Honcho's Long Road to Imola Type-S Zero

[pvmike]

$50?! That's basically any and everything you could purchase outside of a Big Mac meal. You need to adjust for inflation sir.

My vehicles would look pretty plain if I had to do that.

 

[Honcho]

It appears that now is a good time to renegotiate your arrangement and get the threshold bumped up a bit. Strike while you can and use the excuse that it just cost you money!

How do you think I got my NSX-R suspension?

$50?! That's basically any and everything you could purchase outside of a Big Mac meal. You need to adjust for inflation sir.

My vehicles would look pretty plain if I had to do that.

The thing about Mrs. Honcho is that she almost always says yes to parts, but she just wants to know what's going on (she's a lawyer like me lol). I count myself lucky to have found a girl like her because even though she could care less about cars, she understands my passion for them and especially the NSX. So, she really just wants a heads up on parts. On the $50 thing however, it's something that has provided a lot of stability to our relationship. It forces you to check in with your partner on stuff, which fosters communication, etc. I'm actually a fan of it. To your point though, we are considering bumping the threshold to $100, since we set the $50 12 years ago when we were broke new lawyers.

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 12

Saturday was a really nice day, but with Mrs. Honcho out of commission and resting on the couch, it was up to me to run the show solo. Still, between shuttling the kids, cleaning the house, and getting groceries, there was a brief window of time where I found myself doing nothing. It happened while the kids were playing quietly in the basement, the laundry was quietly tumbling in the drier and Mrs. Honcho was asleep on the couch. I had about 30 minutes...

Do I fit the NSX-R upper chassis bar? I realized it would mean breaking out my angle grinder and cutting about 20 mm off of the left tie-down bracket. That would mean noise, which meant possibly waking up my wife. No go.

Do I re-pack the grease on the tie rod ends and replace the ball joint boots? Nope, I don't know how to do that yet and I'd probably burn 30 minutes reading the manual and searching Prime.

So, I decided to take out the engine fan. It's on the Stage 0 to-do list, and with Kaz's excellent write up as a guide, I went for it.

Engine Fan Removal

First step is to give yourself room to work. You need to free the big harness. I recommend putting some tape on the body under the metal tabs so you don't scratch the paint while wiggling and pushing the harness around. I didn't do that here because I am painting the engine bay. You can see on the top tab here, someone before me already scratched the paint.



Next, continue freeing up the harness by clipping the blue zip tie holding it to the fan chassis. This will allow you to push the harness aside to access the 10 mm bolt holding the fuel return line clip. It's a really tight fit for the ratchet, even with the harness moved. I used a 8" extension and was just barely able to get the socket over the bolt head. Once that bolt is removed, remove the bottom fan 10 mm bolt. Take your time.



Next, go to the top of the fan and remove the 10 mm bolt fixing the fan relay to the chassis.



Push the relay aside and away from the fan.



Pull the tachometer pickup off of the fan chassis.



Now you can work on removing the fan itself. First, un-clip the throttle cable from the bracket and remove the two top 10 mm fan bolts.



Make sure the fan electrical harness is unplugged and begin to pull the fan away from the opening in the body. You need to turn the fan counter-clockwise (if you were facing the right side of the car from inside the engine bay). Be extremmely careful here, as the bottom fan mount can easily scratch the paint as you rotate it.



Continue to work the fan away from the body. It will take a combination of rotating, tilting and pulling. The edges of the aluminum housing are very sharp and can easily scratch the paint, so if you aren't planning on painting your engine bay, I recommend taping up the surrounding area with a couple of layers of masking tape. Also, take care not to damage the fuel line, which will come in contact with the fan housing as you pull it out. A fuel leak in your engine bay is a very, very bad thing! I was able to get the fan out without much damage at all, but it likely was more luck than anything.



It's out!



Remove the throttle cable bracket from the fan and fix it back to it's original spot in the engine bay. Re-clip the cable to the bracket.



Much more space in there. Now, I just have to zip tie the fuel return line clip to the big harness and re-attach the harness bolts. I also have to seal up the fan relay and fan harness. I may fab up a small bracket for the tachometer pickup too... Job done!

 

[Honcho]

Body and Paint Work 20

Had a few minutes last night to replace the old, bent battery negative cable with Ben's excellent replacement product.

