Honda exhausted
Ian gets wife Kirsten’s Honda sorted once and for all
Kirsten’s ownership of the UK’S only Honda 1300 Coupé got off to a pretty good start, as reported in PC, October and December 2023. However, it failed adequately to proceed on the very day we were due to leave on a tour across Europe. Probably just as well, as it turned out, because the carburettor going on strike would have been far more inconvenient and expensive had it occurred on the road. But there were two more reasons why it all turned out for the best.
The first was that our Tatra T97, also the only example on British roads, was pressed into service as a substitute, an opportunity that would otherwise not have arisen. It completed the 2000km, 10-day trip without preparation.
The second was that Honda-san’s exhaust – we’ve named the Coupé after the great man – was already making obtrusive noises when we acquired the car, and had got a lot worse. It would have made a big trip irritating.
Fingers crossed, but both issues seem to have been resolved. Our first saviour, predictably, was Tim Bishop. Tim’s unlucky enough to live only half an hour from us, and well used to being regularly asked for help at short notice. Even he’d had to call time on our original holiday plan, but once home we were straight back to him for some triage.
Low carbs
This car saw little or no use from about 2004 until we got it, and its carb was lined with the sand-coloured dust that modern petrol turns into when left unused. After blowing out with an air line, the idle jet repeatedly got blocked up, and two tiny shims were missing altogether.
Kirsten hasn’t managed to track down a full rebuild kit, but has had some luck with gaskets and seals from Japan. Tim’s also got hold of a variety of tiny O-rings that, among other things, have replaced those unobtainable missing shims – at least for the moment.
His instruction now is for us to get some miles
‘Time to get some miles on the carb to ensure it works’
on it, before attempting further rebuilding, with every possibility that there will be setbacks before we can fully trust that carb. I previously thought we were lucky that our car is a Coupé 7 with just a single Keihin, rather than the complication of a Coupé 9’s four – but I guess if one of four goes on strike, you’d likely still have three cylinders running properly.
Anyway, despite further carburettor work to look forward to, the next box to tick – literally – was the exhaust and, not having had particularly positive experiences in the past, a bit of Googling was the order of the day. Ryan Edwards’ website looked promising, and he’s based at Bicester Heritage, just one M40 junction south of us. I also found it reassuring that his diary was pretty full, and that an appointment had to be fixed for a few weeks later. Over-running work on seriously valuable cars also led to two postponements, too, but no problem – I was confident he was the right man for the job. The Honda’s system is astonishingly complex, considering it serves just a four-cylinder engine and has only one silencer box. There are all sorts of bespoke sections of different diameters, and the main line running beneath the right-hand sill makes jacking the car up a risky business.
You can’t just cobble a selection of bits from stock to replicate any of it. At some point, our box turns out to have been wrapped in stainless without the baffles inside being repaired, probably because it’s as complicated as the rest of the system. But Ryan was able to cut it open to investigate the layout, then fabricate, paint and fit a new box, suspended exactly as the original – and all within a single day. The drive home was a delight, and we won’t be going anywhere else for exhaust work, that’s for sure. So, the only major outstanding issue now is re-engineering the strut tops mentioned last time – Tim’s already on that case... practical.classics@bauermedia.co.uk