Submitted by catfeeder
on January 11, 2004 - 10:45pm
I haven't really been very retrospective lately, so my blogging has suffered a bit for it. Perhaps that's a good thing; I guess it implies that I'm pretty happy and keeping busy with the stuff in the present. Here are some updates:
- School opened back up on Thursday; I ended up going to my web design course and my linguistics course. The commute is going to suck some; it's a bit over 60 miles each way and still takes about an hour and a half to get there the back way through Shelton, which is still faster than taking the freeway. The gas mileage on the Buick sucks, so I hope I have the Honda back for full duty soon.
- The Honda situation has progressed some. On Friday I went to go see "Milo" at the Port Orchard Westbay shop who is apparently the man in this area when it comes to carburetors. As soon as I told him what I had, he informed me that he didn't work on carbed Hondas newer than 1984 because the carburetor is ridiculously complex. He ended up giving me the number of someone who apparently does. I told him what was going on, including the explanation about the choke, and he speculated that carburetor icing may be the source of my problems. He sold me two bottles of Iso-Heet, which is basically straight isopropyl alcohol, which is supposed to take the water out of the gas. I'm now driving and observing with crossed fingers to see if this is the problem.
- My Firewire cards showed up on my doorstep on Friday and I got some video capture action going now on the laptop. They both came with cables to connect them to the camera which is nice. I'm going to install the PCI card in my Linux box at some point, probably when I have the money to upgrade the processor (I'm currently running a Duron 950, which is fine, but I max it out when using GIMP on big photos or other stuff). I just used the laptop with Ulead videostudio deluxe to import the video of Slow Goat Riot playing at the Old Town Pub. It's amazing how much space digital video can chew up.
- I've stayed pretty busy with band related stuff. I helped Greg move on Friday, and we got everything settled in and practiced on Friday, Saturday, and today. We auditioned a second guitarist on Saturday, and we've invited him out to play with us a few more times. He's supposed to come over for practice on Tuesday.
Yer site and the Honda
Hopefully with you taking the HTML class, you will be able to "work-in" your site as homework. Especially since you had said you would have updated content around Halloween. :) I know ya been busy, I'm just bustin' yer balls about it.
As for the Honda's carb problem, our little white rust bucket, that is slowly turning into a beehive (not the Neon) had the same problem, when my brother's mother-in-law still owned it, she threw 2G's into the engine trying to fix it, and never did.
However, she was taking it to some places around here that I wouldn't even take my go-cart, that me and dad built from scrap metal, to if I was in a full body cast, couldn't get anybody else to help me, and it was my only tranportation.
In other words ... these guys SUCK.
Anyway, she signed it over to my brother, because she was tired of messing with it, and he was willing to deal with the problem, due to having no wheels at the time. Not bad for a free car. I think it's an '85, but I'm not sure about what condition anything on it is in, because I haven't touched the thing.
Dave
fixing it
I'm crossing my fingers hoping that the Iso-Heet will take care of the problem. Yesterday it ran pretty well, but I didn't do any freeway driving, where the problem really manifests itself. Either way, spending $2000 is not in the plans....if it's that bad, the Honda will quickly be up for sale, and I'll find something thrifty that doesn't need too much TLC, and is fuel injected. When I originally went searching for such a car, a five-speed Chevy Cavalier was one of the cars at the top of my list.
gas mileage
If only there was a cheap way for a car to get from AZ to WA, I could hook you up with a 40+ mpg Opel Kadett. Sure top speed is 68mph at 5500rpm, and the car is nearly 10 years older than you, but that just means it'll be easy to maintain, right?
Seriously, though, the Buick should be pulling low 20's at least. I wonder what gives there. If you get a chance, do a double check of the "check engine" bulb next time you start the car to make sure it still works. The car is certainly old enough to benefit from things like O2 sensors and the like, but even with the antique EFI it should tell you if it needs them.
Ice in the carb sounds like a bunch of BS to me, but who knows? Any old car can benefit from some iso-heat though, it's pretty good stuff. I guess it wouldn't hurt to check on the hoses and diaphrams and the like as well, that is if you can even figure them out. How hard would it be to convert the thing to EFI, I wonder? I know of a '92 Accord we could probably pirate the parts from....
bad mpg
The "check engine" light (actually it's a "service engine soon" light) does work. It lights up every now and again when I've been driving at speed and am coasting with my foot off of the accelerator for a prolonged period. The guy who sold me the car informed me that the people he picked the car up from (remember, it was a car donated to United Cerebral Palsy) said that it needed a new Idle Air Control solenoid. While I haven't messed with the ALDL connector to get it to flash trouble codes, this would certainly explain poor idling.
I've disconnected the torque converter clutch connector in the last few days. While I'm not sure if it was hanging up and trying to keep the torque converter clutch engaged while idling (apparently a common problem with the THM-125C), it would engage at low speeds in third gear (35 or maybe 40) and bring a lot of shudder with it. It's much smoother now without it, and I'm willing to sacrifice a few MPG without it.
The car ran pretty well tonight, but sometimes idle just feels like the car is running on three cylinders. I promised myself I wouldn't put too much money or effort into a car I paid $220 for, but part of me won't let it go; I know that it can run better. I'm probably going to pick up a new cap and rotor tomorrow; I've already changed the plugs and wires, and the cap and rotor are all that's left.