Terry’s EM1 project

[terry_em1]

Hey dude nice build, restoring it seems fun and rewarding. what was wrong with pedals doe? are they bad or was the way they were installed horrendous?, Asking because I was thinking of buying a set of mugen pedals cus they look nice and my old rubber ones are kinda worn out.

Brand new pedal covers. Before it was the bare pedals with heaps of double sided tape and black silicone. The idiot that owned the car previously to my friend thought it was the correct way of installing Mugen pedal covers… All that was cleaned off using a blade.

View attachment 47175

Is this what you're referring to? Poorly installed Mugen pedals. Previous owner kept the pedals, but left a mess behind. I don't have a problem with Mugen pedals. I just prefer OEM rubber ones because they don't slip when wet.

 

[terry_em1]

Went ahead and pulled the door card off today.

Was looking for this thing, the control unit for keyless entry. I confirmed the wire colours I need for my alarm. Need to follow those wires now and see where they go to under the dash.

The door card came off for a second reason. I'm gonna bend the door back into place, but I don't want to plant my knee on the door card itself and crack the thing. I went about taking the door visor off too for the same reason.

I used the thinnest trim removal tool I had. Managed to finesse the clips out without breaking any. Can't believe these are so pricey for what they are.

I thought I was good to go with pulling the visor off. Yanked it and heard a small metal ping sound. Knew I dropped something. Spent 15 minutes looking and found this washer sitting on the ground. Thankfully it didn't fall into the drain of my driveway.

I stopped after that because I don't possess the strength to pull the door straight. Weak f**king arms Hopefully one of my friends can do it for me.

 

[terry_em1]

Got one of the lads to come over. This is as much as we could get the door to move. Wouldn't budge anymore and we don't wanna run the risk of wrecking it more. Glass goes down fine now and at least driving the car will be bearable with less wind coming in. Still not water tight though, so no rainy days for her.

Rest of the door visor clips were removed. I'll finish up wiring the alarm soon.

 

[rvm]

Looking good, thanks for sharing

 

[terry_em1]

Not much has been done lately. Weather too s**t to do anything. I pulled the car out and drove it for a little while. Clear the water out of the exhaust. Get some fresh air circulating inside the interior.

The only things worrying me so far are the ticking sound from the engine, the raspy sounding exhaust, and the car's alignment. Everything feels weird, but maybe I've been driving the hybrid car too long.

The purchases I mentioned in a previous post are on the way to me now, from Japan. Probably get them later this week. My scheduled repaint got pushed back until after Dubshed, which is in April. Painter is busy with his own project, so nothing I can do but wait a little longer.

Because of that, I had some money sitting in the bank, so I had a look on Up Garage, not expecting to find anything. Found this really rare Recaro, so snatched it up straight away haha. Be a few months before I get it from JDMDistro.

This week I'm going up to a breakers to see this coupe. It has been parked into the trees for a few years and only recently they pulled it out because it has been bought by someone.

I had a chat with my friend, whose family owns the yard. I'm allowed to take what I need off the car before it leaves

 

[terry_em1]

Went to my friend's yard today. This saloon was there. My current ignition barrel is from this car. I took a few more bits, like clips and some switch blanks.

This one was the main reason I went. I think it's an EJ8. Anyway, got the parts I wanted and some major ones at that.

The metal rods are for the rear seats, for the release mechanism. Coupe specific and Honda discontinued them, so this was probably the only chance I could get them.

Bootlid for my own car. Part of the deal though was I trade my own bootlid for this one. Mine has too many holes from spoiler mounting and the previous owner hacked up the underside.

The owner of the silver car (Yes, someone owns it) doesn't care too much because the EJ8 is being turned into a race car.

 

[spikeyhairdude]

I miss going on breakers yards. i used to get loads of rare cool bits for my old civic.

 

[terry_em1]

This is why the right rear seat wasn't folding down. Rod holder had snapped.

This is intact though.