The cable terminal is actually bolted to a thick, aluminum slug, which is what makes contact with a bare aluminum circle on the frame. The whole thing was coated in a tan grease, which I assumed is some kind of Honda dielectric product.



Ben's replacement cable in front versus OEM.



Applicable parts. The OEM cable clamp was smashed and bent beyond repair. You should never tighten the clamp all the way. I re-installed and coated everything with Dow Corning #4 dielectric silicone grease. Job done.



I also spent some time looking over the bumper lower skirt and worked up a plan to repair it temporarily. I'd really like to drive this NSX for a few months before tearing it down for paint in order to better assess the condition of the transmission. It's looking like I'm going to have to drive this car with the automatic for a couple of years and, with 137,000 miles on the current clutch packs and torque converter, I'm getting increasingly concerned about its life. Current plan is to replace all of the solenoids and change the fluid. Will that be enough to bridge me to the 6-speed? ....

 

[natcc99]

Had a few minutes last night to replace the old, bent battery negative cable with Ben's excellent replacement product.

How did you order the cable? I tried searching and found threads related to Daisy, but did not see any links about ordering.
Thanks.

 

[Honcho]

How did you order the cable? I tried searching and found threads related to Daisy, but did not see any links about ordering.
Thanks.

I shot him an e-mail. He's still quite active in the NSX world.

gtrcrx1(at)aol.com

 

[natcc99]

Thank you. Great build. Keep it up and hope Mrs feels better soon so you can use the nosy power tools

 

[jtrikakis]

S2000 abs

Perfect conversion from the conversion Pro.

 

[Honcho]

Thank you. Great build. Keep it up and hope Mrs feels better soon so you can use the nosy power tools

Thanks. It's been slow lately with the basement and skiing (it's been a great season this year- tons of snow!). But, I'm getting to the end of that tunnel and hopefully can start back up in earnest! I might try to remove the gauge cluster, CCU and fan control unit for BrianK to do his thing while I am putting the front end back together. Mrs. Honcho is back to normal btw, but still is not going to sanction running an angle grinder at 9 pm while the kids are sleeping! lol.

Perfect conversion from the conversion Pro.

Thanks! I'm making my own harness using a slightly different layout from the other solutions. I think it will work well!

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 13

Original plan this weekend was to reassemble the front subframe and install. That plan was thwarted by incorrect parts - namely the steering rack boots- shipped from Rock Auto. First time they got it wrong for me in almost 10 years of ordering! New boots are on order from Honda, so had to pivot to other important projects. First was removal of the broken door panels and deletion of the non-functioning aftermarket audio system.

Lots of missing screws, broken clips and of course, epoxy everywhere. These speakers and crossovers were screwed directly into the aluminum. I will need new vapor barriers too, but that is for the paint stage.


Much better. Still need to address the window tracks, but job for another day.



This is what came out.

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 14

Time to remove the steering wheel to prepare for the S-Zero steering wheel and hub. Also, to remove the gauge cluster for capacitor repair, as I have the "BRAKE" on warning indicating potential leakage/fire risk.

First, you need to remove the three Torx T30 screws holding the airbag. They are extremely tight, so you need something like this unless you have hands like the Mountain.



Even so, there was one screw that would not budge. Torx bit stripped it out, so had to drill it out.



Airbag out. Note the red safety plug. VERY important. As this is an explosive, I am not comfortable storing it in my garage and may just take it to my Acura dealer for disposal.


Steering wheel is off. Now, I can easily get to the gauge cluster.



Gauge cluster is out, along with the center console and CCU. All going to BrianK for repair.




Tidied up the passenger footwell by securing the old EPS wires.





Worn out A/T shift bezel. Rather than replace, I'm thinking about doing a quick resto job on it.



Gutted!

 

[aling289]

Despite not having the rubber rack boots, was able to get the new tie rod end boots and clips packed and installed. Even thought the ball joints seem ok, I am going to replace the entire tie rod ends in the paint stage. Just waiting on the parts from Honda...

My "spare" 1995 driver door panel turned out to have many defects, but it did yield the critical rear-most insert piece. Now I can finish them in the correct orange suede. My house is full of NSX door panels.

