Survivor 91 Accord SE Brittany Blue Metallic Ivory Leather 61K Miles

[UnicornHondaSE]

I am not positive if it is the motor. I will have to search on how to test it unless you have a method to share.

Also not sure about the nylon reed. Where is that located? I will look at it more closely this week.

Weather is warming up a bit and rain has washed away most of the "salt" here so the car will come out of hibernation soon.

Thanks Hiptech!

[UnicornHondaSE]

I found this awesome walk through and Honda power antenna replacement tutorial. Huge thanks to this guy for this video.

EricTheCarGuy

The Complete Guide to Honda Power Antenna Repair

https://youtu.be/5x3XM81yvtw?si=mywvcfPwqlA2qxL9

When the weather is nicer I will take a closer look at this unit and see what's going on with it.

For now, today the battery was dead, Brittany has been hibernating through the winter and apparently the battery also decided to go into a deep sleep.

Put it on the charger for three hours, slow charge, came back flipped the switch to jump start and she fired right up and purred.

[hiptech]

Glad it's coming together. Eric does a great job on Honda repairs, he's an excellent resource.

As for the battery, a trickle charger is your friend. It's easier on the battery to maintain it's voltage than let it drop to zero and try to resuscitate it... I've had good luck with the "BatteryTender" brand. Costco seems to have good prices on these. A 4.5 amp model is what they usually carry.

[UnicornHondaSE]

Many years ago in another life I attended Barrett Jackson auction frequently and there was always a vendor selling a sweet battery tender that would trickle charge only when it sensed the battery needed it.

You kept it hooked up and on but did not have to worry about it. I wish I could remember what brand that was.

The charger I have now is Die Hard brand and I got it back around 2006 I think. I hook it up every other few weeks on I think 2 amp setting "deep cycle" "maintenance free" and leave it for a few hours.

[UnicornHondaSE]

Did some searching and I found that the battery charger I have is this model. It has worked well for me, have had it since 2006 or so I would guess.

DieHard 200.71222

There is also a bunch of suggestions in this thread:

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/th...ainers.361489/

[UnicornHondaSE]

What's up fellow CB7 crew.

The time has come for Brittany to get replacement struts, she has become quite vocal about her old parts. Lol the squeaks and ocean- like wave driving experience fun is over, she needs to be restored to her former like- new glory.

If you care to chime in and share thoughts, I would appreciate that, thank you.

I am thinking of closest to stock as possible without going to Honda parts department. Sorry Honda parts person, I love you but the wallet does not allow for triple digit suspension set up.

That leaves me with the trusted brands of the era. First thing that comes to mind is eibach. Do they make a stock ride height spring with similar rates as OEM?

For shocks, a KYB would probably slip into a eibach spring. What are the alternatives?

Coil overs would have to be more towards soft and I really don't need the adjustability, it's not a track car.

Power antenna is pulled apart and waiting for the mast which I found here: (mods feel free to remove link if it violates rules, thanks)

https://www.antennamastsrus.com/hond...01990-1993.htm

The no rust lower miles helped keep corrosion off this car so the antenna came apart easily, thankfully. Now to get it back together without breaking anything (knocks on wood).

[UnicornHondaSE]

Spent some time today searching for suspension parts and I found that Summit Racing and a Pro Tuner company both have shocks and springs listed as available.

This is a filtered search to only shocks and springs but there are also sway bar bushings and sway bar end link bushings from Suspension Techniques and Prothane, in both black and red color, listed on Summit Racings website.


https://www.summitracing.com/search/...rut-components

And pro import tuners:

https://www.proimporttuners.com/part...uspension.html

I was hoping to get a stock ride height eibach, but they are NLA.

There are H&R and Skunk2 but both are lowering springs. I wonder how much they lower the vehicle.... .25 - .5 of an inch is not that bad.

I also found a link for Tien S - Tech springs, as well as a few others, but they may be too low. Here:

https://www.proimporttuners.com/part...d-springs.html

I may also replace those A arms up front, and maybe the arms in the rear, we'll see depending on how worn they are after I get them out to do the shocks and springs.

[UnicornHondaSE]

I found this website also that has a variety of Koni shocks for the CB7 accord.

Im thinking of doing the Koni yellow adjustable front, and adjustable rear if they are available, with a Mevotech premium spring, trying to stay stock ride height.


https://www.tunersdepot.com/1991-hon...shocks-struts/

[UnicornHondaSE]

Update, nothing great to report. I have ordered two new antenna mats and both did not fit

The barbed outer sleeve diameter on the new mast is larger than the antenna unit threaded shaft, so the new mast will not slide down into the shaft.

It looks like I need a mast that has a smaller diameter barbed shaft, and this probably is only making sense to people whom have done this repair.

I'm sure some people would say, just get an S2000 antenna and be done with it. Those stubby antennas look terrible IMO, and I would like to have this working.

If it worked in 1991 it should be able to work on 2024. This is very frustrating.

[UnicornHondaSE]

I may cut off the outer sleeve on the new mast. Maybe there is a portion of the old antenna mast still inside the shaft....

doesn't look like it though, just the threads for the finishing bezel to hold it in place on the body panel.

I'm trying to save $80 too, the local auto parts store has an entire new antenna unit with motor, but aftermarket. Maybe I will at least go take a look at it this week.

