[Aussie V-Tec nut]

Over Christmas last year I did the second of my A20A6 DOHC 2 litre swaps from a 1999 4WS Prelude into a mate’s EK Civic hatch rally car (see You Tube “WJP004”).







Nigel’s not raced it as much as he’d liked due to work commitments. However myself and our Redline Junior champion Dylan had raced almost every weekend since February - a year of hard racing that will see him win a number of club, regional, & State dirt titles. Looks like I’ll do the same – even though I can’t catch the kid in the EG I built for him.

Nigel and I were both competing in his EK hatch at the State khanacross in what turned out to be a weekend of mechanical carnage among the Redline team – a rarity for our always reliable Hondas. We were going as hard as we could trying to outdo each other and Dylan. The wizz kid blew a CV, replaces it at the lunch break, blows another one, and has 2 DNF's. So now it's just between us in the same EK. Poor car! Nige does his final run for the day, and I've got to get the two seconds he's stolen off me after lunch. On the rev limiter in first gear I handbrake into the first arrowed very hard left and hear a dreadful noise from the n/s front. Something just broke. Big time.

I know if I stop my whole day is cactus. Dylan's DNF's mean I can take the lead in the Newcastle Area Motor Sport (NAMS) championship if I can just finish. I'm amazed to find I can still drive the car around gently, but I'm expecting something to snap at any second. Nige is chuffed because I've finished ten seconds slower than him, but when I don't stop and drive the car straight back to the pits and onto the trailer he's worked out why.

On Monday I reverse the car off the trailer and up into my garage. I find one of the three drive bearings in the inner CV in place. One is on the skidplate, and one is awol. How did this car keep driving?? When I get it out and clean it up I cannot believe the way the side has blown out. I've seen the top edges gone like the other two bearing slots on this one - but not all the way down like this. And there's a crack all the way down one of the other slots too. Bloody weak Honda original part! I mean it was only made in 1988, did 175,000km on the road in a Prelude, and had a year's thrashing round rally tracks in this Civic. I wonder if I can get warranty on it?



The two of us have enter a day/night rallysprint in a week, so I’ve got much more to do than just replace the driveshaft. At least only working as an on-call casual at the moment means I should have the time. Racing Nigel’s car I have noticed a number of things that’ll need fixing, so I get straight into them:
1. Electrical power supply to starter fault found & repaired
2. Stout mudflaps fitted front & rear as required by regs.


3. Front top wishbones replaced as red after market ones had flogged out completely at BOTH ends. Not cheap – but they proved way too weak for racing.

4. Front struts packed 5mm more to raise the front by 20mm to increase sumpguard clearance and get my 15 inch rally tyres away from his guards. BEFORE:

AFTER:

5. Steering re-aligned to restore one degree toe out after replacing adjustable top front wishbones and returning to factory camber (boring!)
6. Reflective triangles fitted into boot to meet scrutineering requirements
7. Battery main earth upgraded inside car
8. Rear springs changed to stiffer Integra ones with 1 1/2 rings cut out to lower the back end. We'll have to see if this is an improvement or not. The arse of the EK is way high, but there was little guard clearance on the 15's. So to lower it I had to try some stiffer springs from my wrecked supplies.

9. Fully unwound alternator top mounting bolt tightened and now Locktited in place (I think it's missing a spring washer)
10. New light bar made and my three led driving lights wired up.

11. Flogged out factory rear trailing arm pivot bushes replaced with Nolathane ones, fitted with my fail safe split pin addition. New parts come tomorrow.

12. Whole brand new driveshaft fitted to n/s
13. All guard edges fully beaten out with a sledgy. Don't worry Nige I was gentle, Oh alright I just bashed the crap out of your car!
14. Front lawn top dressed with race track dirt that fell off when I did that.

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[Raid3n]

Wow.. what can I say? You look really confy on that 2nd picture

Please keep us updated

[Aussie V-Tec nut]

The 85mm Nolathane rear trailing arm pivot bushes I was promised two days ago and then first thing this morning eventually turned up at lunchtime today. You can see the original mount is torn. Honda’s bush forces all the pivoting forces to twist that rubber as the rear arm goes endlessly up and down over the life of the car. Which is why these mounts have been ripped on just about every Civic we Redline racers have ever bought. The Nolathane replacement is not only much tougher nylon, but also has a shaft which is free to turn with suspension movement.



However in racing I’ve found they have a weakness. The shaft is held in place on the bush with washers and a circlip. Under both the seriously sideways action on super grippy rally tyres on the dirt, or the extreme tar circuit cornering speeds on slicks, the circlips don’t hold. Once they unclip themselves the rear suspension arm is able to move sideways on the shaft and the nylon bush soon chews out.

But I have a fix. Before I fitted the new mounts I drilled a hole in each shaft in the circlip groove,



and fitted them instead with a thick split pin. This holds even under the extremes of racing.



A second fix is to fill the holes in the Nolathane with Sikaflex, as I’ve found a solid rubber bush lasts years longer.



I’ve stripped an re-assembled Civic rear ends so many times I can do it in my sleep. But of course Murphy’s law being what it is meant having lost a day and a half waiting for parts, every bolt now fought me and I had to undo and refit everything several times over to eventually win. And that was just ONE side! I’m about to start the other – so hopefully I’ve paid my dues and sworn enough to get a smooth build this time.

[Shanook]

wow thats alot of work, haha and lol @ the second picture =p

I can't wait for rally day!

[Raid3n]

Are you just working all these by yourself?