90 LS Coupe Added to The Family!!!
 

Greetings G1 guys! I just brought home a G1 Coupe tonight to add to my family. Absolute best thing is, I got it for free!!! I first saw this guy about two months ago and noticed how nice the coupe was. Then, a few weeks ago I saw him again. This time I flagged him down so I could check it out. It was just about as nice as it looked the first time I saw it. I told him if he ever wanted to sell it to give me a call and never expected to hear from him again. This morning, he text me... Told me the tranny was blown and that if I wanted it I had to come and get it today. Luckily I have a truck and access to all kinds of trailers so I met him after work, loaded it on the trailer and brought it home.

So without further delay...

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...psf6def845.jpg

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps61cab810.jpg

The good: Only 119k on the clock, A/C works awesome, engine idles super smooth, oil and coolant are full and look good, power steering is good, suspension looks basically good. Interior is pretty nice minus a shot driver's seat and the backs of the rear headrests are in bad shape.

The bad: Valve cover gaskets are leaking and the tranny is probably blown.

Tranny symptoms I'm not familiar with because I've never had a manual with a blown tranny. The transmission will go into each gear and idle in neutral with the clutch pushed in. But, it won't go in to neutral. Thoughts?

Thanks guys!
Proud new G1 coupe owner :excited:

You are a VERY lucky guy. The last year G1 Legend and a Manual 90 LS Coupe with little or no rust and low mileage. Once you figure out the tranny issue, it looks like a very sound car. Congrats!!!!

MOAR PICS

Thanks man, it looks just like yours! I'm really looking forward to digging in to this baby!

I'll get more pics in the next few days. I had a really long day that just so happened to be the hottest day of the year here in Colorado so far. I didn't even feel like taking the two I took, lol.

Could you provide a little more detail? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

How can you "go into each gear" but not "go into neutral"?

Are you saying that you can shift from gear to gear with the engine off, but with the engine running, you can't shift out of gear?

-Kennon

With the engine running and the clutch in it will idle. But no matter what I do it won't go in to neutral. I actually drove it a little, but the only way it idles is with the clutch engaged. There doesn't seem to be a neutral.

Check the linkage operation first. But I'm sure that you had thought of that.:)

Congratulations! :clap:

Man that looks clean, why not! Careful, you might start neglecting your 2nd Gen and get too deep into this car, haha.

"Blown tranny"...hmm IDK. My guess is it is only a blown out clutch assembly, depending on the part that fails it produces different symptoms. Make sure it shifts through all the gears with the engine off. Possibly check the pedal adjustment, fluid and cylinders, oil in the gearbox, then get ready to install a new clutch.

I really haven't had time to think of anything, lol. Literally just got it home and off the trailer at about 7:30 last night.

I'll dig in to it a little this weekend.

Thanks Alan!

My gut feeling is that it's the clutch. I haven't tried shifting through the gears with the engine off. Obviously, if it does shift through all gears while it's off that would be a good indication that it's the clutch...

Thank you sir!

I'm still confused. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your terminology.

In order to activate the starter, you have to depress the clutch pedal to deactivate the safety switch which prevents the starter from functioning with the clutch engaged. Thus, you are starting the engine with the clutch pedal depressed which disengages the clutch.

Does the engine start & idle with the clutch pedal depressed?

Can you shift gears with the engine off, or is the shifter stuck in one gear?

If you can shift gears with the engine off, can you shift into neutral and then start the engine?

-Kennon

Lol, the car will start with the clutch engaged, i.e. pedal pressed to the floor, regardless of the position of the shift lever. After that, there is no neutral position for the shift lever while the car is running. While the engine is running, no matter how hard I try or what I do with the shift lever, the transmission always seems to be in a gear. In other words, no matter what I do with the shift lever, no matter what position it's in, even when it seems to be in the neutral position, if I let off of the clutch pedal, the tranny engages and starts to pull. It will only idle, as if not in gear, with the clutch pedal pushed to the floor.

I've seen with my own eyes, its 100% dead on that pressure plate snapped. I did a clutch on a friends Honda Civic with gear stuck in 2nd gear and thought was tranny itself but turn out to be a snapped pressure plate springs. After replace new clutch it ran beautifully. This is what happen when you try launching the car in 2nd gear at a dead stop with stop clutch.

I sold my 88 Cloth coupe 5mt because I drove it for 5 years and got bored with the "same old car" so I got my G2 coupe.

I so much miss my G1. That coupe, stock, is like a grown-up Prelude.

Nice catch.

rich

Very nice pickup. Hopefully it's a quick fix on your part. Make sure the fork isn't bent either when you remove the transmission.

Sorry for pummeling you with questions, but yours is a most curious malady.

From your description the clutch appears to be engaging and disengaging properly, which would rule out most clutch issues.

Have you verified that it is indeed shifting gears when you move the shifter?

-Kennon

Thanks man. I'm super stoked to add this clean coupe to the family. My 15 year old son was all "sweet! Is that gonna be mine?"

My response: "Not only no, but hell no!"

No problem with the questions. Thanks for taking interest. It does indeed change gears, however it is anything but smooth. Running or engine off.

Dang! Super lucky! You have all the goodies already! Well, welcome to the G1 world, you will enjoy it. I started with G2s, still own one too. G1s are super easy to work on with little headache lol. White ones are sick though

I swapped mine to 5 speed from auto and my first 5 speed did what your describing when I blew that one. Lasted only a month and pressure plate was resurfaced and torqued to spec as we'll as new clutch, pressure plate and throw out bearing. It was like a fight getting it out of gear, thought I was going to break the linkage. So I ended up putting in a different 5 speed without touching clutch and assembly and was fixed. Also took apart the old trans to see what happened and bearings were shaved.



Look at the one on the left. I didn't remove any bearings either that's how I found it, scrap metals all in the casing.


http://<a href="http://s1113.photobu...psd941cb43.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i1113.photobucket.com/albums/...psd941cb43.jpg[/IMG]

Damn! That's total failure!

Got a quote from a local, very reputable tranny shop of $500 for a complete rebuild. Supposedly that's worst case scenario with me taking the trans to them. I can handle that!

That's not bad at all. With warranty too nice!

Yeah, 3 year / 36k mile!

On another note, my son and I pulled all of the seats, center console and carpet on Sunday. I scrubbed and pressure washed the carpet Monday after work. Here are some before pics (I'll post after pics once the carpet has completely dried):

Driver's side and backseat garbage

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...pssflzc2pc.jpg

Passenger side

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...psvte5mhuk.jpg

Carpet removed

http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps9klzb5dg.jpg

Btw, I'll be posting all future progress pics in a build thread!