I will also re-cover the speaker grills, as they were all damaged on all of the panels!

Both the original and donor driver armrests were damaged. Thankfully, Honda still has them.

Virtually all of the damage to these door panels was the result of aftermarket audio work- people unfamiliar with the NSX trying to remove and/or disassemble the panels. I've seen several NSXs with panels in this condition now and I would caution any owners who are thinking about having audio components installed to take extra care to make sure they inspect the door panels after the work to ensure nothing was damaged.[/QUOTE
Hi! I've been following your build for awhile! I have some used door panel leather trim pieces if your interested!

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 16

While waiting on the parts order from Japan, it is time to open up the gauge cluster to send the circuit boards to BrianK for service.


First, this is a somewhat helpful diagram.


Step 1 is to remove the clear lens. There are 7 black trim screws.




Next, remove the overhead light and visor. There are 4 small brass screws and 2 long brass screws that fit behind the metal braces.





Next, remove the gauge fascia. It gets lost in the shade of the cluster when installed in the car, but I really love the brushed gunmetal look of this piece. I will be replacing this with the genuine Type S-Zero piece.


With the fascia removed, you expose the gauges.

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 17

All of the gauges, the trip meter and the odometer are held onto the housing by long, brass machine screws fastened into the back of the unit. A word on the screws- they are torqued very lightly. This is because the screw itself is the conductor for the gauges, carrying current from the circuit board to the gauge. The tip of the screw contacts a very thin copper wire inside on the bottom of the threaded hole, which makes the connection. This thin wire can be torn easily, so take extra care in both removing and installing the screws. I tested the torque very gently to get an idea of how tight the screws are set at the factory. Basically, when you feel the screw bottom out, STOP. Do not go any tighter. Tighter is not better here- you just need to make a solid circuit.




With the screws carefully removed, the speedometer, tachometer and accessory gauges lift right out. The tachometer will eventually be replaced with a M/T version when I convert to the 6-speed, but for now, I will re-use the A/T tach.




Next, remove the trip meter and odometer. You must carefully pry back the white retaining tab to free the black wires. The black plugs are difficult to free, owing to 27 years of being stuck in place. I found a small flat bladed screwdriver helped walk them out of the sockets. Obviously be careful not to mar the plastic. Work slowly.


You can see these units are not held in by brass screws. The steel machine screws do not carry any current as far as I can tell.



Once all of the gauges are out, remove the warning light unit. Two small brass screws hold the circuit board to the housing.


Now, the white plastic rear housing can be removed, exposing the circuit boards. There are 10 brass trim screws.



The housing removed. Note the black "C" shaped piece in the bottom right of the photo. This fell out from behind the trip meter push button when I removed the visor. It looks like some kind of anti-rattle piece, but I'm not sure where it goes on reassembly. Between the white housing and the visor? Or between the visor and clear lens? Does anyone know?

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 18

Now that the circuit boards are out, I can inspect them for damage. The paper cylinder capacitors used on the NSX have a finite lifespan, and many are starting to fail, leaking acid onto the boards. The most well known are the ones on the CCU, but the gauge unit is far more dangerous to your NSX. Left unchecked, this can start a fire which could, and has, consume the entire car.

Good news- the speedometer board looks ok. Though, I will still have all the paper caps replaced as a precaution. 27 years of service is plenty on the originals. Note the red marker streak on the board- it's all over. Maybe some kind of quality check marking?



Bad news- the tachometer board is damaged exactly where expected- the area of C13, C12 and C16. This is the cause of the "BRAKE" light being on and a sign of damage to the circuit tracks from leaking capacitors. Lots of wet-looking black soot around the area of C16. Lots of damaged tracks. Even areas not near the caps show signs of corrosion/soot. I hope Brian can fix this.


More strange red marker all over this board. It looks like it got wet and ran all over behind the tachometer gauge.

 

[solidol]

I was always paranoid about my cluster catching fire, been planning to inspect and repair for a while now. Thanks for reminder.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Despite not having the rubber rack boots, was able to get the new tie rod end boots and clips packed and installed. Even thought the ball joints seem ok, I am going to replace the entire tie rod ends in the paint stage. Just waiting on the parts from Honda...

