6th March 2005
Still feels like I'm on the go slow - the rather cold weather we seem to be stuck in doesn't help with motivation to spend time in the garage. But there is some progress to report. I ordered and have received the LEDs which I am going to use to replace the warning lamps - and have picked some brains and sorted out adding resistors to them so they will be ok with 12v (actually it's up to around 14v). I need to work out a bit more of the wiring in the dash loom, and make up a new panel to mount the LEDs on (I started doing this yesterday) to progress in this area.
Today I decided that I need to tackle the fuel pipe issue (see 3rd February) as that is really the only real problem I need to resolve before I can work towards getting the engine running. I need to bend the fuel pipe which is sticking downwards, up above the floor level of the car - this is made difficult by the confined area there is to work in, and the steel pipe being quite hard to bend.
I find that I can bend it upwards only really, but have to cut the end half an inch off the pipe so that it will clear the nearby chassis member. Then it takes some heaving and fiddling before I manage to get it into a much more sensible position.
With the fuel pipe sorted, I spent some time looking at where to re-mount the fuel pump. This needs to move to allow the floor level to be extended backwards for the rear undertray (remember that plan?!?), and it's positioning never really seemed ideal anyway. So after a bit of fiddling and pondering, I decide that I will try re-using the existing bracket, with a couple of tie wraps to clamp the pump inside it, and then a couple of larger ones to attach it to the chassis. I figure the best place for it is just behind the diff, as this gives the best compromise of being out of the way, still getting enough gravity feed, and sensible flexible hose routes.

8th March 2005
Have spent the last couple of evenings making steady progress with the dash wiring. It is pretty much all in place now, a few now redundant bits removed, and a few bits re-arranged, to allow the swap between the previous electronic gauges and the new mechanical one. Also working towards getting the wiring in place for the LED warning lamp panel which I will make for the brow dash - except I just put the pack of resistors I was going to use through the washing machine...

9th March 2005
Continued busy-ness with sorting out the dash wiring for the warning lamps. I've got all the wires in place, and worked out all the connections required, so have re-wrapped the loom up. Need to work on the other end, sorting out resistors (which survived the washing machine!) and wires on the LEDs, better practice my soldering skills I think.

12th March 2005
I've set myself a target of getting the engine running again this weekend, so need to get on with things. I've started sorting out some of the LED wiring, but it's quite time consuming and there's still plenty to do.
My aim for today is to get all the fuel system back together, but it seems to make sense to have a good clean around the rear end, before fitting everything. It's quite mucky at the rear and a fiddly area to clean, but worth doing. Some bits are starting to show signs of surface rust, so I think one for next year is to strip it down and sort it out before it becomes a problem.
Previously I mentioned some hair-brain scheme I had to mount the fuel pump using tie-wraps. Of course this was hair-brain because when I tried it, it wasn't really holding it rigidly enough for my liking. Also the position just behind the diff wasn't great for the feed pipe from the tank, so I came to my senses and fitted some rivnuts to the chassis and mounted the pump just ahead of the tank.
With the location of the pump decided, the rest of the afternoon was taken up with re-fitting the fuel system plumbing. So that's the fuel tank itself (the bolt which was very stuck and had to be drilled when removing the tank, came out quite easily as I had soaked it with WD-40), the filler and cap, flexible pipes from tank to pump, pump to rigid pipe, and return rigid pipe to tank. Finally I fitted a replacement fuel filter up at the front end, so that the fuel system is once again complete. Oh and also I sorted out the wiring for the number plate lamp and fuel pump.