These old power antenna were cool to see activate but definitely were way over thought, some "engineer" forgot to KISS by simply putting a stronger antenna on the roof like they eventually did with the fins or like the Lexus IS300 screw on.

[UnicornHondaSE]

What's up CB7 crew! I finally got the power antenna fixed a few weeks ago. That stupid mast sleeve was still stuck in there. It was so difficult to see because it is so thin. I figured I would get an extractor bit to see if I could snag anything in case something was still in there and after going to all the stores around here, home depot, harbor freight, none of them had an extractor bit that would grab the inner diameter of this antenna mast tube, so I ordered one size up from the largest bit I could find at home depot that was still too small, I think that was a 7/16... I ended up ordering a 3/8 extractor bit from Matco. Part No. SES25I

Here is that link: https://www.matcotools.com/catalog/p...YbPEhVBAYzMWsT

This bit worked like a charm, grabbed and began to remove the sleeve immediately. I am fortunate though in that Brittany has no rust, so this antenna mast was not corroded. The new mast is in and the antenna is back to working nicely again.



Also, I have finally uploaded some photos. Sorry it took so long, here is the link to the album:

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBBYuw

Next up Brittany is getting suspension replacement.

I tried to get H&R street springs but they were back ordered another month, so I went ahead and ordered Tein S Tech springs, and I am really hoping that they will work with the Koni Orange shocks. If anyone has any insight before I dig in I would appreciate your thoughts. I also ordered Energy Suspension front sway bar bushings.

[SSMAccord]

This car is a beaut! Kudos to you for giving it the love it needs to keep going! The gallery is also great.

[UnicornHondaSE]

Thank you SSMAccord! I got one rear strut assembly removed today, passenger side. Tomorrow I will work on disassembling the unit. I'm hoping that the local auto parts store has the dust boot, the foam cushion, and "spring insulators" for the spring perch so I can get this wrapped up asap.

The current challenge is the 14mm nut on top of the oem strut. When I try to remove it, the entire shaft spins (rolleyes). So I may cut the dust boot and grab the shaft with a vice grips I guess, unless anyone has a better method.

[SaddleMtnMan]

Thank you SSMAccord! I got one rear strut assembly removed today, passenger side. Tomorrow I will work on disassembling the unit. I'm hoping that the local auto parts store has the dust boot, the foam cushion, and "spring insulators" for the spring perch so I can get this wrapped up asap.

The current challenge is the 14mm nut on top of the oem strut. When I try to remove it, the entire shaft spins (rolleyes). So I may cut the dust boot and grab the shaft with a vice grips I guess, unless anyone has a better method.

The OEM strut shaft has a hex key on the end. You insert a hex key (6mm i believe? maybe 5) and use that to hold the shaft from spinning while you undo the lock nut.
The Koni struts are similar, but use a small nub with flats ground onto them for a wrench. It's cheaper, but less good because you need to compress the spring enough to get the nut to free-thread all the way on to expose the flats. I had to fight with that a little bit.
On the new shocks, to reinstall, don't ever hold the strut rod with vice grips on any smooth surface anywhere it might enter the shock! It will mar the surface and ruin the shock seals the first time it is forced through, and destroy the shock almost immediately.

Fair warning, I had no luck using a standard spring compressor of the Harbor Freight type on these Honda struts. The springs are just way too small in diameter and do not leave enough clearance between the spring and the shock body for the hooks to comfortably fit. Must have spring compressed to take the top hat off (or to reinstall the new ones!)
Real suspension shops have table top compressors that make doing stuff like this easy....

I was under a time crunch when installing my new koni's and springs, ended up doing a super redneck setup where I plasma cut a hole in the side of a piece of round heavy wall structural tubing so I could get at the nut, placing that tube over the top hat, putting the whole kit underneath a really heavy welding table (1" steel plate) and jacking the bottom of the shock up with a bottle jack to compress the springs. DO NOT RECOMMEND. It's sketchy as hell. Compressed springs WILL hurt you bad.

[UnicornHondaSE]

SaddleMtnMan, thank you for the insight, 'tis much appreciated.

Ah yes, I have forgotten that there is a hex or square metal for immobilizing the shaft. I have done this job before on other makes and models, good times.

On the old shock I used a four times folded blue shop towel wrapped around it and clamped it with channel locks and hand my bro stand on the channel lock while I removed the 14 mm nut from the strut hat. Lol.


I would not recommend that method either but they are not being saved. No I will not be using this method for the new parts. I will think of something as I receive all the final pieces before assembly.


One of the metal washers for the foam bump stops seized to the shaft from corrosion, so those parts were not going to be reused.

Most of the new parts have arrived, waiting on the rubber spring cushions (rears). It's a Showa brand. The other parts are KYB. The new hats and spring insulators. Good stuff, I will post up the pictures to that Flickr album. (Next week maybe)

During removal I tried the spring compressor first and what made it difficult was that the brake line was in the way. Once I removed the caliper and bracket, I zip tied the caliper up out of the way, my brother used a pry bar to push down on the entire hub and control arm, while I removed the strut assembly.

The second side was much easier, no spring compressor needed, just the temporarily repositioned brake line.

I also have waiting for install, new energy suspension sway bar bushings for the front.

Back in the day we would just have another person or two push down on the hat while someone got the nut started.

I'm really happy that manufactures are still offering parts for the CB7 Honda Accord, thanks to Showa, KYB, Tien, and Koni. And of course the various shops, thank you all.