Ok first question

1. What's it mean when the shifter lever has excessive play. As in I can throw it left and right VERY easily. Feels crazy loose

2. Car idles VERY VERY rough, feels as if its the body shaking. As soon as I rev it up, car feels fine. Is it possible it's an engine mount? As for maybe the car misfiring or something, it's not. My other turbo'd civic has a rough idle, but nothing compares to how much this one shakes. Gets a lot worse as I release the clutch to find the bitting point

I ask these questions because I currently have a 91 civic, that needs a distributor, and my friend is offering to trade his 89 for mine. His has these problems, mine is automatic. I'm wondering if it's worth it

Cons on my car

-Front and rear bumper tilting
-Crack halfway accross windshield
-Automatic
-70hp(cx)
-Brakes feel spongy
-Needs Axel
-Needs distributor
-Bad sounding thunk when I hit holes
-Steering doesn't un-wind itself
-Hood doesn't sit right

Cons for his car

- Needs clutch
- Needs 2 other problems I wrote above
- Massive hole in floor
- Brakes go to floor, but still work....?
- No handbrake

Both cars have about the same amount of rust, we both paid 400$ for the cars, both cars have about the same mileage.

What do you guys think?

 

change the bushings for the shift linkage. and second your rubber in the mounts are probably broken you can put inserts in the mounts to stop the shaking.

my bad never read the whole thing never new that it was automatic.

 

excessive shacking means that the timing is off by a tooth or so but easy fix look at the body see which one is cleaner and i guess if worth it

 

Check to see if you have a "Bitch Pin" or a bolt there, that makes the world difference

 

dude i think it automatic

 

ok maybe my post might have been confusing.

the questions im asking about, are on my friend's car, which ia an 88 hatch 5speed.

my car, is the 91 automatic. the problems im asking about are for my friend's car(the manual one)

 

bump.

so the shifter play is a shifter bushing, the the engine shaking is the timing?

 

Tune up should help the idle, including valve adjustment.

As for the shifter, by the 14$ energy suspension bushing kit and get the 1.50$ brand new bitch pin from Honda. If there is still play, it's the linkage itself. Well, it's actually the universal joint that connect to the tranny, they were out and get play.

 

Maybe, but I replaced my bitch pin w/a bolt which fits snugly and there is no play at all. Can be done if it's done right.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nihad &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">excessive shacking means that the timing is off by a tooth or so</TD></TR></TABLE>

How the hell can you justify a statement like that without seeing the car? Could be a dying ignitor/coil, could be a fouled spark plug, a bad wire, bad engine grounds, upon many other possibilities. Lots of things can cause a rough idle.

OP, when you say the car idles rough... do you mean the motor is actually running rough, or is it running fine and just shaking / vibrating?

I agree with the bitch pin for the shifter play. A CRX I'm looking to buy has a bolt instead of the pin and there's lots of play even when in gear. If the pin is there, try replacing the bushings as ludesrv suggested.