't share parts inventories.  If a dealership wants to locate a part from other Canadian, they'd put out a request.  The other dealerships would have to look up on the receiving end and reply if they wanted to sell/xfer their parts.   This guy Gibbs actually looked up 60 p/n's for me.  He was able to find 20 throughout Canada.  Got them ready.  Then I crossed the boarder.  US Boarder Patrol didn't like my story re-entering the US .  Thought I was running drugs from Mexico.  A whole 'nother story.  Armed guards secured the exits to the waiting room until they released me.

Busy working.  Not a lot going on w the car.

Had a car show a few months back in Austin I was registered for.  Was raining here in Dallas.  Didn't feel like dealing w the rain,  so blew it off.  Drove into Dallas the following weekend to pick up some hot sauce a friend recommended from a specialty shop down town.  Love it on my Burretos.   WhoopASS/AssBlaster.   Picked up several bottles for the Holidays.  It'll be a conversation piece.

Costco had a 25% off sale on their house motor oil.  Picked up enough to last me about 28 years......   3.1 qrts/change.   3-4K miles change interals.  ~13K miles a year.  My little way to beat inflation.  Was like $16 a jug.   Was in an engineering lab.  Some of the guys did life testing on several brands of oil.  Appeared it didn't mater much which oil used as long as you weren't taking the engine to thermal  breakdown temps and excessive RPM's.   So type of oil doesn't matter much to me.   305K on the clock for this car

My son bought a 90's Miata.  Had some really bright aftermarket bulbs installed from the PO.  Picked up a set for the Beater.  Curious to see if the light pattern is as tight as the OE Halogens.  The upgraded Sylvanias I've been using work great, but burn out quickly.  Also would like to take some amp load off the 37 yr old under powered alternator.  Hoping to get more life out the the lights and alternator at the same time.  Not installed yet.  Curious to do a side by side comparison against the garage door one evening...

Summer side excursion into Oklahoma.... AND continuation of 17th annual road trips.  2024 trip 2 of 3: Michigan/New York

Its been a summer of my son's cars.  He picked up a Miata early spring.  He loved it.  was fun to work on.   Then someone ran a red light and hit him.  Was bad enough for insurance to salvage the car.  Had towed the car home until the adjuster could look at it.

Then he bought an IS300.  Took a road trip to middle Oklahoma to pick it up

My spare wrench time was working on the Miata w him.  No CRX work this summer.  Drove it a few times a week in the mornings/evenings when it was cooler beyond the Oklahoma trip.

Prepping for Michigan!!

Got around to figuring out why my rear wiper was over extending.  

The wiper on the bottom has the plastic cover.  Wiper on top is my car where I've lost 2 covers so far from over-extending wiper swing.

Wiper in over-extended position.  The top protective cap is missing.  Can see the link/joint in that position wouldn't allow the protective cap to remain in place.

Paint scuffing/chipping

Root cause of issue was the mount securing the motor to the hatch had loosened up over the years.  Appears the rubber scrank over time and allowed the mechanism to move as the wiper would jerk back and forth.  My finder shows a shadow in the black paint where the pivot anchor would slide back and forth.  Where its supposed to be stationary.

Simply tightening down this nut, solved the problem.  I was originally thinking it was the rear wiper mechanism or motor gears wearing out.  Glad it was simple.

Specific to 85-87 CRX's w the SI rear wiper.  Not sure if the 3G hatch has a similar set up.

The weeds we get down to getting our cars to run as they were intended.....

Not mission critical for the upcoming Michigan trip, but I'm sure I'll be driving through the rain at some point.

Michigan/NY trip preppin'.....

Cars been wearing tires oddly past several years.   Gas mileage has been down a little since the new Xmission, steering wheel shake and a humming/grinding noise began during the last Michigan trip.  I had figured I had overloaded the CRX on the way home last year w the junkyard parts and gear.

Finally got an alignment last month.  I was suspecting the rear axle was the issue and it was.

Shims made for late 80's Honda/acuras.  Sanded the right rear shims to get it closer to my mark.

installation.  hadn't done this before.  wasn't bad

Lifetime alignment at firestone.  Went back for second alignment to verify the shim install.  My right rear is still not where I want it.  Put a new set of tires on the front.  Then took the best 2 tires and put them on the rear.  The car pulls slightly to the left.  I want it pull left enough to compensate for road crown.  Looking for perfection, so I'll be pulling the right shims and resanding this weekend.

I was chasing the humming/grinding noise.  Thought it was drivers axle.  So I rebuilt another one last year and the problem still persisted. I then assumed it might be a bad wheel bearing installed last year...   Put the car on blocks and ran the car in 5th gear.  Used a stethescope on the key bearing points w the drive trane in motion and nada.   All this time wasted and it was a simple alignment/replacement of tires!  Its what I get for overthinking this one.  Issue caused when i installed the 98K axle on the car serveral years ago.  Had assumed plug and play: NOT.

Loaded the Beater w 400# and drove down the highway.  Noise is all gone.   

Oil changed, fluids topped and did a complete check out on the car.  Boots, hoses, belts.  All looks good and cars about ready for the trip.

Going to tweak the RR shims and install my good climate control as i didn't get to finish the rebuild from last spring.

Gas mileage on this car use to get 40-44 on long road trips in the early 90's when the speed limit was 55.  I had been getting  37-38 MPG w modern limits of 70-75MPH.   Then I checked after installing the 43K tranny and it dropped to 36MPG.  I had thought it was a change in gearing possibly from a 3G hatch xmission.   Now I'll chaulk it up to the rear alignment.   I'm assuming MPG  will go back up on this trip.  I like to track the MPG as it gives me clues if the cars running to spec.

Cars at 306,600

I have yet to reach 300k on any single car. 2010 Ody is my lifetime leader at 268k.