Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[Steph]

cheers guys

I'm completely repolishing the header now, then I'm going to move onto the water pump soon. I tried to resist, but I just can't help myself... the painted water pump looks wrong IMO, so I'm going to make it look 'right'.

I can really see myself driving my Civic regularly now, but I'll never take it out in rain, or the chance of it. I'm well versed in parking outside supermarket carparks, and walking in, etc. to be sure I don't come back to a nasty surprise.

Anyway, it's unlikely to be hidden for months on end under flannelette sheets in the garage (yes, that's what I have to cover it with).

Today was all about wearing my fingers out sanding out small scratches in my header, before I repolish it... again. Will it never end? :P

I might move on to the water pump now, to add a little variety to life...

[Steph]

I'm happy to report my cable idler pulley worked perfectly. I bought a small 4kg hanging-type scale for weighing fish from an anglers' shop. I then tied a knot in my test cable, and was able to measure the resistance of my DHLB32 carburetor both; with the idler gear, and without. I found that without the idler pulley, it took exactly 1.5kgs to move the quadrant on the carburetor, and with the idler pulley in place, it took 1.45kgs to move the quadrant, and it felt considerably smoother with the pulley in the 'circuit', especially when the enrichment pumps 'join in' (that's 2 more springs).

This is the link to where I purchased the pulley from. It has 'SAVA IND.' cast into the nylon.

Part No. PUI032-0445-064-N-BB

http://www.minibearings.com.au/store/it ... 445064nbb/

Anyway, it works exactly as I hoped...

[Thor]

As ever, exquisitely detailed and an excellent solution to an awkward issue.

[Steph]

thanks Pete

I really am quite chuffed with how well it turned out.

well, I was getting sick of polishing the header, so I moved on to my starter, here it is bolted to the GJ86 5-speed...

I know I keep saying this, but you need to be aware, none of the polished bits you see in the photos has been chromed, they've just been sanded and polished in preparation for chrome. If you take all the parts to a chromer, they will charge you way less if you supply pieces like these, because there's zero prep-work for them to do, and after they've been chromed, you can lightly polish/buff them to a show finish.

[Steph]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there's no way I could have done all this in my 60s, much less my 70s, so this whole retiring and being able to work on your own projects is a con. If you want to be driving your own customised car in your retirement, like I do, you better do it now, long before the old body starts to make it too much of a drag to be worth it, or worse, too painful to be doing any of it.

Just my two cents worth, but I've long suspected I wouldn't be able to do a lot when I get old, or would prefer to be 'chilling' rather than waking with aches and pains from the previous day's work. In my case it may have been a self fulfilling prophecy, but none the less, I'm glad I managed to make some hay while the sun was still shining.

[bob78cvcc]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there's no way I could have done all this in my 60s, much less my 70s, so this whole retiring and being able to work on your own projects is a con. If you want to be driving your own customised car in your retirement, like I do, you better do it now, long before the old body starts to make it too much of a drag to be worth it, or worse, too painful to be doing any of it.

Just my two cents worth, but I've long suspected I wouldn't be able to do a lot when I get old, or would prefer to be 'chilling' rather than waking with aches and pains from the previous day's work. In my case it may have been a self fulfilling prophecy, but none the less, I'm glad I managed to make some hay while the sun was still shining.

I'm feeling exhausted just thinking of all the endless hours put into it!

[ldog]

Hey Steph,
what starter are you running in your civic ? is it a heavy duty one ? it's different to the ones I am running :burnout

[Thor]

If you read back through the thread, Steph discusses it and the reasons why.

Enjoy the read.

[Steph]

From memory, I found this one after I followed a link on line auctions to other compatible starters, or something like that, and this one popped up. I chose this one for the same reason stated in your post, it looked heavy duty, and it definitely is when compared with the stock item IMO. That said, it weighs an extra kilo I expect, although that may be based on perception alone... OK, I'll walk outside to my parts-dump and check...

OK, the old starter weighs 4.3kg and the new one is 3.9kg so I was wrong (never trust your perceptions!), so there's a weigh saving of almost half a kilo, or a pound in the old speak (haha... sorry, it's not "old speak" as the imperial system is still tolerated in some parts of the world)

Looking at the original starter's housing, I would not have wanted to have tried to 'pretty' that up.

Sitting here looking at the two, I'm pretty sure the old one is more powerful than the new one...

[Don]

what starter are you running in your civic ? is it a heavy duty one ? it's different to the ones I am running

Gear reduction starters weigh less and have much more power than the direct drive one that came on the car originally. If you start raising the engines compression the difference in cranking speed is really dramatic. Civics didn't get the good starters until 1980 and the years though 1983 will work on a 1st gen Civic. First gen Accord had gear reduction starters that bolt to the Civic. I am not sure if there was a difference between the the auto and stick versions, as I always sourced mine for a manual transmission.