Bought a Cheap Accord

[JoeDirt41]

Fixed the ATF leak today. Was a leak at the hose clamp on the cooler line at the radiator. Someone must've taken the radiator out at some point and put it back in with worm clamps, which I hate.

So I replaced a small section of hose and two of the worm clamps with fuel injection-type clamps, which I think are slightly better. I'd still rather have the factory constant tension clamps, but for now the leak is gone.

Now that the leak is fixed, I want to start changing the ATF. Drain plug magnet had some metal, but no chunks. Fluid was dirty but smelled fine. I'm allowing it to drain overnight, I'll fill it in the morning.

 

[researcher]

Fixed the ATF leak today. Was a leak at the hose clamp on the cooler line at the radiator. Someone must've taken the radiator out at some point and put it back in with worm clamps, which I hate.
View attachment 254949
So I replaced a small section of hose and two of the worm clamps with fuel injection-type clamps, which I think are slightly better. I'd still rather have the factory constant tension clamps, but for now the leak is gone.
View attachment 254950
Now that the leak is fixed, I want to start changing the ATF. Drain plug magnet had some metal, but no chunks. Fluid was dirty but smelled fine. I'm allowing it to drain overnight, I'll fill it in the morning. View attachment 254951

I like those fuel injection clamps too, much nicer than standard worm clamps. I've used the fuel inj clamps on my pcv valve hose (scion tc, camry engine 2az-fe), works perfectly.

but that's what the leak was, again, another simple fix, this is turning out to be good news one after another!

hey gotta ask.. how'd classes go this semester? I know change of subject but I'm thinking it's Christmas break so that means finals were over just recently

thanks for the update..

 

[JoeDirt41]

I like those fuel injection clamps too, much nicer than standard worm clamps. I've used the fuel inj clamps on my pcv valve hose (scion tc, camry engine 2az-fe), works perfectly.

but that's what the leak was, again, another simple fix, this is turning out to be good news one after another!

hey gotta ask.. how'd classes go this semester? I know change of subject but I'm thinking it's Christmas break so that means finals were over just recently

thanks for the update..

I like these clamps better than the worm clamps but not as much as the factory style spring clamps. Unfortunately I didn't have any of those spring clamps and couldn't find any that were the right size at the parts store so I had to go with these for now. I'll probably grab some at the junkyard next time I'm there.

Had my last final on Monday (gen Chem 1) and got final grades on Wednesday, I had 4 classes and got 4 As, so I'm very pleased with that.

 

[JWC86]

View attachment 252399

Thanks for the updates OP!

I wish we could go back to having nice simple radios(and all controls) like this.

 

[researcher]

I like these clamps better than the worm clamps but not as much as the factory style spring clamps. Unfortunately I didn't have any of those spring clamps and couldn't find any that were the right size at the parts store so I had to go with these for now. I'll probably grab some at the junkyard next time I'm there.

Had my last final on Monday (gen Chem 1) and got final grades on Wednesday, I had 4 classes and got 4 As, so I'm very pleased with that.

congrats on the A's, not bad, not bad at all!

sounds like Christmas came early.. car is fixed, A's for the classes.. nice!

 

[JoeDirt41]

Replaced the distributor cap the other day. Got a Carquest one from work. It was surprisingly made in Japan. The old one didn't look bad, but it's a maintenance part.

One of the other oil leaks on this car that was pretty bad was the VTEC solenoid. I ordered the gasket from hondapartsnow.com and it arrived last week. I watched one how-to video where the guy had to remove the thermostat housing to access on of the lower bolts on the VTEC solenoid. Consequently he had to drain coolant and replace a bunch of seals and made a lot of work for himself. I didn't want to do all that work, so I modified a cheap harbor freight 10mm combination wrench so that I could get onto that one bolt without removing the thermostat housing. Worked beautifully.

Apparently I was not the first person to try to fix this leak. Whoever attempted it before me decided that it wasn't worth it to replace the gasket so instead they just globbed a bunch of RTV on it and put it back together. All that did was it gummed up the spool valve and made it leak worse.

I got all the RTV out with a pick and brake cleaner and reassemble the whole thing with new gaskets. I thought I ordered the upper gasket from Honda, but apparently I didn't, so I used a Dorman one from the auto parts store.

To do this job, I had to remove the intake tube and upon removing it and inspecting it, I found a tear.

This intake tube is long discontinued by Honda and even if it wasn't, I'm sure it'd cost an arm and a leg. Junkyard ones are likely in the same condition, if they even exist. Fortunately, Dorman makes a replacement and a store that was 15 minutes away had it in stock. I got rid of the Dorman clamps and reused the original clamps, but the replacement tube fit perfect.

