I wore that word completely out Saturday, and all other words that were similar in meaning at the time. Humor me for a few minutes.

Good 'ol Nash agreed to help me change the clutch in my wife's 1990 Prelude S 2.0, but neither of us thought it would be a full day's job. We've done plenty of tranny swaps and clutch/flywheel jobs in various Civic's, so this was certainly nothing new - or so we thought. This was one of the most challenging repairs I've ever been a part of from a labor standpoint.

- To begin with, you can't even hardly see the freakin' tranny from the top, so most of the top bolts are completely blind and there's so much crap in the way.

- The passenger side axle would not freakin' budge from the hub even with BFH (I trashed the threads trying and will now have to buy a new axle), so we left it in and worked around it.

- The Prelude has these wierd caster adjustment arms that are also in the freakin' way.

- The chassis behind the trans is basically "under" one section of the stupid case, so you have to use a pry-bar on the motor/tranny when lowering the case down. This makes for about 30 minutes trying to jack the stupid trans back up & around the cassis when all you really need is just one more freakin' inch.

- There is a factory trans cooler-type-thing that has small hoses that are completely buried, and freakin' transmission fluid will splash in your left eyeball when you finally pull them off. Not to mention all the fluid that runs out of the hoses all over the freakin' floor while you stand there helpless and half-blind wondering if transmission fluid will melt a contact lens.

- The speed sensor wasn't visible from the top or the bottom of the tranny, so when you lower the tranny case down, prying against the motor due to the before mentioned chassis clearance problem, you rip the three wires right out of the freakin' harness plug and end up with a freakin' McGiver replacement plug.

For the greater part of the day, we had fun and made the most of it, but after dark, I really started to loose freakin' patience. I felt like I just got my *** seriously kicked and will never - ever - do another Prelude clutch. My wife and I had dinner plans that evening that we had to cancel since we were running so late. We went to go hit golf ***** this afternoon to practice for our upcoming Arizona trip, but my left arm was too sore to be worth a crap. I can't figure out why my left arm is so freakin' sore.

One of our daily drivers. The one that needed surgury.


Yoo Hoo... where are you transmission? Yes, it's there.


Old clutch, down the the rivets with springs falling out. It was actually wearing into the flywheel bolts. Yo!


Busted up speed sensor wires. Yo!


Good 'ol Nash, Mr. McGiver getto wiring repair. Yo!


Blue clutches ownZ.




[Modified by johng, 7:24 PM 2/16/2003]

 

Ahhhaha that is so weird! I'm doing a side job for some extra cash changing a clutch on a buddies 5th gen Prelude... man I totally feel you....

-Lot of **** above the tranny.

-You don't need to remove the passenger axle

-Had to rotate the tranny 90 deg and then drop it... gets stuck between the frame and crossmember... what a bitch!

-Radius Rod has to be removed

-I specifically remembered the VSS and found it before dropping

-I had no help whatsoever... H22A trannies are a lot heavier than B series!

My shoulders are sore as hell and I too threw out my share of 4 letter words.


sack-who is at least getting paid

 

Well John.... I was pretty much worthless on Sunday... my arm hurts too. I never thought I would have to bench press a tranny into place.

Let me know when you feel like taking the axle apart... I may invest in an air hammer so we are able to remove axles and ball joints just a tad bit easier.

I'm really just glad it is back in and it works, esp the VSS, I was a bit worried about that one.

At least we can laugh about it now, streams of 4-letter words usually end up that way - thank god!

Nash - who thinks that b-series trannies in hatchcraps are quite easy after Saturday's adventure.

 

Old joke was that a Honda engineer found his wife sleeping with a Honda mechanic and that provided inspiration for the Prelude.

 

LOL

 

That ****.

 

...let's not forget the bastard car, the Acura VIGOR!



Those are the worst to work on besides the 1988-1991 Prelude.

 

You should have warned us about this John...I know it's not a fun swap.

Everytime we even see an older style prelude drive into the shop, we cringe.

They are old and a pain in the a$$ to work on as you just found out.

Well...you learn something new everyday.

aj

 

LOL, mind if I put that in my sig?

I have a 1986 prelude as a daily driver, it is hell to work on. Only car I've ever know where it is easier to change the air filter from underneath (slight exageration).

 

NO>>>

The trans on the Vigor is the EASY thing to change, especially the 5pds...It's the cap and rotor that are hard...

Must have been the old man's SECOND wife..

Jeff


[Modified by jasyatz, 12:19 AM 2/23/2003]