D.I.Y. REAR CAMBER KIT/FUEL KILL SWITCH/THROTTLE CABLE PAGE

While picking up my suspension from a shop, they tried to sell me a rear camber kit for my civic. Well, he only had half of the parts so he gave it to me for free and told me where to buy the rest of it. I am so glad he did because these rear camber kits sell for up to ten times as much as they would if you get the parts from a hardware store!!

Here's what's needed:

(4) Bolts [10mm x 1.25 x 30mm] Home Depot has em.

(8) Washers [compatible with the bolts] Home Depot has these too.

Here's a picture of what the parts look like...

Once you've lifted the rear of the car and remove the wheel, locate the upper arm...

Unbolt the two bolts and rebolt it in using the new bolts from your hardware store. However, when you are lining up the bolt, place two washers inbetween the car body and the mounting bracket. What this does is force the wheel's top to be further out, therefore giving you proper camber.

Two washers per bolt, two bolts per side. Really quick and easy mod.

When I took my car for alignment (which you should do after lowering the car more than 1/2 inch) they commented that the camber was well within specs.

Now there is no excuse for everyone driving around with extreme negative camber...

Fuel Kill Switch
Ok, i have been asked by a few people now on how to make a fuel kill switch for you car. I decided to post it so now more people can use this VERY effective method to keep people from stealing your ride...this won't stop them from taking other stuff in your car, but your CAR ITSELF isn't going anywhere.

I read how to do this one in the newspaper. Every civic owner should do this to their car. when the switch is off the car cannot be started, even if you have the key to it in the ignition! there is a wire in the front passenger side kick panel that if you cut and throw a switch into, you can control the power that runs to your fuel pump. without power to the fuel pump, no fuel to your car...get it?! the install takes maybe 10 minutes if you can find the wire right away.

Here is what you need before you buckle down:
--A switch that you plan on using ( preferably small and unnoticeable, you wouldn't want something flashy that a thief might find and flip, that would defeat the whole purpose! I got my switch at my local sound shop for free, they usually have them lying around in their installation area and didn't mind giving me one. all the switch needs is to have a wire running into it, and then another running out of it, and then the switch needs to have an ON and OFF. )
--A screwdriver ( for unscrewing part of the kick panel)
--Wire Cutters ( scissors work I guess)
--Flashlight (optional)
--Soldering iron + solder ( You will be cutting a wire, and attaching new wire to it, so soldering makes sense)
--Electrical tape (To cover your soldered wires)
--Speaker Wire (Handy if you plan on placing the switch far away)

step 1: On the passenger side, locate the kick panel, and remove the two fasteners, the easiest one is the one furthest towards the front of the car, because it is like a screw. the one closest to the rear of the car is a little trickier. be careful removing this one because the fastener's are prone to breaking apart or stripping once removed. the way I recommend is to remove the screw one first, and then pop off the kick panel, and pulling on the whole panel rather than pulling on the fastener alone.

step2: ok here is the un-fun part. you are going to have to distort your body into a way to be able to use your hands and feel through all the wires located in this area. the wire you are looking for (if you have a 96-00 civic) is a YELLOW wire with a GREEN stripe. now there are plenty of wires that seem to fit that description, and I cut one of the ones that wasn't the right one (it was a green wire with a yellow stripe). the way you will be able to tell if you got the right one is that if you successfully cut the yellow/green wire, the car won't start. if you cut a wire that you THOUGHT was yellow/green, and the car still starts, then you have the wrong one (so solder it back together and tape it up). yellow with a green stripe means that the wire is basically a plain yellow wire, but with an added stripe of green. so majority of the wire is yellow. I hope that is clear enough.

Step3: now that you found the wire (it was probably not on the outside, and you might have sore fingers from prying through all the other wires), pull it out some, there is quite a bit of slack in the wires. if you have already cut it great, if you have not yet cut it, do it now. now this is where it all comes together. if you are making the switch really close to this location (probably not) you will simply attach each end of the wires from the SWITCH to each end of the yellow/green wire that you cut. there it is, you are done, except for the mounting of the switch, this is where you decide where to put it....its a good idea to keep it out of range from where the driver sits (because a crook can easily feel around his chair), most people install it in their trunks or on the inside of their side skirts, but you decide. for installs in the trunk, you will need speaker wire(and be able to run the wire to the trunk w/o it being seen). the speaker wire is just the middle piece. attach the negative side to one end of the switch (doesn't matter really) and then attach the positive end to the other end. run your speaker wire to the kicker panel from your switch's mounting location, and then use the two ends of the speaker wire to connect the cut ends of the yellow/green wire. solder (or if you are lazy you can just twist the wires together and then tape over it) and then tape over.

I drew you a state of the art masterpiece work as a helpful illustration just in case my words mean nothing.

observing the diagram it becomes simple to see that by doing this, you enable the switch to either let electrical current flow through to the fuel pump, or you disable the switch and the electrical current will not flow through the wire to the fuel pump.

Here's a picture in the Chilton Car Manual:

THATS IT FOR THE KILL SWITCH.

++++THROTTLE CABLE ADJUSTMENT++++
ok... by request, here is the way to tighten your throttle cable. it's one of the EASIEST things to do to your car, but people asked how, so here's how.

Here is MY throttle cable, it sits on top of the intake manifold. it is called the throttle cable because it is the cable that connects to the (dundun duh!) THROTTLE. what you need to do to tighten it is to first take it out of the metal holder. to do this, loosen the top nut with a wrench and then wiggle the cable free.

here is a closer look at it... once you have gotten it free from the holder, take the one that you DIDNT loosen, and turn it so it goes more in the direction of the throttle...so in the opposite direction that you had turned the other nut.

dont tighten the cable a LOT, just enough so that the slack is gone and that there is some tension in the line between the metal holder and the throttle.

tighten that top nut back towards the lower nut once you have put the cable back in it's holder.

go run your car, if you have tightened the cable TOO much, the engine will be idling at higher than 1000rpm after its warm...loosen it a bit. i have mine idling at just a hair under 1000rpm when the engine is at normal operating temperature.

enjoy your quicker starts off the line.
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