Unfortunately, while I was maneuvering it into place, I bumped and broke the plastic mounting point on the cruise control cable. I attempted to glue it back together but the glue wouldn't hold.

This piece is also discontinued and Dorman doesn't make this. I'm gonna have to source a used one. Upon further inspection of the cable, I noticed the pulley on the throttle body for the cruise is also broken- apparently a common problem.

Again, discontinued, no repop available. So I'm on the hunt for these two parts. Fortunately they won't sideline the car, but I won't have cruise control until I replace them. If anyone has a parts car or can find these parts in a U-Pull-It, I'll gladly pay you for your time to pull them!

I've also got a new OEM fuel filter here, but probably won't get to it till next week or so.

 

[JWC86]

Keep it coming a little at a time!

 

[researcher]

Replaced the distributor cap the other day. Got a Carquest one from work. It was surprisingly made in Japan. The old one didn't look bad, but it's a maintenance part.
View attachment 256530
One of the other oil leaks on this car that was pretty bad was the VTEC solenoid. I ordered the gasket from hondapartsnow.com and it arrived last week. I watched one how-to video where the guy had to remove the thermostat housing to access on of the lower bolts on the VTEC solenoid. Consequently he had to drain coolant and replace a bunch of seals and made a lot of work for himself. I didn't want to do all that work, so I modified a cheap harbor freight 10mm combination wrench so that I could get onto that one bolt without removing the thermostat housing. Worked beautifully.

Apparently I was not the first person to try to fix this leak. Whoever attempted it before me decided that it wasn't worth it to replace the gasket so instead they just globbed a bunch of RTV on it and put it back together. All that did was it gummed up the spool valve and made it leak worse.
View attachment 256531View attachment 256532
I got all the RTV out with a pick and brake cleaner and reassemble the whole thing with new gaskets. I thought I ordered the upper gasket from Honda, but apparently I didn't, so I used a Dorman one from the auto parts store.
View attachment 256533
To do this job, I had to remove the intake tube and upon removing it and inspecting it, I found a tear.
View attachment 256534
This intake tube is long discontinued by Honda and even if it wasn't, I'm sure it'd cost an arm and a leg. Junkyard ones are likely in the same condition, if they even exist. Fortunately, Dorman makes a replacement and a store that was 15 minutes away had it in stock. I got rid of the Dorman clamps and reused the original clamps, but the replacement tube fit perfect.
View attachment 256535
Unfortunately, while I was maneuvering it into place, I bumped and broke the plastic mounting point on the cruise control cable. I attempted to glue it back together but the glue wouldn't hold.
View attachment 256536
This piece is also discontinued and Dorman doesn't make this. I'm gonna have to source a used one. Upon further inspection of the cable, I noticed the pulley on the throttle body for the cruise is also broken- apparently a common problem.
View attachment 256537
Again, discontinued, no repop available. So I'm on the hunt for these two parts. Fortunately they won't sideline the car, but I won't have cruise control until I replace them. If anyone has a parts car or can find these parts in a U-Pull-It, I'll gladly pay you for your time to pull them!

I've also got a new OEM fuel filter here, but probably won't get to it till next week or so.

Do you have part numbers for both parts? Is the one stay on the throttle body for the cruise control part number 17931-SM4-A00? If not, let me know both part numbers and I'll do some digging. Used to this type of search with my old 96..

Great job on the vtec spool valve, yup they leak and that's awesome you got creative with the tools to NOT have to take all that out! I did that before with the coolant temp sensor beneath the distributor.

And that's awesome you found that made in japan cap!

 

[JoeDirt41]

Do you have part numbers for both parts? Is the one stay on the throttle body for the cruise control part number 17931-SM4-A00? If not, let me know both part numbers and I'll do some digging. Used to this type of search with my old 96..

Great job on the vtec spool valve, yup they leak and that's awesome you got creative with the tools to NOT have to take all that out! I did that before with the coolant temp sensor beneath the distributor.

And that's awesome you found that made in japan cap!

I've got some repairs for the cruise control stuff in the works so I may not need them after all, hopefully. The lever for the throttle body is only sold with the throttle body from Honda, so the part number would be the same as the throttle body itself. But the cable part number is 17880-P0A-A01. If you come across a cable, I'd be interested.

The wrench hack for the VTEC solenoid definitely worked out well. It made things much easier. The cap was a nice find too. Here's a picture of the wrench I made for future reference for anyone else who has to do this job.

