I'm in Spokane, WA. The car at the Pull-n-save where I got the new subframe still had the driver's side LCA, so maybe I'll swing by and pick it up so I can do a comparison. If the current one is bent, then I'll have a new one ready to go. If not, it only cost a few bucks and I'll have an extra on-hand.
thats your best route
I got to work on the suspension over the long weekend and it turns out that the answer to the positive camber issue was: D -- all of the above.
I decided to start with the easiest part, the upper control arm. I removed the old one, held it up to the one removed from the parts car at the Pull & Save (1990 Civic Si) and noticed that the old one was a bit stretched out.
You can see the difference between the left one (the fresh one) and the right (the impacted one). The one on the right is obviously stretched out a bit:
So I put everything back together and voila! -- it was still a positive camber situation, but a little bit better. So, moved to the lower control arm. Lo, and behold, it was also a bit bent. The differences are slight, but they are there if you look for them (bad on the left, good on the right):
"There," I thought to myself, "that should take care of it." Think again. It was slightly better, but not all the way there. So, the only other option was the knuckle. I honestly hadn't assumed the knuckle would be bent, so I had to make another trip to the Pull & Save to grab the knuckle. I was just ready to have the thing back together at this point, so I didn't get any pictures, but you could tell pretty quickly that the new knuckle was a different angle where the bend is below the upper control arm.
This time, everything was back to normal. We took Grumpy for a spin and everything stayed together. There's more work to be done, but at least he can drive around now. The best part (so far) is all of the time I got to spend getting dirty with my garage buddy:
Grumpy even looks like he's smiling a little bit...
That's great to see/hear! I'll soon be in your old position. I should have a whole pile of parts from RockAuto coming in tomorrow. Need to replace every single bushing, balljoint and shock in both my free Civic, but also my 91 CRX Si. Should be much fun.
always crazy to see how much a little tweak here or there can throw off an alignment so much
good to see it's all buttoned up
So now we have reached decision time. Grumpy is up and running, I ordered the parts today to replace the timing belt and pulley, water pump, crank and cam seals. After this is complete and the alignment is done I will be at the crossroads of keep (and continue to improve), or sell and use the profits to invest in something else (I would love to get another E30, or another Miata, or get an old Z car).
So far, I've invested about $1000 into Grumpy, and I'm pretty sure I could sell him for at least $1500 (if not a bit more). That's ground-floor Miata and E30 money around here.
The Civic is cheaper to run and easier to work on than the E30 (but isn't as quick or stylish -- IMO) and it has more seats and space than the Miata (but, in current trim, isn't as quick, or stylish -- again, my opinion). Also, Grumpy is drivable right now whereas an $1800 E30 or Miata may need more investment to bring it up to par. Obviously, any car is going to get more investment, but am I going to be starting on a level playing field, or putting myself behind the curve of where my current car is?
Still, this is a third car, so it can afford to be out of the loop for a bit of time and not effect the day-to-day life of the Dustoff household. Decisions and choices...
I'm going to have the same issue here in a week or so. I just finished up the LF corner rebuild and just have the RF corner left. It should then be a halfway decent daily driver.. but it's street car #4 that I really don't need.
Note: DO NOT mix up the brake caliper and radius rod bolts. Same thread pitch and diameter, just slightly different lengths. Otherwise you will have to disassemble the whole corner to get the radius rod bolts back in. Much cursing last night.
tpwalsh wrote: Note: DO NOT mix up the brake caliper and radius rod bolts. Same thread pitch and diameter, just slightly different lengths. Otherwise you will have to disassemble the whole corner to get the radius rod bolts back in. Much cursing last night.
No fun. I made it a habit of putting bolts right back into the hole they came out of after the parts were separated when I was taking the suspension apart. It helped me to keep the bolts/nuts with the right components and it kept me from scattering a whole stack of nuts/bolts across the garage floor by accidentally kicking them (which I have a tendency to do).
IMHO an EF honda is tough to beat for a combination of practicality and fun
DustoffDave wrote:tpwalsh wrote: Note: DO NOT mix up the brake caliper and radius rod bolts. Same thread pitch and diameter, just slightly different lengths. Otherwise you will have to disassemble the whole corner to get the radius rod bolts back in. Much cursing last night.No fun. I made it a habit of putting bolts right back into the hole they came out of after the parts were separated when I was taking the suspension apart. It helped me to keep the bolts/nuts with the right components and it kept me from scattering a whole stack of nuts/bolts across the garage floor by accidentally kicking them (which I have a tendency to do).
Normally they get set in distinct piles, or put back in place. Not sure what I did this time. At least it made for an easy right side last night now that I made all the mistakes. And the CRX next week will be even easier. (same deal but for my daily, shocks, bushings, ball joints, tie rod ends)
I got the car strung out last night, and the front end is done, just have to fiddle with the back end to set the toe back to zero.
DustoffDave wrote: Still, this is a third car, so it can afford to be out of the loop for a bit of time and not effect the day-to-day life of the Dustoff household. Decisions and choices...
My plan with the sedan was to find a rust-free hatch and swap the good parts over and do a B16 swap. I went a different route and got an MR2 because I wanted RWD and a cool mid-engine etc etc. I honestly regret starting over on a new car and abandoning all the Honda knowledge and experience I gained with the Civic. For fun drives and an occasional autocross, the Civic was every bit as fun as the MR2 and with a B16 it would have been twice as fun. Plus, I would have spent time on an engine swap instead of doing rust repair for years. I think having a car that you tweak and improve for years and years is the best investment. And then you give it to the little guy!
I got the timing belt, water pump, coolant, and alternator belt all changed and the new upper control arms installed and got a nice alignment done about a month ago. I also replaced the steering wheel with a good stock one (the old one was starting to get squishy and rotate around the internal frame), tightened up the door catches, sorted out the shaky rear spoiler, removed a bunch of rattling heat shields, and ordered a replacement radio faceplate.
So, I've been commuting with Grumpy for about two weeks now and I can honestly say that this is a good car. It's been very easy to work on. It gets great gas mileage in comparison to my F250 and gets through traffic well. It handles pretty well on stock suspension and old tires and does everything I've asked it to do. In return, it just leaves a few drops of oil at the curb every night.
With all of that being said, I'm putting Grumpy up for sale. Despite all of the good things I can say about it, it hasn't gotten under my skin. I don't head out for work and look forward to my commute in the same way I did with my old Miata, or E30, or WRX. I don't find myself searching for the twisty back roads to get home. Essentially, Grumpy is getting "Friend Zoned." I like having him around, but I don't love him, and that's the role that a non-essential, third car should fill.
So, he's ready for a new owner -- someone who really loves these cars, or just needs Grumpy to fill the reliable, Golden-Retriever-of-the-family-fleet role.
Here is the link to the Craigslist ad.
I'll knock the price down to $1900 for established GRM'ers to bring it into Challenge range. (I'll also put an ad in the "Challenge" classified section)
As he stands today:
Grumpy sold this afternoon for $2100. He is moving on to a good new family. The boy was pretty sad to see him go.
Hate to hear it, but completely understand. I've been commuting with mine for a couple weeks now as well. I think I like it better than my crx actually but neither is really a good like a miata save the gas mileage. Well I would if it had air conditioning. I REALLY need to get an exhaust on it though. Sounds like a ricer right now with the cracked pipe.
I have an OEM muffler from a '91 CRX … if you can figure a way to mate it up to the piping you have
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