Old Cars/Trucks Restoration and Modding

[greenpondmike]

Fuel pressure regulator--some, if not most fuel injection systems have them. Now though because they put that stupid alcohol in the gas it changes a lot when it comes to older vehicles. The pressure builds up causing flooding and with the higher pressure and the fact that ethanol deteriates the rubber fuel lines you have a real problem if you have an older vehicle.

High pressure fuel injection lines with a fuel pressure regulator fixes that. I found this out by trial and error. My truck no longer floods and it runs better. It fires up time you turn the key every time except when it's cold and hasn't been running for a while.

 

[bykfixer]

My oldest used to have a 93 Honda Prelude. He sold it to my wife's middle son who sold it to her oldest. He drove that jalopy for a good while before getting pulled over for expired tags. Pandemic mode DMV was ridiculously slow last and this year. Boy had sent in the dough in October 2020 but in February had still not received the tags. He got in a bind and left it at my house for a while.

A few years back my son had bought the car because it had tons of Japanese Domestic Market parts on it. Aside from being a left hand drive it was practically a Japanese car. Even the radio was JDM. He bought it to sell those parts to young crooked hat wearing fellows who just love love love those JDM parts in order to fund another project. Each part was replaced with US market stuff from a local junkyard. Eventually it was back to stock.

We worked on that car stem to stern. In 3 instances it was taken to a shop on a rollback when it failed and we couldn't figure it out. Today was incident 4. Sadly it's probably simple too. Yesterday the wife's oldest came to get it as it got dark outside and while letting it warm up he turns on the headlights and "poof"! It died electrically. It's a problem in the steering wheel area I thought we had solved.

The combination turn signal lever and headlight switch was murdering the main fuse at one point. We replaced it and all was well. At least until yesterday. It's baaaaaaaack. So it caused me to wonder, did we really fix it? So I had it towed to a shop to let them find the short.

I know which "relay" it popped but don't know why. The wife's oldest son uses that car to carry around the grandson so instead of going the routevwillie-nillie part changer mode again I sent it to an expert.

My wife says "just about the time you no longer hoped space junk would fall from the sky and land on the Prelude while you sleep, that feeling is back".

 

[Poppy]

Electrical problems aren't too hard to track down if they are consistent. It's the intermittent problems that can be a real PIA. You might consider getting a EVTM - Electrical and Vacuum Troubleshooting Manual for that vehicle. A good EVTM is worth its weight in gold. It will give color codes for the wires, show where connectors are and the pin outs, even locations where the wires are spliced with others.

 

[bykfixer]

My son and I have techician manuals for the preludes we have worked on over the years.

Turned out to be as simple as a loose alternator belt was not charging the battery, then turning on the headlights killed what juice was in the battery because the alternator was not spinning fast enough to power the headlights.

New battery and a proper tightened belt and vroom vroom, ole bessy was going again. I'm just glad it was not the turn signal/head light switch again.

The Honda Prelude was an R&D car that Honda tried a bunch of new ideas with. Some model Acura Integras too. Mostly manufacturing techniques, but some plastics, some mechanical ideas. Some stuff that worked is still being used in Honda/Acura vehicles today.
But stuff in the steering column in the 92-96 and 97-01 Preludes failed like the turn signal switch and in the 97-01 models the ignition imobilizer.

Anyway we have both PDF and hard copy versions of shop manuals the Honda technicians use. Very handy for torque specks and trouble shooting.

 

[Poppy]

I'll bet you are happy you had her towed in, otherwise you'd be back at tearing that steering column apart.

 

[bykfixer]

In one sense Poppy, yeah I'm glad it was towed, diagnosed and fixed in 24 hours but……in a sense I'm kicking myself for not spending more than a few minutes checking under the hood. It sure acted like it blew a main fuse.