13th March 2005
With the fuel system completed, and the oil system already sorted, the engine start target is within sight. I decide that I don't really need to complete all the wiring for the warning lamps, before doing the startup, I can easily add this later. So I hook up a temporary lamp to the oil pressure switch, and re-connect the master switch and dash loom. Also I connect the oil capilliary to the gauge.
Then a splash of petrol into the fuel tank, and load of oil into the oil tank, and connect the battery. Then I crank for oil pressure - a couple of 30 second bursts and the lamp goes out and the gauge lifts off the stop, so I top up the oil tank. Next I allow the fuel pump to prime (but not turn the engine over) a few times, and check for leaks from all the fuel plumbing.
With everything in order, I fire the engine up. It's kinda nice to hear it again! I check around all the pipes, keep an eye on the oil tank, and allow it to run up until the fan switches on. I was relieved that all was well, but then I noticed a drip of oil on the floor - I discovered a small leak from the top of the oil link pipe from the crankcase into the sump. I've a nasty feeling that this might need the sump to come off (and hence the oil to be drained etc) to be sorted out :-(

15th March 2005
Stuck my head under the car for half an hour this evening to check on the oil leak situation. I found I can actually wiggle the pipe in the fitting in the crankcase - not much, but enough that it's obviously not sealed. So I removed the clamp at the sump end of the pipe, but that doesn't seem to do much, and certainly does give any manouvre on the pipe at the other end.
To help visualise the situation, I looked at the spare engine in the garage, and found it has two O-rings sitting in it. So perhaps that is the answer? And perhaps I've just found a spare O-ring to do the job with!
Unfortunately, I am going to have to drop the oil, and remove the sump all over again to attempt to rectify this :-/

18th March 2005
So I've started work on sorting the oil leak, and I hope to have it running again tomorrow. This evening I removed the oil, catching as much of it as possible and carefully putting it away so I can reuse it, I'm probably about half a litre down. I noticed that the oil came out kind of frothy (I'd run the engine for five minutes to warm the oil a little), but with lots of very very fine air bubbles in it? Not seen it like this before.
I then disconnected all the oil plumbing, and removed the sump and baffle plate. When I checked the fitting where the oil leak was, the reason became apparent, in that the O-ring was knackered. I also found a duff O-ring when I removed one of the pipes in the sump, it fell out in two pieces. So I wonder whether if this was leaking slightly, it might have caused the oil frothing, as it is high pressure oil line?

19th March 2005
Today I spent quite some time cleaning up all the bits. All trace of the gasket sealant stuff has to be removed to ensure a good seal again when re-fitting. So I've cleaned all the mating faces, all the threads in the crankcase, and the threads on the bolts themselves. Whilst doing this I discovered that all of the O-rings on the high pressure pipes in the sump (which have to be removed for the baffle plate) are badgered. I've realised that this is of my own making, as I have been fitting them arse about face (should fit O-ring to pipe then into fitting, rather than leave O-ring in fitting and fit pipe), but annoyingly I am unable to source any replacements today, by the looks of it, so am scuppered once again.
To explain, your average O-ring is fairly readily obtainable, but as these are sitting in rather hot oil they need to be a bit more than average. Unfortuantely my local Honda dealer don't stock the item, so I'll have to order them up.
So with resignation on the engine front, I can still spend some time continuing with my warning LED wiring. All the soldering work is done, so I took the plunge and connected it all up (albeit temporarily). To my pleasant surprise, it looked like they were working ok when I turned the ignition switch on. A bit of button pressing on the dash showed up a couple of problems however - there's something odd happening with main beam, as the LED comes on dim when on dipped headlights; and the handbrake/fluid level one doesn't seem to be doing much when the lever is operated.
So I spent the next couple of hours tracking these problems down. It was a bit of a headscratcher for a while, but I found that the main beam switch seems to be leaking a couple of volts to the main beams, when the switch is off (dipped). This points to a duff switch. The handbrake also seems to be a duff switch as I can make the LED flicker by wiggling the switch in the on position.
The LEDs themselves seem to be ok, except they are rather bright when in the correct view angle, and that angle is rather narrow. I'll give them a try, if it is too bright, I can try swapping them for less bright, wider angle ones.

20th March 2005
A bit more time spent on wiring today... except it was Craigs headlights, rather than my car! However, we did manage to rescue my handbrake switch by dismantling it, finding, and cleaning crud caused by water ingress. He also gave me a toggle switch which I can use (along with a relay) to replace the duff main beam switch.

