15 replies to this topic

[87ClubRed]

I am in the process of rehabing my 87, and as part of that, I was thinking of dropping the rear suspension out, and pressure washing the under body, and addressing any issues. I have 2 service manuals, and I have removed the rear struts before.

I am hoping to remove it all as one piece, then remove the gas tank. While the Suspensions out, I can clean it up, and repaint it.

Any tips/trick or problems I could face while doing this? Should I even bother removing it, and rehab it all on the car?

Any help is appreciated!

[Maine_Honda_Racer]

Removing the rear suspension shouldn't be too hard. The shocks are the easiest part. Only two nuts inside the car where its nice and clean. The two hard parts are getting out the lower control arm bolts and panhard rod bolt. Sometimes they corode to the point that the inner metal part of the bushing and the bolt are one component. You can tell if this is the case by the fact that the two ears of the mount will seperate instead of the bolt coming out. If this happens you can remove them by heating that inner metal collar with a torch. Of course that means an end to your bushings, but if you are planning on refurbishing the rear suspension then you're probably going to replace the bushings anyways. The brake lines also have to be detached, kind of a pain on the drums, you can sometimes get them to come apart at the mount on the frame rail. Usually takes a lot of PB Blaster or similar and a brake line wrench and a lot of patience. Then the whole axle assembly out to drop out. Gas tank straps may also be rusted into one piece so that the nuts don't want to come out, its quite possible since you are in British Columbia and get as much snow up there as we do. Don't be too horrified to find that your rear crossmember has at least surface rust, if not more than surface rust. I have yet to find a northern CRX that does not at least have surface rust on the crossmember. As to removing the fuel lines and filler neck I have no tips. I never once have removed one I had to put back in, I am sure other members may have some tips in that area. Good luck.

[D Jaws II]

The only other item to note other than what Ben suggested, would be to check the mounting point for the panhard bar on the chassis. That crossmember and the ear off the drivers side is prone to rust and failure. Check it over and over to make sure that is ear and where the ear and crossmember converge, are solid. If not, build up and repair now, before car reaches the road.


Cheers,


Donnie

[Maine_Honda_Racer]

That's what I was getting at with the rusty crossmember bit. Shame Honda couldn't have designed these cars so that didn't happen to every single one of them.

[jsgprod]

That's what I was getting at with the rusty crossmember bit. Shame Honda couldn't have designed these cars so that didn't happen to every single one of them.

Ummm, I've never had it happen to any of mine down here. Even on that rust bucket I cut up last weekend in the back yard. I actually cut that entire section out of the car and there's no rust on it at all that I can see.

[87ClubRed]

Thanks for the replies!

I'm not TOO concerned with rust. At least not structurally speaking. The car was an Ontario car, but never saw snow (and very little rain) until I bought it in 2001. The original owner had it as a toy, and stereo competition car, and it was stored winters (only had 116000 km when I bought it) ...and I only drove it one ontario winter before I moved out west.

The reason I want to clean up the underside is, even though the po didn't drive it in the winter, he had it "rust checked" every year, and that stuff is almost 1/2 deep or more in places now, making it hard to work on. I blasted the rear wheel wells last year, and I found bright red paint underneath!! Second reason I want to clean up under there is, after I've had a little fun with the built d15/mugen lsd I have....I'm thinking of going electric with it! So I want to make sure I have a great platform to work with.

[87ClubRed]

I have a question on the bushings....

We're the stock bushings coloured? The bushings in the front appear to be red. I know the po had the car lowered....but he didn't say anything about poly bushings. How would I tell if they are poly?

[Maine_Honda_Racer]

Red bushings would be poly. Stock one's are black.

Jay-Every Maine CRX I have owned has a rusted crossmember, either surface rust or swiss cheese rust. Its the salt up here that does it, not so much the water. Salt gets stuck up inside the crossmember and has no way to escape, it rusts from the inside out. Its not the water which can escape, but the salt that does it. Want to send me that non rusted rear section! Hehe!

[jsgprod]

Want to send me that non rusted rear section! Hehe!

I pretty much figured it was the salt, anything down here that lives near the beach will self destruct from the salt spray in just a few years!

As for that rear section...sure! Just as soon as I'm done with it! I need to make some plates that are the same outward shape and size of it for my TSCS project as D Jaws calls it.

[Maine_Honda_Racer]

One day I'll be rich enough to get a southern chassis to make a race car out of so I won't have to deal with swiss cheese panhard rod mounts and floors and spring pockets!

[Greg Gauper]

84's are supposed to be worse in regards to strength of the rear panhard rod mount since this was the first year of the car.

I had the wonderful experience of having the panhard rod mount break on my 84 CRX during a race in the middle of a fast left hand corner

It wasn't fun. This was in 1988 so it was only 5 years of wisconsin winters plus three seasons of showroom stock racing (i.e. the DOT tires weren't as sticky as the modern Hoosier DOT tires today).

There wasn't a heck of a lot of rust either...it was just weak. Beef up that area if you can.

As a side note, when it broke I had a chat with PD Cuningham from RTR....who used to race those cars in the endurance series back then.
He indicated they used to break those mounts in the longer enduros all the time. YMMV..

[87ClubRed]

Can anyone chime in on the fuel system removal?

[censurebush]

so what do you guys even mean about building up the brace?

[Zephyr]

It's an easy process, remove the top of the shocks, the panhard rod and the front points on the trailing arms. Make sure you also disconnect the cables from the hand brake at the hand brake and feed through the floor.

Removing the tank is easy too, spray the hell out of the bolts for the straps and then remove the nuts. The T bolts may break off or you could just cut them and replace. You'll want to drain the tank. Disconnect the filler neck and the fuel lines and the fuel gauge sender.

[87ClubRed]

Thanks Zypher (...and Maine_Honda_Racer). This job sounds too easy....and that's got me a little cautious. I'll see how it goes. I have a feeling my biggest issue will be with the SS brake lines...the bolts that attach to the hardline behind the drum look pretty rusty

so what do you guys even mean about building up the brace?

I assume they mean welding more material to it to stiffin/strengthen. There is a post around here somewhere that someone showed what they did you fix theirs...but I don't know who it was.