Its Alive Finally & Hondamatic to 5speed swap
Civic1200 Discussion Board: : Its Alive Finally & Hondamatic to 5speed swap
Jeff when you get a chance can you give me the full details on what you put into this motor.
It rocks man. I was still trained on the idea of reving the motor up high to change gears, as you suggested, when I looked down at the bobbing Speedo I couldn’t believe how fast it was going in such a short distance.
I will have to retrain my foot to keep from spinning the tires. 
Did you have this problem, no dough for you this was very good for racing. Is that what those lead bricks were for to put weight in the front end.
This thing runs better than my daily driver, “Dusty” Colin’s short for dust buster Pontiac Transport.
Thanks for helping out Jeff
And thanks to Colin for coming out to set up the timing for me. & Justin and the rest of the gang on the board for your help and ideas. 
Shreck
That's fantastic!! When you come by to pick up those sunflower wheels for you know who ,you can take me for a spin.
Jeff
Well I fired it up again today with some 
I changed out the Weber carb and modified manifold for the stock Klien carb and manifold.
I just about fell over with shock. 
It started up great and ran pretty smooth. Didn't even choke when I reved it high.
Better still I didn't even wait to get the muffler back on to take it out for a spin.
Wow runs great. No stalling at all and lots of power. 
Still with the timing advanced about 20deg.
Sorry Jeff it must have been the Weber carb.
You are correct about it stalling. How high should it be reved? And how much do you want for the exhaust manifold that was on it with pipes. Are the pipes any good?
Randy that's way too mch for a carb rebuild! When you engage first gear and release the clutch the car starts to stall right ? Well you might have to rev it up a little cause don't forget this is not a stock motor. I also suspect you might need to ditch the stock exhaust manifold.
It seems rather high... check out Weber they are a local supplier here in Vancouver..
Well Colin got my timing sorted out, but it still wants to die when trying to get it into first gear. I also found dirt in the Weber fuel filter.
I called a guy and he wants $500.00 dollars to rebuild and setup the Weber carb.
Does this seem reasonable?
I am going to put the stock carb. on and see what happens. If it is ok then it’s the Weber.
Thanks Justin, I will get working on that Sunday as well. 
If you look under the dash there is a single wire coming off of the choke cable assy.. unplug it 
Thanks Justin
I will try it Sunday.
ah one more pick of your brain, this sould be an easy one. Choke light, how do I make it go out ?
I have a webber carb on the motor I bought. I am guessing it will not work with it.
shreck the blue wire at the coil(wrapped in blue tape)goes to the negative lead of the coil
I put a factory tachometer in my car last week. Doe's any one know if the blue wire by the coil it the one that goes to the positive post, or am I missing some thing else?
I found the connector for it where the fuel/temp gage was.
If you can't get it sorted out give me a call and I'll try to come over this weekend. Carb should'nt need rebuilding!!
When I first started it purred at the first shot. Then when I took it out it ran good up to 3rd gear then would not go any faster. So I advanced the timing and it then ran crappy through first and second gears after that it had good acceleration through to 5th.
That’s the condition it was in when I dropped it off at the garage.
I checked out the motor before I bought it was running great, couldn’t take it for a test as I don’t think our local police would take kindly to an ice racer on the street without plates.
This is a motor and transmission swap. My previous motor had the motor mount right off the block so I did both at the same time.
The rebuilt motor I bought was complete all I had to do was basically plug it in, the chap I bought it from told me to get the timing setup and get new jets for the Webber carb.
That is an oil pressure gage in the console.
Was everything running fine before you did the transmission swap? It seems like you are having more timing issues than carburetor issues.
Also, what kind of gauge is that in the console?
When I took it in the car had very little bottom end power, felt like it would stall when I applied the gas. Once it got going it would go.
I left the distributor alone, that's why I thought taking it to the pros would be better than me mucking it up, being it was so far off.
Shreck, if the timing is that far advanced, then I'd have to say it's not a carb problem. Try taking out the distributor and moving it back a tooth. Check the vacuum lines, make sure the advance isn't hooked up to the wrong spot. Did you take the distributor out at all when you did the transmission swap? The Hondamatic has a different advance curve than the manual.
Well just when you thought you were going to get it on the road. 
I took my car in to a garage on Monday to get the timing and carb. setup, when I went in to pay he said it will only be $10.bucks. He said the carb needs to be rebuilt and that it is running better.
My question was better than what. Actually I spent most of my drive home trying to stay in the saddle, it was bucking about every 20-30 feet. Its was as if I was riding bull and hanging on for dear life. 
I was almost home when I heard something loud banging on the floor. I pulled over, holy !rap, the motor mount on the transmission for the torq rod broke clean off in both places and cut half way through my rad hose.
