Rusty Accord's 99 Sedan LX F23A4 w/5speed (56K)

Rusty Accord

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You Americans and your Rock Auto....jealous!

Which power steering line is the return line? My black coupe is leaking power steering fluid from on top of the rack, so it's going to need to be replaced. How difficult was it to get in there?

I'm about an hour North of Toronto, it seems like it's always raining or snowing up here. I feel your pain. Seeing 30 and 40 year old rust free cars in drier climates makes me hate what this place does to cars. And everything got worse when they started spraying the brine instead of the rock salt too. That crap peels the paint off of license plates!

The line is the return or furthest back (maybe even higher) of the 2 lines. It starts off doing a "U" bend (in steel) then goes into a "U" bend rubber hose, then into a long steel line with a kick in it that follows the frame rail on the left side (4cylinder car) out to a bent rubber hose then the power steering cooler (a loop of steel line) then the rubber hose to the res jug (the only hose I didn't replace). Like I said in your thread, I broke off the line, so I could put a socket on it. It came out fairly easy once I got the right combo of extensions and wobbles together.The new line screwed right in like it was made for it (it was). Getting the rest of it in wasn't too bad to do. Some of the clips were broken which made getting things exactly right were tough, but zip ties to the rescue took care of that.

Yeah having Rock Auto is pretty nice, as they've got a great selection, and prices are pretty decent. And if you sign up for their newsletter, you can get some discounts on parts that are being discontinued. I've been buying parts from them for about 4 years now. I don't know how much I've saved with them but I'm sure it's quite a bit compared to what Autozone or O'Reilly's have charged me for stuff over the years.

I hear you on the cold, rainy, cloudy, snowy days though, as we're always about 5* cooler than Detroit. Yeah, and if you want to keep a nice car nice, don't drive it in the winter. That's how I keep my 52 year old VW around (no, it's not a show car, but it does look nice, and was built to be driven).
 

Connie

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The line is the return or furthest back (maybe even higher) of the 2 lines. It starts off doing a "U" bend (in steel) then goes into a "U" bend rubber hose, then into a long steel line with a kick in it that follows the frame rail on the left side (4cylinder car) out to a bent rubber hose then the power steering cooler (a loop of steel line) then the rubber hose to the res jug (the only hose I didn't replace). Like I said in your thread, I broke off the line, so I could put a socket on it. It came out fairly easy once I got the right combo of extensions and wobbles together.The new line screwed right in like it was made for it (it was). Getting the rest of it in wasn't too bad to do. Some of the clips were broken which made getting things exactly right were tough, but zip ties to the rescue took care of that.

Yeah having Rock Auto is pretty nice, as they've got a great selection, and prices are pretty decent. And if you sign up for their newsletter, you can get some discounts on parts that are being discontinued. I've been buying parts from them for about 4 years now. I don't know how much I've saved with them but I'm sure it's quite a bit compared to what Autozone or O'Reilly's have charged me for stuff over the years.

I hear you on the cold, rainy, cloudy, snowy days though, as we're always about 5* cooler than Detroit. Yeah, and if you want to keep a nice car nice, don't drive it in the winter. That's how I keep my 52 year old VW around (no, it's not a show car, but it does look nice, and was built to be driven).

Thanks for the help with the power steering line. I'll let you know how it goes when I get to it.

It just snowed at my house AGAIN, had to brush the car off and drive through a salt brine mess again this morning. I hope its the last time! I don't take anything I want to keep nice out in the winter. You just can't stop the rust, no matter what you do.

My RX7 and my Merkur never get plated in the winter. But the RX7 spends some time in the yard because I need the space in the garage to get work done on the daily drivers and such. At least its not salty. The 1987 Merkur has been living in the garage for almost 4 years now. I really should either sell it or use it this summer, but you know how things constantly come up. Life, eh?
 

Rusty Accord

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Thanks for the help with the power steering line. I'll let you know how it goes when I get to it.

It just snowed at my house AGAIN, had to brush the car off and drive through a salt brine mess again this morning. I hope its the last time! I don't take anything I want to keep nice out in the winter. You just can't stop the rust, no matter what you do.

My RX7 and my Merkur never get plated in the winter. But the RX7 spends some time in the yard because I need the space in the garage to get work done on the daily drivers and such. At least its not salty. The 1987 Merkur has been living in the garage for almost 4 years now. I really should either sell it or use it this summer, but you know how things constantly come up. Life, eh?

Yeah, it snowed here Thursday morning, but it didn't last long. Just enough to tick you off. My son who lives up in Croswell had it disappear this afternoon, so they got a little more than we did.

So, how long does it really take to drop out the rear subframe? I mean if you don't have to mess with the lines, how long does it take to access the fuel tank.

Yup, I know what you mean by not driving it/them enough. I've already sold a couple of them, as I didn't put enough miles on them to justify keeping them. Add in the cost of insurance, and that's the straw that sends them down the road.
 

