Project Steph's 1978 Honda Civic 1200

[EvoCivic]

Groovy! Good for a small car. Despite the load rating I wouldn't want to use it to lift a tank such as pictured.

[Steph]

Groovy! Good for a small car. Despite the load rating I wouldn't want to use it to lift a tank such as pictured.

yeah, a few creaks and groans as they lifted that one!

totally suited to our cars, which you could just about get away with using a bike lift on! LOL!

[Steph]

I rang the body shop today and pushed the drop-off date 2 weeks later. They had no problem, and from what I've seen, I likely did them a favour (they're always working late at night).

Anyway, now I can spend some time pondering things to cut off/remove. I'm hiding all the wiring, so I need time to think that through too.

[Bill]

Hi All,
Been throttleing back a bit, will continue such for the fortellable future. I have all faith in the ground troops!
=Bill

[Steph]

Hi All,
Been throttleing back a bit, will continue such for the fortellable future. I have all faith in the ground troops!
=Bill

Hi Bill,

I can relate with that, but I hope it's only temporary,

Steph

[Bill]

You know that the front handles can be turned and installed easily on the front doors... They can be eliminated altogether with the use of a straight pull solenoid in the door. Plenty of room, easy especially so if you already have an alarm on the car, or a remote start kit...

[Steph]

You know that the front handles can be turned and installed easily on the front doors... They can be eliminated altogether with the use of a straight pull solenoid in the door. Plenty of room, easy especially so if you already have an alarm on the car, or a remote start kit...

I had thought about that, but I love the door handles, they're soo 1970s!

I plan on wiring an alarm in as I modify the wiring to hide it... not sure which one yet... so many things to consider...

I need to find out the brake line size, the size of the brake line fittings, so I can source new ones. I've found 3/16" and 1/4" stainless hard brake lines, but I'm not sure if they will work or not... I'm thinking, not. I also found an SAE metric single and double brake flaring kit, but I have memory of them not being the correct type? Nothing says custom like bending your own brake lines up out of stainless.

What else do I need help with?... Oh yeah, can I use a large screwdriver to drop the ball joint, or should I spend the $30 to buy the correct tool? I like buying tools, but I can't help thinking a screwdriver would wedge in there and do the job?

What do I have to do with the hondamatic shifter wiring... splice the two wires together and tuck them away? I'm going from memory here...

Steph

[Steph]

I had a look at the Eurocarb website, and I noticed they had 32mm butterfly valves/discs back in stock. They were the only parts I couldn't find when I rebuilt the Dellortos, and they're easy changed over while the carburetor are off the car. Anyway, I ordered 4 of them, so now my carburetor will be like new. The old ones looked like they'd been poked with a screwdriver or something, and had a few indents on the edges that I was never comfortable with, and knew were going to give me a rough idle, or high idle, so with new ones I'll finally feel like they should work straight 'out of the box', so to speak, and hopefully idle like Neil's motor does (he kindly shared all his jet sizes, etc. with me).

[steve.ewing@ottawa.ca]

can I use a large screwdriver to drop the ball joint, or should I spend the $30 to buy the correct tool?

I've had good luck with just giving the ball joints a good whack with a 3 pound sledge hammer. The impact will distort the hole enough to break the interferance fit. It may take a few goes but they will seperate. Two advantages to this method, you won't tear the ball joint boots and, if you need to buy a tool, a 3 pound sledge is way more versatile than a pickle fork.

[Thor]

Splitting ball joints.
Try this:-
Use a lump hammer[ similar to ''Thor'' that you sent me] at the back of the joint, hit the front with a 2lb hammer, not lump.
the one acts as a reflector [anvil] of the initial impact and drops the joint first shot usually.
If you can get a pry-bar to load the joint at the same time, it improves the one-shot separation.
you do not necessarily need 3 hands, I rest my ribs on the bar to give downforce, while my left-hand holds the lump hammer onto the rear of the joint, allowing my right to swing the impact shot on the front of the joint.
Much easier to do than to say.
Do not buy a pickle fork or any other separator, I have 6 joint breakers and all will damage Honda dust seals.

Just trying to help.
Pete