[MorningZ]

Z, how did the little spherical to bevel adapter washers work for you?

They seem to serve their purpose as designed !

 

[b18c5rjdm]

Envious of your garage Steve. I keep telling my self, as soon as it warms up...
You don't have that problem down there.

 

[MorningZ]

Ok, two posts coming up to wrap up the aftermath of all the stuff that happened at CMP a few weeks back:


Dead battery:

When I went to get the car off the trailer upon arrival, the car was dead as could be. My buddy Stephen's friend Tony ran over to the car carrying one of these jump start things, it did freaking awesome. Definitely an item that you look at and hold in your hand and go like: "no freaking way this thing works"... rest assured, it does.. I didn't buy from Amazon btw, I found an eBay seller with the "Best Offer" thing and offered $75 shipped and it was accepted, that is definitely a feature on eBay that is often overlooked. I saved $80 on rear suspension airbags for the truck and recently got a great deal on some beer mugs too. It definitely doesn't hurt to try!

So the battery, got it out of the car last night, a Duralast Gold model, brought it to the closest AutoZone and they put their quick tester on it, told me "it's good, it's the alternator that is the problem", I explained to the guy that the car wouldn't even turn over or turn on lights, taking the alternator out of the equation. He didn't want to listen so he put the battery on their full blown test bed and told me to come back in an hour. Went and picked it up with him again telling me "all good" (bullsh-t). This morning I put the battery in, the fully charged battery started the car up and i tested the voltage at idle, 14+ volts as expected from a healthy alternator, so I drove the car right away to a different location and the kid I was talking with swapped the battery w/o zero complaints, so i should be good on that front. An alternator swap on a JRSC'd car is one royal pain in the ass let me tell you!! Glad I avoided that for now.

Passenger side knuckle assembly:

Removed the passenger side, the lower ball joint was being a *****, so out came the pickle fork and a 4 pound mallet, the best combination when zero f-cks are given to save the old ball joint.

After I got the knuckle off and some time on the press, I put it all back together and installed back on the car. I had enough parts and extra stuff to put together a complete "backup" assembly to bring to the track just in case.

Body:

Now that I had both the assemblies back on, I put the driver fender back on. Overall not happy at all about this, but for now, it works as my trip to Road Atlanta is approaching fast! At some point this summer I will get a new fender and front bumper and have them pained. But that time isn't now

Rear hatch shocks "died":

At the track I went to open the hatch and was greeted by, womp womp, hatch shocks that had finally given out after 16.5 years of life. I picked up a set on eBay for $30 shipped, they work great! The next post I make will detail that install (mainly to "back up" this post from 7 years ago)



Oil change:

It's time to go to synthetic, as I've been running conventional since last January's motor build. Hopefully this helps lower the oil temps while out on track, I'd even take 5 degrees lower! Giving Royal Purple a try, it was like I was feeding the car Koolaid! lol

While working on the car, I looked up to this little guy who was like 8" from my face lol

 

[MorningZ]

Hatch shock install:

- Reference: http://www.team-integra.net/forum/19-projects-diy-article-talk/177625-hatch-strut-install.html
- Source of shocks: here on eBay ($30 shipped)
- Important notes: (1) the aftermarket shock goes in "upside down" than the OEM one, (2) I didn't use the white plastic washer that came with the new ones, it wouldn't let me put the snap ring back on the car-side of the shock


Noticed an oil like substance in the channel of the hatch, this has to be hydraulic fluid from the dead OEM shock

Used a shovel to hold up the hatch

Pop off the plastic cover and the metal clip on the "car side" of the shock

The hatch side of the OEM shock doesn't pop off, so just remove the whole bolt, which comes off with a 12mm. You'll replace this with one that comes with the new shocks (goes on with a 13mm btw)

Here is the old shock vs the new. so the new one will have the skinny part point towards the car, the OEM one points towards the hatch

Here is the new shock in place

And since it holds up the hatch, we're all done!

 

[Stopsign32v]

I cannot get over how much I like the color of your car.

 

[MorningZ]

I cannot get over how much I like the color of your car.

My car's days of being a pretty girl are in the rear view mirror nowadays :-(. But thanks

 

[MorningZ]

So wanted to address the rear wheel studs, started by taking off the wheel, the whole brake caliper and then used my 4 lb mallet to smack out the old studs

Here is the new ARP extended stud vs tired old OEM stud

So spending a long time Googling and researching "integra rear stud replacement" pretty much resulted in one option: because of the extended length of the ARP the only way to get it in place seemed to be to pull the hub off which results in the bearing pulling apart and requiring replacement. There had to be a way that involved not spending another $120 !! After much time spent and bouncing ideas off some friends, came up with this:


So the ABS sensor is in the way

It's five 10mm bolts to get it out of the way

Now I had access to slide in the ARP studs

Using an oversized nut and one of the new lug nuts, I was able to pull the stud into place

Here is the ABS sensor, brake and dust shield back in place

And COMPLETE !!