Blazinqwickly

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Looking good man, I like that it has 15x7's on it for a 205 profile.

I think it could be probably the camera angle playing with my old man eyes, but the passenger side looks lower then the other 3 sides from the pics.

Anyways, I am a sucker for darker green cars, I can not wait to see it all cleaned up and polished/waxed, I bet it will pop all kinds of sexy color.
 

Connie

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Yeah, it snowed here Thursday morning, but it didn't last long. Just enough to tick you off. My son who lives up in Croswell had it disappear this afternoon, so they got a little more than we did.

So, how long does it really take to drop out the rear subframe? I mean if you don't have to mess with the lines, how long does it take to access the fuel tank.

Yup, I know what you mean by not driving it/them enough. I've already sold a couple of them, as I didn't put enough miles on them to justify keeping them. Add in the cost of insurance, and that's the straw that sends them down the road.

Yeah, I am starting to think I should probably get rid of one of the toys at least, but I'm not really in a hurry to let go of them at the same time.

It should take maybe 2 hours to drop the subframe.
Yours will be easier than mine because yours is a 4 cylinder, so you only have 4 subframe bolts instead of 12 like a V6 car.
It's really not that difficult.

-In the trunk, take off the access panel and unplug the connector in the pump.
-Crank the car for a while to relieve fuel pressure. You could unbolt the pulsation damper under the hood to make sure you have absolutely zero fuel pressure, but I didn't bother and didn't have much fuel come out when I got the fuel lines disconnected, so that's up to you.
-Raise the car and take off the back wheels.
-Drop the exhaust (the flange at the catalytic will probably be too rusty to come apart, you should be able to get the 6 nuts where the exhaust meets the manifold, though.)
-Take off the brakes and tie them up
-Disconnect the ABS sensors at the subframe.
-Disconnect the fuel lines under the car, and the filler and vent hose inside the wheel well (under a plastic cover behind the spring on the driver's side rear wheel well in front of the gas tank door)
-Undo the emergency brake cables and get them out of the way.
-Separate the knuckles from the subframe (there is a bracket that is bolted to the knuckle on each side that supports the brake flex hose, the e-brake cable, I think the wire for the ABS sensor as well, and the swaybar link. After removing the flex hose and the cable/hose, unbolt the bracket and the knuckle should be able to be separated from the rest of the subframe)
-Undo the rear struts from the subframe
-Jack under tank and remove subframe bolts.
-Let the whole thing down bit by bit, making sure it's not getting hung up on the struts (it will).
-Once it's out, you will need to undo the straps, and these bolts will fight you. You only have to get 1 out on each strap and the strap will be able to be peeled out of the way.
-The bolts that hold the fuel pump will probably look hopelessly rusted, but they aren't very tight and will probably come out (I used side cutters to grab what was left of the heads and was able to spin all of them out) The new tanks usually come with new bolts for this. Same story for the evap canister thingy that's in the tank.

The only issues you will probably run into will be corrosion related. You have pretty much the same climate as we do here, and your cars have lots of miles. But you already knew that :)
 

Rusty Accord

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Well, since it's not raining (but windy as hell) I thought I'd get a few new pics up that I didn't get to take before. These are dirty under the hood shots, as I wanted to take some of those before I do a clean up under the hood. Also, can you see what's missing?
2ibhog4.jpg

244ds9i.jpg

2e3mjap.jpg

And no, it's not 2 cylinders either.
 

Blazinqwickly

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You know, it may look ruff, but If I remember correctly there is a solvent out there you can lay the surface rust parts in and it eats that crap off like a dung beetle. I just wish I could remember the name of it, I'll do a little finger walking and see if I can find it for you, cause it saved my but on a old Acura Legend I was restoring one time that came from up north.

It's a cheap workable option considering it does not look seriously deep and pitted , but I also know how pictures can be deceiving at times.
 

Rusty Accord

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You know, it may look ruff, but If I remember correctly there is a solvent out there you can lay the surface rust parts in and it eats that crap off like a dung beetle. I just wish I could remember the name of it, I'll do a little finger walking and see if I can find it for you, cause it saved my but on a old Acura Legend I was restoring one time that came from up north.

It's a cheap workable option considering it does not look seriously deep and pitted , but I also know how pictures can be deceiving at times.

Yeah, look in to it, as I'd be intered in finding out what it is and see how it works. I'm willing to try new things if they work, or help save time.
 

Connie

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Ok it's driving me nuts.... whats missing......????
Doesn't look too bad in there for a before-cleaning photo.
 

Rusty Accord

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Ok it's driving me nuts.... whats missing......????
Doesn't look too bad in there for a before-cleaning photo.

No ABS unit. This is a non-ABS car. No ABS unit, no lines, no wires to each wheel. Just like my 97 Accord LX. Pretty good considering most late 90's cars have ABS standard.
 
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