Right now my bruised ego is trying to justify the expense. Life right now dictates I would have been looking at it this weekend and I wanted the car off my driveway. So I decided to send it to a shop, and pay for the repair so my 5 year old grandson can quit yammering "I wish my daddy had a car"…

I have a 95 Ranger in the back yard I want to get going again so having the Prelude gone leaves room on the driveway for that. The truck ran fine when I parked it back there. The cloth interior has gotten brittle over the years and I've yet to re-do the interior of a vehicle other than swapping good junkyard parts for bad so I want to gut the cab of it and do some custom work then lower it about 1" to have it look a bit less like a truck stature and sit like a car. No "slam" or anything stupid like that. Just a tad bit lower than factory.

My nephew did his that way and it looks fabulous, yet unless it is sitting next to another Ranger you cannot tell. The truck only has 78k on the odometer.

 

[Poppy]

I can hear Mrs. Fixer's sewing machine running now.

'95 ranger is OBD-1 if you need help with pulling codes, and deciphering what they might mean, let me know. In an earlier life, I was a ford forum moderator.

 

[bykfixer]

Thanks. I hope I never need that assistance.

 

[scout24]

Byk- My youngest now owns a pair of 2000 Preludes. (One lunched timing belts at 5k rpm despite my pleading with him to get them changed) Despite my best counsel, lol. Both were less than $1500, so we're talking the pride of Mother Honda here... I'm sure you know my pain. 🤣

 

[bykfixer]

Thing about the H22 (2000 Prelude motor) is the timing belt Scout, although not as easy as say, the alternator belt it's not a really difficult one.

The hardest part was the harmonic balancer bolt. Good Lord that one is tight. It's torque spec is 180 foot pounds! And it tightens up itself even more over time.

But with the Honda harmonic balance holder tool and gentle tug on a 6' section of pipe slid over a GOOD breaker bar it pops loose pretty easy.

The Prelude is not especially difficult to work on once you know how. Until then though they can be really frustrating.

 

[scout24]

Lol, I've learned and heard more about H22/H23 motors in the last six months than I would have thought possible. Thanks for the harmonic balancer bolt info. 👍 I've done a ton of timing belts over the years, most with the luxury of being at work in a heated shop and not out on the cold ground. That's a young man's game anymore. Unfortunately, most 20yo cars up here in the rust belt are just that, rusty. At least he's got a job and isn't doing dope anymore. Cant afford to, trying to fix up these 'Ludes... 🤔😉

 

[Poppy]

Lol, I've learned and heard more about H22/H23 motors in the last six months than I would have thought possible. Thanks for the harmonic balancer bolt info. 👍 I've done a ton of timing belts over the years, most with the luxury of being at work in a heated shop and not out on the cold ground. That's a young man's game anymore. Unfortunately, most 20yo cars up here in the rust belt are just that, rusty. At least he's got a job and isn't doing dope anymore. Cant afford to, trying to fix up these 'Ludes... 🤔😉

Ah yeah, RUST! that's what put our 1990 Bronco in its grave. The oil pan rotted out. To drop the pan, one has to raise the front of the engine until the back of it hits the firewall. The exhaust manifolds have to be removed, and other components that were so rusted in, that it was easy to see that we would have many bolts that snapped off inside the block.

Up here, with an older vehicle, PBblaster, an impact wrench, and a fire-wrench, are your constant companions. My son had an old jeep, and he got a fair amount of practice with that fire-wrench.

 

[bykfixer]

In the driveway, put the front of the car on jack stands, remove the driver side front wheel, and you'll have access to the harmonic balancer.

My son used a factory "tensioner" when installing a new t-belt. All the experts said use brand whatever or just delete it. He insisted on stock and has about 60k miles on it so far.

Do you guys have a pdf shop manual for the car(s)?

 

[Poppy]

I have a haynes manual for 80-96 ford bronco and pickups, same for 88-2011 crown vic/ grand marquis, and paperback EVTM for 1990 bronco / F150, and EVTM for 2008 crown vic/ grand marquis.

I used to have EVTMs on CDs for a bunch of other fords, but they require windoze 98 or older, and don't run on my boxes anymore.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

What's this salty liquid coming from my eyes?