The actual rod is missing. This shouldn't be a hard fix. I got the parts, but I need to order what I think is a M5 lock washer.

In my previous post, I got a replacement boot lid. Here's why I did... Previous owner hacked it up for a stupid reason. To mount the number plate...

Extra holes too from when the car had a Mugen spoiler.

Cleaned the heavy grime off.

Looking presentable.

 

[terry_em1]

Happiness arrived from Japan I was afraid of not receiving this parcel at all, since a friend of mine had his parcel stolen.

Say no more

JDM steering column trim top half and ASM shoulder cover for my Recaro RS-G. I needed the trim to replace my DIY job. It was less than €10, with the other half, but I requested the bottom part got binned, to save shipping cost.

Unnecessary purchase, but it's too cool not to buy. Carbon replacement mirror, with the mirror arm to suit the EK.

I always liked these and dunno why people don't run them at all. Headlight eyelids. I think it'll add some attitude to the simple look I'm going for.

Assortment of OEM Honda parts.

 

[No_Fear]

nice mirror ,pls let me know if you feel any vibration in the mirror ,since you no longer can use the stock rubber

 

[terry_em1]

nice mirror ,pls let me know if you feel any vibration in the mirror ,since you no longer can use the stock rubber

I never had this part since owning the car. I checked diagrams for my car and this part isn't required. Also, the new mirror uses an arm identical in shape to the OEM one. It has a threaded hole on the end, to screw the mirror body into. You could use the OEM rubber part if you wanted.

The Honda Jazz shares the same mirror arm as the EK and in my brother's Fit, it has this rubber part. I don't think there's any difference, with or without. I'm even running hardened engine mounts.

 

[No_Fear]

you dont use the hole on the rubber piece ,hole is there for bounce .
with R14 bracket there is not enough room to attach the rubber piece is much closer to the windscreen.
i asked you cause i have the 203 and would like to see if you will have similar situation or to know if i did anything wrong in the installation.

 

[terry_em1]

New boot lid bolted on. No latch yet, thats why I'm pressing on it.

I need to tidy up the wiring harness a good bit or possibly snip the one off the donor car. Integrate that harness into my own because mine isn't the best. Someone has been at it and it's taped up poorly.

 

[terry_em1]

It has served me well

While I was up there, I had a gander for anything else I could use. I took these cable tie clips for my own harness. I should be able to reuse them and I'm not about to pay OEM money for them.

I ended up not taking the harness because I would need to make new pins for the lights. I've USDM taillights and they light up, unlike the UK spec ones that only have the rear fog.

Grabbed a lens and bezel for my own clocks. More on this soon.

 

[terry_em1]

Picked up some Sonax headlight polish today. Gave it a go on the lens and it seems to have done something. It's not perfect clarity, but much better than before.

Why another lens was needed:

I'm deleting the rectangular slot for the 'Maintenance Required' light. The lens doesn't allow use of it, plus the light has never came on once, so my guess is it has been disabled somehow.

Was careful taking the clocks apart. Mega expensive they are... You can see part of the tachometer that hasn't seen sunlight. Bright red it is.

Heres a closer look of the USDM bezel. Deleting the cruise control light is a bonus.

Heres the difference between the USDM (right) and EDM (left) warning lights. I swapped the sheets over, so it still looks like Si clocks, but without the slot and cruise control light. It's different on the left side too.

Like new

Made my evening interesting. Can't wait to fit them back into the car.

 

[terry_em1]

Assembling my Zoom Engineering mirror. It's much more blue than the Broadway. Don't get me wrong, the Broadway is great, especially for the cost. Been using Broadways for over a decade now I'd say. Just time for something cooler

Instructions say you need to use the bolt, washer and plastic base from the OEM mirror.

Wasn't difficult. Made sure to be careful nipping up the lock nut between the arm and mirror. Also not to over tighten the Allen bolts. I'll fit it to the car tomorrow. Hopefully the sensor for the OEM keyless entry snaps onto the aftermarket arm, since it doesn't have slots like the OEM one does.

