Terry’s EM1 project

[terry_em1]

Less of the Attitude. It was months ago I asked you. I forgot it was a simple question. Should look good when it's done

What attitude? If what I typed upset you, unfortunately thats up to your interpretation.

 

[terry_em1]

Parts came in from Japan. Pair of handbrake cables that'll hopefully fix my imbalance issue. It was cheaper to buy genuine than spurious... Also got the security bolts that hold the ignition barrel to the column. The bolt that holds the steering wheel hub in place. A few other small bits as well.

 

[terry_em1]

So after some late nights and a lot of browsing through old forum threads, I found out that the receiver isn't coded like the key and ECU. What I did after was I plugged the new barrel into my car, so the receiver works. Inserted my original key, so not the new one I got with the barrel. Left my broken barrel alone and just turned the car over with pliers. She fired straight away, after a month of sitting.

What I need to do now is rekey my new barrel, to accept the old key. At least I don't have to pay to have the car reprogrammed. Here's some pictures of the ongoing process.

New barrel.

All the pieces of my old barrel I saved.

Receiver removed.

This pin came out with tweezers.

Out the lock came.

Salvaging the tumblers from the old lock.

Hit a snag where these pins need to be hammered out, in order to slide the tumbler assembly out.

I'm currently stuck now because I don't have the correct tool. Its a 1.5mm punch I need.

 

[iRELOADED]

I'm currently stuck now because I don't have the correct tool. Its a 1.5mm punch I need.

If you have a 1.5mm drill just turn it over and put the flat end on the pin and hit the sharp end. It'll bugger the drill but do the job

 

[12packofAA]

Screwfix on the kylemore road Dublin sell the fine punches

 

[terry_em1]

If you have a 1.5mm drill just turn it over and put the flat end on the pin and hit the sharp end. It'll bugger the drill but do the job

I don't even have a drill bit that small I ordered a punch anyway. Cost a few quid.

Screwfix on the kylemore road Dublin sell the fine punches

Checked them and B&Q. Smallest is like 2mm and thats a hair oversized.

 

[terry_em1]

I got my pin punch in the post. Good tools make such a difference.

Completely disassembled.

I cleaned all the parts.

Reassembled with my old tumblers. One of them was bent, but it was enough to make it not slot into the cylinder correctly. Tapped it with a hammer and that was no good. Got some pliers and bent it to straight, going by eye. Works good now.

The next problem was the cylinder not being able to rotate because the tumblers were catching. You can see some of the tumblers are slightly raised.

I used some 220 grit sandpaper and just sanded down the troublesome tumblers, until the cylinder worked properly. It works as it should now and its as if nothing happened.

 

[terry_em1]

Very slow progress with this thing, but heres what has been done since the last update I posted.

Half of the dash came out and is sitting in my living room now. Dropped the column out, which was easier than I thought. I need to tidy up the wiring because it looks like a mess...

Its very hard to get anything done when the weather doesn't want to play ball. She still looks clean. Same coat of wax on her since the break-in.

You can see how obviously bent the column is. The height adjustment doesn't work anymore.

Side by side comparison of my column versus the new one I got. I ended up swapping the new column for another because of the slot on the shaft. I'm guessing JDM cars have a circle shaped slot instead of an oval because they use an ignition barrel that doesn't have an immobiliser, unlike the UK spec cars.

I have no idea why the brackets differ. Both are EK columns. The new column actually weighs less, so I guess thats a positive. The one I swapped for looks the same, but has the oval slot thats correct for the barrel I'm using.

Next issue I found was the new barrel I got was wrong. You can see theres a size difference. The new one I'm guessing is from a pre-facelift car? I can't confirm. Anyway, these are differences I didn't expect. You would think Honda would keep things relatively the same.

Contacted a friend and asked if his family's breakers had a Civic laying around. He quickly checked and confirmed they did. He managed to get me another barrel the next day. This one was definitely more complete and more importantly, the correct barrel for my car. It was from a facelift EJ9.

I unplugged the ignition harness from the car because I left it inside. Had to check if the wiring is the same. Wasn't taking any chances at this point. Unraveled the electrical tape to get a better look.

Didn't take long to find some quality work.

I'm aware that the car previously had an alarm, that the previous owner removed to install into his new car. I can't understand how a person does this, stands back and says "Yup, thats fine.".

Seeing how butchered this harness is, I'm thankful the new barrel came with its own harness. I was definitely not putting that back into the car.

New new barrel all done and ready to be installed. All I done was take my rekeyed cylinder and swapped it into this barrel. Changed out the hardware for some cleaner ones I had laying around. A wipe down with some cleaner. Replaced the coloured tape with some black cloth tape, to keep everything under the dash less obvious looking, in case someone breaks into the car again.

I received my Hybrid Racing stuff from the Black Friday sale. Titanium shifter rod for upcoming install

 

[spikeyhairdude]

The funny thing with the wiring for the alarm. i removed an alarm from an EG5 that was fitted by honda dealer after a car was sold and it looked exactly like that

 

[12packofAA]

My ej9 alarm also looks like that.

So did you manage to keep the original key and immobiliser? Or transplant in the new barrel setup

The em1 altough facelift are fitted with Pre Facelift parts from factory. Dashboard etc

 

[terry_em1]

The funny thing with the wiring for the alarm. i removed an alarm from an EG5 that was fitted by honda dealer after a car was sold and it looked exactly like that

I knew this car had a Clifford before. Hopefully 1996 onwards, they stepped their quality up

My ej9 alarm also looks like that.

So did you manage to keep the original key and immobiliser? Or transplant in the new barrel setup

The em1 altough facelift are fitted with Pre Facelift parts from factory. Dashboard etc

Retained my original key without having to reprogram the car. The broken immobiliser pieces are generic. They're not coded. Car starts up grand.

Think all UK spec cars are like that? Because they all had analog controls for the heater and never came double DIN. My dash is from a facelift JDM car. Not sure about the column though. If I search for parts using my chassis number, both styles come up. Maybe the VTi's got the bulkier column being the highest spec model.

 

[terry_em1]

After replacing the ignition fuse I accidentally blew, I plugged the new barrel in. Works flawlessly.

Figuring out how to route all the wiring better and what to eliminate from the car.

I wanted to salvage whatever I could from the old column since it was in better condition than the new one, so I did tear it down.

So the only part of the column that got messed up is this mounting bracket. Doesn't look like Honda sells this piece on its own. The rest of the column is good though, so I wrapped it up well and put it into storage.

This is what I decided to eliminate from the bundle of wires. The OEM foglight harness. I did butcher it a little, not knowing how it actually comes out of the car... It can be easily crimped back together, so I bagged it up in case anyone wants it. I'm never running fogs again on this car.

This is the new column, all cleaned up and ready to go. I don't know why theres white paint on it. This is how I got it and it was caked in grime. You can hear grit as you use the lever and spin the shaft. Doused pretty much the whole thing in degreaser and greased up the bearing and sliding parts after. As you can see as well, it has the oval slot. Fingers crossed I don't run into fitment issues. The barrel works with this column fine as I've tested it already.