Decided yesterday to take a ride to the junkyard and see if I might get lucky on any of the cruise control parts I needed. The cruise cable was broken on all of them in the same place mine was, but one of the three cars there had the lever for the throttle body. The junkyard just gave it to me. I brought it home and carefully cleaned it up.

After striking out on the cable at the junkyard, I figured I'd take a second look at repairing the cruise control cable. The first time I used super glue gel as it is a tight fit, but the glue just didn't hold strong enough. I decided to completely remove the cable so I could work on it on the bench. I went with JB Weld this time and I put a small hose clamp around the whole thing to clamp it. I actually think I'm just going to leave the hose clamp on it. It seems to be a pretty strong bond this time.

I also removed the peeling jacket off the cable and wrapped it with some Super 33 electrical tape. Heat shrink would've been better, but I have no way of getting it over the cable. Hopefully the tape holds up okay.

 

[researcher]

I've got some repairs for the cruise control stuff in the works so I may not need them after all, hopefully. The lever for the throttle body is only sold with the throttle body from Honda, so the part number would be the same as the throttle body itself. But the cable part number is 17880-P0A-A01. If you come across a cable, I'd be interested.

The wrench hack for the VTEC solenoid definitely worked out well. It made things much easier. The cap was a nice find too. Here's a picture of the wrench I made for future reference for anyone else who has to do this job.
View attachment 256856
Decided yesterday to take a ride to the junkyard and see if I might get lucky on any of the cruise control parts I needed. The cruise cable was broken on all of them in the same place mine was, but one of the three cars there had the lever for the throttle body. The junkyard just gave it to me. I brought it home and carefully cleaned it up.
View attachment 256844
After striking out on the cable at the junkyard, I figured I'd take a second look at repairing the cruise control cable. The first time I used super glue gel as it is a tight fit, but the glue just didn't hold strong enough. I decided to completely remove the cable so I could work on it on the bench. I went with JB Weld this time and I put a small hose clamp around the whole thing to clamp it. I actually think I'm just going to leave the hose clamp on it. It seems to be a pretty strong bond this time.
View attachment 256846
I also removed the peeling jacket off the cable and wrapped it with some Super 33 electrical tape. Heat shrink would've been better, but I have no way of getting it over the cable. Hopefully the tape holds up okay.
View attachment 256858

Maybe those fixes will be enough to make it last! Good job.. also pm'd ya with some more info.

JB weld and duct tape, it's not for jokes, it really works! new marketing tag line!

 

[jcy]

When you're ready to sell this project, you can link them to this thread
This thread was an enjoyable read, in the same vein you might appreciate the M539 channel on yt

 

[Brons2]

When you're ready to sell this project, you can link them to this thread
This thread was an enjoyable read, in the same vein you might appreciate the M539 channel on yt

For sure, very enjoyable read.

My dad had a 1997 Accord LX with a manual for 9 or 10 years, he put 240K on it before selling it on.

He did have some sort of short coolant crossover hose that broke in traffic and caused an overheat. I didn't repair it, so not sure what it was exactly. The car didn't run quite as smooth after that, happened around 200K. Maybe compression issues from the overheat, i.e., head gasket or warped head, but it didn't burn oil and wasn't using coolant, so Dad just kept running it.

He also replaced both the CV axles during the car's service with him, and I think a strut or two.

All service done by former Honda dealer mechanics at a Honda only indy.

 

[JoeDirt41]

Maybe those fixes will be enough to make it last! Good job.. also pm'd ya with some more info.

JB weld and duct tape, it's not for jokes, it really works! new marketing tag line!

Pm received! Original JB Weld has been a very reliable product for me in the past, so hopefully it works here!

When you're ready to sell this project, you can link them to this thread
This thread was an enjoyable read, in the same vein you might appreciate the M539 channel on yt

Glad you've enjoyed reading it. I hope you'll stay tuned for future updates.

For sure, very enjoyable read.

My dad had a 1997 Accord LX with a manual for 9 or 10 years, he put 240K on it before selling it on.

He did have some sort of short coolant crossover hose that broke in traffic and caused an overheat. I didn't repair it, so not sure what it was exactly. The car didn't run quite as smooth after that, happened around 200K. Maybe compression issues from the overheat, i.e., head gasket or warped head, but it didn't burn oil and wasn't using coolant, so Dad just kept running it.

He also replaced both the CV axles during the car's service with him, and I think a strut or two.

All service done by former Honda dealer mechanics at a Honda only indy.

Thanks. Hope you'll continue to follow along. I'll have to do an inspection of the coolant hoses to make sure I don't encounter a similar situation. I would like to replace the thermostat, some of the hoses and flush the coolant before long.