 

[terry_em1]

New bezel is much better

Heres the Zoom mirror. Looking good and the OEM trim grabs on fine. The angle is wider than the 270mm convex Broadway surprisingly.

In a previous post I said I'd redo the wiring. Was fairly dry today, so gave it a go. Very sad looking electrical tape job.

I have a few packs of harness tubing. Used some fabric tape too.

Halfway done.

Any 'twist and tape' connections, I replaced with proper crimps. I also removed any pointless wires, like the harness for the spoiler brake light. I'm never running a spoiler on this car, so in the bin it went.

All done. Much neater and its gonna be easier to work with in the future.

Harness fed through and I used the clips I salvaged from the silver car.

I made some progress with the rear seat release. Cut the lock washer off and popped the broken holder off. I can't quite finish the repair because when I try to push a new lock washer on, the whole release assembly pushes away from me, into the cabin. I need a second person to firmly hold the assembly from the cabin side, while I push the lock washer on.

Threw the ASM cover on, since it's only a 30 second job. Fabric matches perfectly.

 

[terry_em1]

Pulled the car out for a short spin, down to the petrol station. My joy didn't last long, as the Civic wouldn't start a few days later. Still won't.

After some troubleshooting, it might be as simple as a dying battery. I'll buy a replacement soon.
I was able to push the new lock washer onto the release assembly by myself though. Had to put the rear seats down and lay in an awkward position, but I got it done.

 

[terry_em1]

I bought another Odyssey battery. It didn't fix the car... With my wallet hurting, I invited my friend over to my house where the car is parked. He's more competent than me when it comes to troubleshooting.

We checked if fuel was definitely getting up to the rail. It was. We checked if the injectors were pulsing. We're getting voltage, but not sure about pulse, since the multimeter probably wasn't sensitive enough to pick that up.

Tested for spark and with no warning, I wasn't getting any. I only tested this the other day and I was. Same exact cylinder and plug. I checked if maybe plug at cylinder 1 had gone by checking cylinder 2. Same thing. No spark. So we ran tests on the ignition coil, the igniter and the wiring. Got continuity from ECU to plug on the distributor. We checked if ECU was getting power and ground too.

After a while testing and scratching our heads, we kinda narrowed it down to the igniter possibly being faulty. Its the only part inside the distributor I haven't changed and it's a 29 year old part. I'm trying to get a lend of a working one, but no joy so far. I'll buy one new from Honda since they're still available. I've had no luck with aftermarket ones in the past.

 

[spikeyhairdude]

I bought another Odyssey battery. It didn't fix the car... With my wallet hurting, I invited my friend over to my house where the car is parked. He's more competent than me when it comes to troubleshooting.

We checked if fuel was definitely getting up to the rail. It was. We checked if the injectors were pulsing. We're getting voltage, but not sure about pulse, since the multimeter probably wasn't sensitive enough to pick that up.

Tested for spark and with no warning, I wasn't getting any. I only tested this the other day and I was. Same exact cylinder and plug. I checked if maybe plug at cylinder 1 had gone by checking cylinder 2. Same thing. No spark. So we ran tests on the ignition coil, the igniter and the wiring. Got continuity from ECU to plug on the distributor. We checked if ECU was getting power and ground too.

After a while testing and scratching our heads, we kinda narrowed it down to the igniter possibly being faulty. Its the only part inside the distributor I haven't changed and it's a 29 year old part. I'm trying to get a lend of a working one, but no joy so far. I'll buy one new from Honda since they're still available. I've had no luck with aftermarket ones in the past.

I think i did say before the battery issue, could be ignitor or something else dizzy related.

We did a timing belt replacement on a customers car. started the car and after 5 mins the car cut out and wouldn't start, checked everything then after hours we started taking the dizzy apart and tested the ohms the ignitor was giving and was not enough need for the car to work. replaced it with an euros one as we needed the car running and the car still works perfect now