Did you just use a generic puller to get the tierods ball joints apart or did you use the NSX specific one? Will be replacing these boots soon and starting to research this before doing it.

 

[solidol]

^ this is what I have been using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015PN010

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

^ this is what I have been using: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015PN010

Have you used that for all the ball joints on the rear? If so that is great news cause I have that exact one from doing my TSX.

 

[bushle]

Thanks for your great build thread. I am working on a very similar NSX to yours. So much good information and great pictures. You are an inspiration!

 

[Honcho]

Have you used that for all the ball joints on the rear? If so that is great news cause I have that exact one from doing my TSX.

I use the same one as [MENTION=27958]solidol[/MENTION]. Take extra care in separating the ball joints on the suspension arms- it can damage the control arms even if you do it correctly. That is why Honda changed the procedure in the service manual.

Thanks for your great build thread. I am working on a very similar NSX to yours. So much good information and great pictures. You are an inspiration!

Thanks! Lots more to come.

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 19

When pulling the CCU for BrianK to refresh, I noticed one of the screw tabs was cracked. Very common on the NSX CCU for at least one of these tabs to be broken, but I was in luck that the piece had not fully separated.



With a little ABS cement, it was as good as new. This stuff is vastly superior to epoxy, as it melts the plastics and welds it together rather than using glue as a binder to hold the pieces together. A great option for the NSX, as there is black ABS all over the car.

 

[docjohn]

that little U shaped piece is the neck pillow for the little guy that lives behind the dash and sings "it's the sweet one"......

 

[Old Guy]

.

With a little ABS cement, it was as good as new. This stuff is vastly superior to epoxy, as it melts the plastics and welds it together rather than using glue as a binder to hold the pieces together. A great option for the NSX, as there is black ABS all over the car.

SCGRIP 2354 is a water thin ABS adhesive that sets up fast. The water thin feature can sometimes make for a better looking repair if the repair area is visible because it its not gloppy like the Oatey adhesive. If you need to make an ABS slurry to fill in a missing chunk then the OATEY may be the better solvent for making that slurry since the SCIGRIP does set up fast.

 

[Honcho]

Weight Reduction - S Zero Conversion 21

With the electronic parts with [MENTION=7588]Briank[/MENTION] for refurbishing, it is time for some interior work. Type-S Zero orange door cards. For future owners who attempt this project, you want to use genuine Toray Ultrasuede HP, color # 5538-8223. It's not perforated, but is a near perfect match to the OEM orange. In the photos, it looks more like a cantaloupe color, but that is due to the washed out color balance on my Galaxy phone. In person, it is bright, vibrant orange. First step is to remove all of the old leathers. I found a trim removal tool was ideal to get a side started and then I could tear away fairly easily. The 27-year old glue was still strong! Huge thanks to [MENTION=34522]NSX_n00b[/MENTION] for his assistance and guidance!

Next, you must remove the foam from the metal cards. This was a great project for the kids.



The door handle cards were harder because the foam is glued entirely to the backing plate. After endless scraping with a butter knife and considering resorting caustic chemicals, I discovered that a small wirebrush made quick work of the foam. This is when I gave up with the butter knife.



Once the foam is removed, clean off the old glue from the metal cards using acetone. It rubberizes the glue, which then just rubs/pulls off the metal. With your clean metal cards, trace the patterns on some headliner foam from Joanne Fabrics. Leave yourself plenty of extra room on the trace- it is easy to trim off later. Also label your pieces (each card has a stamped label) so you don't lose track!



The door handle cards use a different, denser 2mm foam, also from Joanne Fabrics.



Now, you can cut out your foam templates. Also a fun job for the kids.



Using a light coat of 3M Super 77 spray adhesive, glue the foam to the metal cards. Spray both the metal and the foam, then wait 60 seconds to let it get tacky. Carefully roll the foam piece onto the metal, making sure to avoid creating any loose pockets. This should be a light gluing- really only enough to keep the foam in place while you fit the suede. Once glued, trim the foam, leaving about 1-2mm of excess hanging over the edge. We found this really helps give that rounded, "fitted" look to the fabric and will help avoid gaps between the door cards.



Now we have a nice set of foam door cards.




More to follow.