Before I put the driver wheel back on, I wanted to address something. It ain't pretty but it'll work ! (function > form for me !)

Twice in the past 9 months I've had stuff get kicked up from the track and take out belts on the car because of lack of an inner fender (too much stuff in the way to put back on). A little bit of time with a piece of aluminum flashing and some tin snips hopefully solved this issue. As said, not pretty, but it'll work

 

[MorningZ]

When I was out running around this morning, I saw that the local Boy Scouts were doing a car wash to raise some money, so when all done I brought the car up there and got her washed

 

[atkinsonar]

Post prior, pic of the brake duct, is it really that close to the belts? Maybe the angle played a factor, but looks damn close.


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[MorningZ]

yeah, it's close... everything on the driver side of the engine bay is close as f-ck to each other.... the SC leave zero room for error

 

[MorningZ]

So while going through garage stuff in my reorganization, I ran into this rear tow hook I bought last year, I put it on today

Also added something to the car I've had for months: a small pendent with a tiny bit of my wife's ashes. Took the rearview off, drilled a small hole and put an eye hook in to hold the pendent. Unfortunately my car's engine mount setup = not too cooperative. I'll have to figure something out, for now I slid a piece of zip tie in there to hopefully remove the rattle

She's 100% ready to go for this coming weekend!

 

[drmix]

What a productive weekend!

 

[Stopsign32v]

Woah I must have missed something. Your wife's ashes? Dude I'm so sorry. I couldn't imagine...

 

[MorningZ]

Woah I must have missed something. Your wife's ashes? Dude I'm so sorry. I couldn't imagine...

Yeah, 5 months ago this weekend :-(

 

[Stopsign32v]

I have no words. I hope you can find peace in what you had with her and the fact that you both made one another better people in your own ways. While she is not with you anymore I know you still feel her and I hope it helps you by knowing that will never leave you. She will always be by your side. I don't know if you are a religious person and if you aren't I apologize for this, but the words are what I feel you should hear and can possibly comfort you.

As I sit in Heaven
And watch you every day
I try to let you know with signs
I never went away

I hear you when you're laughing
And watch you as you sleep
I even place my arms around you
To calm you as you weep

I see you wish the days away
Begging to have me home
So I try to send you signs
So you know you aren't alone

Don't feel guilty that you have
Life that was denied to me
Heaven is truly beautiful
Just you wait and see

So live your life, laugh again
Enjoy yourself, be free
Then I know with every breath you take
You'll be taking one for me...


I will pray for you and your family tonight before I fall asleep. Stay strong and lean on the love you had for one another to gain the strength you need right now. The pain will never go away, it won't. But I can promise you it will get a little better over time.

 

[MorningZ]

Few leftovers from the productive weekend:

Received a new car/track toy, a Garmin VIRB XE camera. It's a GoPro like device that has GPS and accelerometer built in, so it can do cool stuff right out of the box showing speed, elevation, lateral force, location, etc. Here is a quick example (not sure why uploading directly to YouTube from Garmin's app destroyed the quality, but i'll figure it out)

After that little run I went over to my buddy Richy's house, he races a Civic in one of the spec classes and also cuts decals and does shirts on the side, he made me up some stick on vinyl numbers for this weekend and for good measure I bought two meshie rims off him as well. Spent a good hour over his house as we talked cars/track.

 

[b18c5rjdm]

Saw that Garmin thing at the Dragon last year at Killboy's shop.
On my list of must haves.

 

[dpaton]

@MorningZ-

I'm looking at similar tools for valve seals and saw this deal:
Honda Acura B18C B16A Valve Spring Compressor, Cam Lock, Pusher, and Valve Seal Kit
Any thoughts?

It comes along with the cam tool I lust for so much.

 

[VoodooR]

Really digging the new view. Teg sounds great as always. Looking forward to seeing you do some track stuff with it.

 

[atkinsonar]

@MorningZ-

I'm looking at similar tools for valve seals and saw this deal:
Honda Acura B18C B16A Valve Spring Compressor, Cam Lock, Pusher, and Valve Seal Kit
Any thoughts?

It comes along with the cam tool I lust for so much.

WIN. I bought same valve seal tool and cam lock, just independently. I happened to borrow the spring compressor, which I will also be buying soon. All are well worth their weight in gold in my opinion.


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