24th March 2005
Catch up time. I've not done masses to the car this week, but I have ordered all the relevant bits I need to complete. Unfortunately the O-rings I ordered from a bearing supplier rather than Honda (30p vs £2 each!), were sent recorded delivery, and there was no one home to sign... and it's bank holiday tomorrow so the sorting office is shut. Oh well.
What I have sorted out is I got a changeover relay for the main beam switch, and have had to open up the dash loom again to create a 12v feed for the switch to switch the relay. Didn't take too long and once the relay arrived, it all seemed to work. However, I am still seeing some rogue voltage on the main beam wire (and hence tell-tale LED) when not switched on. So I guess the switch wasn't duff after all.

25th March 2005
The lack of O-rings meant that I have pretty much had a day off from car action today, which was a welcome change at least. I did however spend half an hour following advice from cam7 that the rogue voltage is probably down to a poor earth at the headlight end of the circuit. So I removed the headlamp units from the bowls, cleaned up the connections, and it all seems to work ok now.
So it turns out the swap to a relay was a bit unnecessary, but it's done now. I'll catch up on taking some pictures at the weekend.

26th March 2005
Well I collected my o-rings from the sorting office, and (fortunately?) they are good and fit. So I head home and spend a little time doing the final clean up and de-oil of the sump and all the parts. Then, with Craigs help, we refit the sump. At this point we find that the pipe which was the cause of the oil leak, is still a bit wobbly, so we lean the sump off again and refit with an extra o-ring, which seems much better.
After lunch, I reconnect all the oil pipes, refill with oil, crank for pressure, and get the engine started. I allow it to run up until the cooling fan comes on, and the oil temperature has come off the stop on the gauge. To my relief there seems to be no leaks, and the oil pressure looks good.
For a sanity check, I pull the sump plug for a moment, and am pleased to see that the oil is coming out froth-free. So it seems that the external oil leak was actually something of a god-send, as I'm guessing that the damaged o-rings on the internal pipes meant that I had some internal high pressure leak, which could have become a serious oil aeration issue later.

27th March 2005
So I'm aiming to get the car moving this weekend, and there's "just" some wiring to resolve. I start by wrapping the part of the dash loom which I had to unwrap (again) to make the changes for the main beam relay. I got some new loom wrap which is pretty good, and I had already reused the old stuff one time too many I think. I then final fitted the gauges, and made a blanking panel for the hole which is left by having a combined oil gauge rather than separate ones. So this area is pretty much done now.
Unfortunately, just as I'm finishing off tidying the wires, the lead connecting the large resistor to the master switch breaks off at the resistor. It has broken right at the end of the insulation, so in order to solder it seemed the easiest way was to break the end off the insulation, attach the wire, and then attempt to make good with heatshrink and silicone sealant. It will do until I can get hold of a replacement.
The only remaining big job is to sort out the new brow dash for the LED tell tales. So I spend a couple of hours creating this. I'd already come up with the outline and made a card template, so it was fairly straight forward fettling to create it in aluminium. Once this was done, I carefully covered it in the same vinyl as the dash. It looks quite good. I also fit the large LED cluster, but time has marched onwards (doesn't sound like 6 hours in the garage today does it?) so I'll leave the tell tale LEDs for tomorrow.

28th March 2005
Not much left between me and a drivable car now, just finish off wiring the brow dash, and reattach the dash. So first job is to connect the LED cluster. I've decided for now to just attach it to the adjustable oil pressure switch, though I fitted flyleads to the other oil warnings to make it easier to change in future.
Once this was done, I was able to fit all the LEDs to the brow dash, a bit of a fiddle but all worked out ok. Then I simply had to feed the wires through the scuttle, and could position the brow dash, then refit the main dash panel, and connect up all the wiring. All done!
With everything done, I spent a little time lowering the car to the floor, and a sanity check over the car - tyre pressures, top up the oil level, check lights, etc. Then it was time for a test drive. It started with a gentle run to the petrol station, and then I slowly wound things up for about 20 miles or so. Lots of eyes on the oil pressure gauge at different engine speeds and cornering. All appears to be in good working order which is a bit of a relief, and am quite happy with the drive.

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