[90 accord] Installed front brks, rtrs, struts,springs,1/2 shaft!

Hello everyone.
I took on the above tasks in a laborious [last]weekend back home.
What a nightmare. As of writing I'm still waiting on local parts to
arrive. I knew it was time for both, without even looking. Steering
wheel was full of vibration, especially on hard/moderate braking, but
also at highway cruising speed. The car was[is still] in need of an
alignment. 184.5k yet the response at the steering wheel was still
very nimble.

I picked up a set of wearever rotors(~23ea), along with a decent
pair of ceramic pads($40/pr)(to keep down on front brake dust -
annoying). The axle nuts proved to be interesting. After breaking a
breaker bar(yes it was no name). I called the local Honda service
center and asked if they could break them lose for me. They said
they'd be happy to, and I was on my way. Didn't take 'em 3 sec's to
break them free(my air config. was hindered by a severely restrictive
host). I paid for his time - he said he'd buy the guys some drinks.

The worst part were the 4 bolts holding the bearing plate to the
rotors. I get the impression the last person to work on it really
hammered down on those bolts. I learned that they are only to be
torqued to roughly 45ft/lbs. We(my Dad aided) couln't get a good grip
on 4 of the 8 bolts(both sides) we had to remove. Air tools were a bad
idea. I ended up drilling the centers out, soaking with lube, torching
them, and then air chizzlin' the crap outa the bolt. Argh... Once that
was over it was a mad dash to to find appropriate replacment bolts. I
won't even go there. They were replaced with the right thread, however
2 weren't flange. In a nutshell, put everything back together, cleaned
piston slides, and installed the brake pads.

My second(to brakes) goal was to install a rebuilt half shaft.
For $60 you can't go wrong. All I needed was the P/S outboard CV
joint, but the autoparts store I visited didn't even sell them! Popped
the 1/2 axle in without any trouble at all. That was the easiest part.

Next was a good time to put some new struts on - it had been a
horrible ride for long trips. I rented a compressor and proceded to
put the passenger side strut in. I got to the driver's side and found
a cracked spring(two spots!). Luckily they were near the ends. So I
had to wait 4 days to get new springs. I found that my rental spring
compressors didn't fit the bill. While they worked great for
transferring a spring to new strut, their overall compression length
was too short to [safely] 'unarm' an old spring. So I had a local
monroe do it on the side for me. $30 to put new springs and struts on
old
mounting hats/hardware.

Overall it was a worthwhile headache. Inspection is next month,
so it's a relief as well. As for the results? Well the front end is
significantly higher now than the rear. I didn't realize the stock
suspension was so warn - I though my 90 accrd was just pimpishly
low(<--bad pass at comedy).

Anyways, there were some concerns I wanted to try and resolve.
The orig. passenger side brake pads had worn 90% or so - I heard the
indicator. But on the driver-side, the one with a broken spring, the
pad pair showed only ~30% wear! I attributed this to the spring, but
that may not be a correct assumtion.

Also on the D/S, when I was installing the damper assembly to the
pinch fork, I made sure to align the notches in the rear. However when
I tried to put the long bolt through the forks at the bottom, the fork
did not line up. It was not just a matter of pushing down on the
rotor, but I had to twist the strut
slighly. Rough guess it was 10 degrees rotated off center. I couldn't
get the pinch bolt tight enough to hold, while trying to twist the
bottom into place. In short, the notch does not line up on the
strut/fork. Upon driving, the car easily pulls to the right if you
nudge it that way. Also the steering wheel oscillates at medium pace
durring <30mph driving.

How severe is this? Does the above sound like something that an
alignment will fix up? As far as I see it, no alignment bolts were
touched!

So thanks for everyone who contributes technical material to
this/these forums. I learned all I need to know about doing the above
from this forum!

-Jamie

...o0(my Nissan is my next victim)0o..

 

Wow! Did the struts yourself, that took guts! I can relate about getting
the rotors off. My '93's drvier's side was similarly challenging.
Fortunately I soaken the bolts in penetrating oil for a day before starting
so I was at least able to get them off without having to use a torch.

I can't tell you about the damper assembly issue, but I would think that the
best bet would be to get an alignment and see what it does. A local shop
did a 4 wheel alignment for my '93 for only $44!
--
KWW

 

Well, I would have replaced just the struts myself, but the springs
needed to go also. Like I said, [some]rental compressors work just
fine to compress a spring, pull it off the strut, and uncompress it on
a new strut. I did it a few years back on a Grand Am with no hassles.

However I couldn't get a good clamping position on the installed
spring to fully decompress them. In other words, the tool wouldn't
extend far enough to release the spring un-tensioned. Because of this
I seriously doubted I could compress the *new* springs far enough to
install them. I took a safety call here and just had a garage do it
for me.

Oh yeah those 14mm bolts were a pain! <-these incidents *engrave* bolt
sizes in your memory!

I'm hoping that an alignment will cure my steering wheel wobble and
'floatiness'(I partly attribute this to the higher lift/stiffness).
The control seems very unstable and not easy to predict. For instance,
it seems the quicker I turn the wheel, the more it will pull hard to
one size exiting the turn.

I'm just postponing the alignment in leu of new all-season's.

Thanks for the response!
-Jamie