hey guys! new to these forums, and recently i just got me a civic RT4WD wagon!! I was in college up at Fairbanks, Alaska, and i decided to search craigslist for anything good. I saw AWD civic wagon, the dude wast wanting 2 grand.... I recently sold my truck before i left to fairbanks for 2Gs and asked my dad to transfer me the money.. I talked the guy down to 1300, he wasnt budging below that.. and i couldn't pass up this wagon! The D16a1 engine was overhauled and the body has 262k on it...surprisingly there is no cancer rust!!!




With it on ebay coil sleeves and the front passenger side strut is out, it was clunking pretty hard when i would hit bumps... so i took it to a shop, and they said i needed new ball-joints, and when they took out the ball-joints they said the Upper control arms snapped in half, and that they only had 2 left in the state and luckily they had them at their shop.. got that fixed.. for 450...
Then i get the BATTERY light popped up on me, I barely made it back to campus and then my car was dead. I did a couple of tests to see if was the alternator or bad connections with a volt meter my friend had.. Found out it was the alternator, went to NAPA and thankfully they had 1 left in stock...! MAn am i getting lucky... Getting the damn thing out of the engine bay was a pain in my rear, I read that you can shimmy it behind the block and take it out where the air intake is... so after 4 hours of messing around I finally got the sucker out...

I bent my temperature cable while doing this... FML. now i have to try and fix that later...
got the new one put in with ease... had to put it in the same way i took it out.

The drive from FAirbanks to Anchorage is around 380 miles... and some parts on the road are treacherous! Im packed to the brim with my college stuff, and i was praying to god nothing would go wrong on the drive back.. here are some pics from the drive back.



I was going 3500-4500 rpms the whole way back, so if my engine was going to fail on me it would have.. lol, my dad was doubting the wagon.. He isn't to fond of civics, and "building them"

Ive been researching on the reliability of the 4wd system. Is there any way i could get custom made parts to make the transfer case and the rear diff stronger? or just go with the stock drive-train till it goes out?

AND when i push in the clutch to fast in first and second gears there is a good size CLUNK, but if i go nice and smooth there isn't... why may this be?

Anyhow, I plan on a Z6 swap, and turbo. This is going to be one of my first all out builds, I also have a 90 hatch with a LS integgy motor in it, and copped me some old school enkei rims .
did collision and repair program in my highschool days, so I got that one painted and freshened up.. Too bad the title got lost before i switched it to my name... so its just a sitting duck for now...



well here are some pics of the wagon!



and this side has the most cosmetics to do, the bumber, fender and quater panel wheel well.

 

dang you were mobbin! haha the rt4wd system is actually fairly strong, lots of people running boost on the stock system, as usual the front diff being the first weak point in a boost, but down here VIP performance is running around 500hp i believe in their wagon on a built/boosted z6 thing is a beast.

the clunking you speak of could be the rear diff floppin about, the rear subframe bushings wear out (check out this guys thread for more info on that: https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-crx-ef-civic-1988-1991-3/monsters-rt4wd-civic-3130844/). car is clean man! keep the fluids topped off and the motor tuned up and she'll keep goin and goin

 

Got to make time on a 6 hour drive! haha and that makes me more comfortable for this build, i about to say screw it and just go FWD.. And I was planning on going through and replacing all the bushings, I think that may be it.. Thanks man! i got big plans for this car, and up here in Alaska, there are very few clean cars, even so its rare to even see a clean wagon!

 

yeah even if you swap keep the awd! people have made adapter plates to use a crv trans on the stock rt4wd trans, for both b and k series transmissions

 

Z6 turbo is my goal, and VIP racing make custom bushings for the rear diff, but yea I'm excited I got this wagon!!

 

Got a couple things in the mail!!

Ksport coilovers
Skunk2 lower control arms.. to replace the bulky 88 ones, plus im not stuck with coils for the 88 control arms... im 89-91 now!


Now i have to switch some tires and get to work! cant ask for a better day than this!

 

should i go further and just replace the upper arm bushings, and the compensator arm bushings if they look like this?

 

haha thanks for some output guys.....

Anyways i got the back LCA's and the coils on.. the back coils are dumped as far as they go and i want to go lower.... could i get smaller springs for the back? or just cut them?

 

and in the front my driver side tire is closer to the bumper than the passenger side..

DRIVER SIDE



PASSENGER SIDE




how can i make the driver side even with the other side?

 

 

your bumper looks shoved back. on the ksports, the smaller adjustment ring on the bottom can be loosened, and you can turn the whole body down, you have another good inch or so of adjust-ability from what i see

 

I adjusted the ride height to its lowest setting

 

and my front fender has some damage on the driver side the bumper is even.

 

well went to change out the front suspension and thought it would be a quick and easy job... well thats never the case is it?! haha my outer axle boots on both sides were shot.. grease was flung everywhere and now my job just got harder..


time to take everything apart.. yippieee haha my brake fliud drip.. first thing i could find in the garage


the lower control arms were stuck onto the ball joints so i had to get a puller from NAPA.. got those unstuck and got the axle out.. i saw that i needed to boots for the tie rod joints.. just doing some axle curls! lol


I probroly have to get a new axles cause they dont move so smoothly


all new bushings for the front and back end are comming in the mail

 

For the life of me, i can't get thge passenger control arm off the damn ball joint!!! I got a puller and everything, blasted it with PB and even used a 4lb hammer to try and get it off...
I put so much force on it with the puller, that i actually started to squeeze the balljoint bolt... FML!!!


It won't come off!! so i think im going to take the whole knuckle off and take it to a shop.. I hate bumps in the road...

 

Use a floor jack to lift the arm under the brake rotor. Leave the shock/spring still attached to the lower control arm. Raise the jack so the k-sport is pushing the lca down while the jack is raising the knuckle upwards. Hit the area around the ball joint with a hammer with a few good solid strokes. It should knock it loose, This method hasn't failed me yet. It's worth a shot.

And it does look like your bumper is pushed back in the driver side hence the difference in wheel spacing. Looking at both pictures the wheels both look centered to me.

 

I will certainly try this tomorrow! and mmmm maybe it is my bumper, because i checked the radius arms on both side and they seemed to be pretty even... just things that need to be done! but yea i have to re-tap the threads on the ball joint. the bolt wont even go on now.. :/

 

Nice build so far!