I went back at dusk to push it the 3 blocks home. 
Whoosh hot hot night. Easy car to push however. Guy on my street said jokingly “bet you get good gas mileage” as I pushed it pass his house.
When I took the car in the guy said the timing was advanced about 20deg. Best he could get was 8deg.
Anybody have any idea what has happened to the carb. Is this setup used for clown cars?
Sorry JMS
The console is out of another 78 Civic
Cover your eyes, you don't want to see where it came from.
They sure come in handy when you have to push a car out of the deep snow. Or just kicking a full oil pan across the garage floor.
I hear you are into transmission fluid. I prefer kicking a double full oil pan, that way you make it worth while when you have to steal the cats litter out of her box to soak up the oil.
Damn us Canadians with our big friggin feet!!!
Actually Adrian I would rather be on the other side as I am a southpaw “Lefty”.
The console has no name on it, but I think it is an aftermarket job. I had to strip it down to the bare metal to cut out the rust along the bottom. It has a row of 3 3/8” holes just south of the shifter for switches or pilot lights or what ever you wish. There is one spot left for another gauge as well. The armrest even has a little bit of storage.
Shreck that console looks nice, whats it out of?
That'll teach you guys to drive on the wrong side of the car 
Well here it is with my big foot in the picture.
I put the heater to defrost, it gives me a little more room.
That's a wide console you will have to get used to it..On Twyla's convertible I have the factory roll-top door console and it's tight with just that one...
Opps missed the picture
Here we go.
Here is a picture of the console.
I was fitting and making a dry run before I take it out on the road. Insured today Woohoo.
It fits up under the tray below the radio.
I will try to take some pictures of it in the car with my big feet tonight Hehe. 
I also have to modify an old spare air cleaner to fit the Webber until I can the proper one.
When I asked for insurance they want more pictures of the car, they must think the car is worth thousands. If it got written off today I would probably only get $50.00cdn that’s about the cost of 10 dozen donuts and a cup of coffee.
Shreck, I can't say I've had that problem about my foot getting caught, but then again, I haven't done anything but move my car around the yard yet, still waiting on insurance before I can drive it on the street. I just kept trying to find a comfortable position not in the way of anything. Wasn't too easy for me (6'5", size 13EEEE shoes). When you say center console, do you mean the one around the shifter, or the one on the floor under the dash?
Good to see you got the wires figured out I have the same problem, You have to get use to in For the heater cable just leave it in Defrost all the time Actually I put a bend in the cable so it goes back up and it's a little easier to get your foot out..
PS: I wear a size 13...You really have to get use to it!
Thanks guys your help is very much appreciated, 
I found the wires behind the glove box with no problem.
My next challenge is to hook up the speedometer as I could not get the one off the 5 speed when I did the swap. I have to pull out the dash anyway as I have acquired a tachometer and the center gauges.
Anyone have problems going from the gas pedal to the brakes with a center console. My foot gets caught on the back of the console and that darn wire from the bottom of the heater box.
Now be nice, my shoe size is 91/2eee.
shreck
Just connect the wires at the shift location and leave them under the carpet.
ok on mine under the plastic shift console the black/white stripe wires are connected together and the green/black stripe wires are connected. hope that helps too.
Under the glove box, where the harness runs thru the firewall, you will find 4 connectors(each having a 14ga. blk/white and a 16ga. green/blk)one goes thru the firewall, the other goes into the dash harness, and the remaining two go to the auto shifter...basically you remove the two connectors that go to the shifter, and plug in the dash and firewall connectors and your good to go
I thought I read about it a while back on the board about looping the wires. I thought I saw a loopback connector under the carpet of the car I removed it from. However when I checked the old harness I could not find it. I must be going madd and seeing things now.
Looking at the wiring diagram, it looks like black with a white trace, at least on the 78/79 models.
there are two wires where the automatic shift was you need to get those together, let me look under mine and will tell ya the colours.
David Potts told me how to do this... It was awhile back but don't you just have to loop the plug that wuld connect to the Auto shifter?
Frito
Shreck, I think all you have to do is unplug the neutral safety switch from the wiring harness, and plug the wires together. I don't even think you need to splice them. Just follow the wires back from the switch to where they disconnect from the wiring harness, and see what kind of connectors are there.
Anybody know how to change the old wiring so I don’t need the old automatic shifter to get the car started.
Is there a shorting cap or is this cable removed all together.
I checked my wiring harness from the five speed car I had and it doesn’t even have this cable. Am I missing something?
It finally started today after a long wait. Woohoo
Hey Jeff what did you put in this motor, It really beats the Hondamatic EB2.