I really wish this car was a manual like your Dad's. I've done a bit of reading on what is involved in swapping from an automatic to a manual in one of these cars and it doesn't look terrible if you have access to a manual parts car. That project may come along eventually.

 

[JoeDirt41]

Found a person locally about an hour away who had his own little Honda junkyard. I guess he uses them for demo derbies. He had a couple that were relatively complete. I was able to get a good cruise control cable from him, the elusive console ashtray, and a maybe usable throttle body with a probably repairable throttle lever. I paid $20 for all the parts, so if even if the throttle body/lever are a bust, I still made out on the deal.

I disassembled the throttle body and ran the parts through the ultrasonic cleaner, and sandblasted the main body. Hopefully I'm able to find the seals for it.

 

[researcher]

Found a person locally about an hour away who had his own little Honda junkyard. I guess he uses them for demo derbies. He had a couple that were relatively complete. I was able to get a good cruise control cable from him, the elusive console ashtray, and a maybe usable throttle body with a probably repairable throttle lever. I paid $20 for all the parts, so if even if the throttle body/lever are a bust, I still made out on the deal.
View attachment 257600View attachment 257599View attachment 257597
I disassembled the throttle body and ran the parts through the ultrasonic cleaner, and sandblasted the main body. Hopefully I'm able to find the seals for it.
View attachment 257598

wow that's awesome.. you found the "unobtanium"!!! very cool
that cruise cable looks brand new compared to other ones I've seen!

 

[JoeDirt41]

Got my ashtray put in so the dash center stack finally looks complete.

And I pulled the car in the garage and replaced the cruise cable and the lever. I was super careful installing them because they are so fragile. If qi have to pull the intake hose out again, I think I'll probably remove the cable to prevent it from being damaged. That intake hose needs to be wrestled out and I don't want to risk damaging the cable.

 

[fdcg27]

I am in awe of the amount of effort you've put into this old dear.

 

[JoeDirt41]

I am in awe of the amount of effort you've put into this old dear.

Thanks, I honestly just kind of enjoy these small tinkering jobs. I spent some time yesterday trying to polish out the scratched up windshield. It was/is super scratched and is very distracting, especially at night with the glare. I got this polish called Ceraglass and tried it with a rotary polisher and a special Rayon pad. I was warned it is a long process. I spent about 45 minutes to an hour on each half of the windshield. The windshield isn't perfect, and I wouldn't even call it good, but it is improved. For all the effort and time involved, it'd probably worth it just to have the windshield replaced at some point if it still bothers me.

Before-

After-

 

[JoeDirt41]

Actually drove the car to school today for the time. As much I didn't want to take it out in the salt, I've been dying to really do some driving with this car after all of this labor. About a 35 minute, 20 mile ride each way, definitely the longest drive I've taken this car on. It ran well, kept up at highway speeds. I used the cruise control just to make sure it would work after all the repairs, and it did. There's still some unidentified noises but nothing that's very concerning. My baby, all covered in salt! Just life in PA...

I noticed last week the power steering pump was leaking so I ordered a kit from RockAuto to rebuild the pump. USPS man brought it today. I'll probably work on it later this week.

 

[researcher]

Actually drove the car to school today for the time. As much I didn't want to take it out in the salt, I've been dying to really do some driving with this car after all of this labor. About a 35 minute, 20 mile ride each way, definitely the longest drive I've taken this car on. It ran well, kept up at highway speeds. I used the cruise control just to make sure it would work after all the repairs, and it did. There's still some unidentified noises but nothing that's very concerning. My baby, all covered in salt! Just life in PA...
View attachment 258988
I noticed last week the power steering pump was leaking so I ordered a kit from RockAuto to rebuild the pump. USPS man brought it today. I'll probably work on it later this week.
View attachment 258987
View attachment 258989

about the glass, the ceraglass looks like it did make an improvement. One thing that always upsets me was with the 96 Civic and I mention it because of being similar to your 97 accord.. That when the glass shop replaced the windshield they never made sure to paint the gouging they did to the a-pillar, roof mounting area and it rusted badly. Never knew til it was too late, holes in the a-pillar and roof.. If it's still Honda glass in there chances are it's still original not screwed around with. Just my $0.02 I'd keep the regular glass unless you have a really good glass installer..

power steering pump bad, eh? yup.. same thing happened on my 96, similarities of what dies is amazing. Definitely keep us posted on the o-ring repair, I didn't have the time to do mine, put in a no-name chinese pump was actually pretty good.

good to hear the cruise is working properly! and the salt?! Hey it looks like it would have back in 97!

thanks for the update!