AKA "air vent cut off diaphragm"
This little guy keeps a valve closed when vacuum is supplied or held to it (engine running). When the engine is shut off the valve opens and fuel vapors are directed into a charcoal canister, rather than vented into the atmosphere.

When the diaphragm is perforated like mine is, and engine vacuum declines (when you hit the go pedal) the valve opens and creates a huge air leak. So no go with the go pedal.

I found the description of how this system operates (when working properly) in the emissions section of my service manual

and figured it out from there.

Unfortunately I cannot find a new diaphragm. Honda has discontinued this part, it's not in the rebuild kit for the carb, and I can't find it in the aftermarket anywhere.

So my choices are to either paste up the rubber with some sort of bonding agent and hope it works, or eliminate this part of the emissions system (all emissions systems must be in place and APPEAR to work)

So for now I'm using a less perforated diaphragm scrounged from another carb and MrHanky drives a whole lot better.

Posted by Scott Korb at 11:41 PM | Permalink

More power AND better gas mileage? Sign me up!
Less complicated? Better still!

BUT it wont pass NC state inspection.

Vehicles in NC under 35yrs old, but built before 1996 must pass a safety inspection including a visual inspection of emission equipment. All emission equipment must be installed and appear to work.

I installed a WEBER carburetor on my 1982 Civic. It has one electrical wire for the choke (optional), one ported vacuum line for the distributor, and one manifold vacuum line for the power brakes (optional).

Damn if I cant get through an inspection. Actually, I can, but I need this car to be user friendly.

So I had to put this monstrosity back on it:

Continue reading "unintended consequences" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 11:53 PM | Permalink

It's only temporary. These wheels ride like crap and don't fit well. They came with Sean's recent Del Sol purchase. But, riding thru the neighborhood like this I caught the attention of someone who wants to GIVE me another old Honda wagon like Mr. Hanky :D

Posted by Scott Korb at 10:58 AM | Permalink

Dreya and i have decided on a name for trying to sell our creations.... and we made several things last weekend. Check out our Flickr account at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23026128@N06

(cut and paste if necessary)

In other news, Sean bought some steering parts for the Lincoln. We'll be installing those shortly. He's putting some shift solenoids in Vic's Volvo, so we'll see if that pans out, or if it needs a trans.
Mr. Hankey is running fine for Dreya but is a little drafty in the cold. The Camry still needs a Cat. Sean's been driving her to work and she does fine... but she needs a tiny bit of body work and the P. side fender replaced due to a little trailer accident.
I've been driving the CRX since towing it home from Maryland after Christmas. It burnt the power wire going to the new "autozone" fuel pump. Fuses were all fine. And it's been doing fine since fixing the wire. No more long trips until i put in a Honda pump and a fused wire there though. I'm going to do some other work to it too. I fixed the flat tire which I'm sure would have blown out at 80mph had the fuel-pump not quit. Good car.

At my job, among other things, I have to replace a heater core in a '98 Lincoln Town Car. This is not fun. I might take a picture of the interior minus entire dashboard once i get it out. I'm still working on removing the steering column w/o compromising the airbag system. Old plastic is difficult to deal with. Maybe next week or so... or not.

Posted by Scott Korb at 10:46 PM | Permalink

I've been reminded that people name their vehicles. Sean still names his. I just worked on Sparky. And of course there is Mr. Hankey. I grew up with named vehicles. I guess being a mechanic has bittered me. My bird was once named. I s'pose it still is... firechicken, chickencoupe, fireturd... the Pontiac.... The "it's not a camaro"...

So Brian's truck is
TRUCKASAURUS
SUNDAY,SUNDAY,SUNDAY
...also saturday
or maybe only Brian's day off...

So anyhowl, I got all the P/S fixed. Sort of. I put a rebuilt pump on it and fixed or replaced all the missing/broken fragments.
It has a hydroboost brake booster which runs off the power steering... typical deisel stuff. The pressure defers to it and it's s'posed to have a reserve. The reserve don't work too good. It needs a new brake booster.
It also has transmission shifting abnormalities.
This may be delt with in later posts.
For now, Truckasaurus' basic power steering broken parts are no longer broken.

BTW, I'm getting the final replacement pieces for the OHChickencoupe's 'performance cam' this week I'm told. I might post about it if it dosn't break this time. The seat-in procedure is revised... @ more $$$$ for every oil change forever. Crap. It's a zinc thing. i guess EPA frowns on zinc now.

Posted by Scott Korb at 12:53 AM | Permalink

I found a civic wagon at the salvage yard and told Antny about it. He rushed right down to buy a headlight bezel. It had a broken piece, but we fixed it with what was left of the bezel on his car.
If they didn't want so much for the hood and fender, i'd pick them up too. Someday this car will be mine :-D

Posted by Scott Korb at 1:51 PM | Permalink

sorry it's been so long.
It's not that i haven't been working on cars. In fact, i just put some driveshafts in another honda today.

My camera batteries went dead, and posts just aren't as good without pics.

I still don't have any pics. I have some "new" batteries but they're not woking. I'll sneak a pic in at the end anyway.

Let's see, what's been going on in the Korb automotive world.....

Continue reading "dead batteries" »

Posted by Scott Korb at 1:06 AM | Permalink

Mr. Hankey

he has new tires and shocks/struts.
I'm becoming quite attached to this fine vehicle.

Posted by Scott Korb at 7:21 PM | Permalink