First, gotta send kudos to Honda. My wife bought our 1988 Accord in 1991, and, with 260K I can still knock down 30+ MPG! Yeah, it leaks oil and makes me wish my hands and arms bent in a few more places to get at some of the tight stuff, but that compact packaging leaves an amazing amount of room in the LXi hatchback. With the rear seats down and the passenger front seat folded forward, I was able to stretch out my 6'2 frame diagonally in the back when I needed a rest from my January, 120 mile round trip commute from Tacoma to Everett! Also, just after my job got relocated to Renton, she picked then to grenade the throw out bearing so I wasn't stranded up north!

(I think it's the throw out bearing or something inside the bell housing, as the cable is at max adjustment and the clutch keep releasing closer and closer to the floor. I wrapped a thick zip tie around the cable where it connects with the arm. This put the pedal back to where it had been 3 months ago. Everything was fine until I pushed in the pedal at a stop light and it went all the way to the floor, with no more clutch whatsoever. So, it was shut the engine off at stoplights, and hoping she'd start in 1st when the light greened and limp into work. Made it! Luckily, the same trick worked going home. Glad I'm swing, cuz very little traffic!
Would anyone that care to tell me their opinions as to what went haywire? Hate to tear the tranny out to do a clutch and find out that isn't the problem! BTW, to my knowledge, it's the original clutch! Clutch wasn't slipping at all, the cable seems intact, and it was still connected to the bell crank properly )

I am wondering about pulling the engine versus just the tranny. I have to do a timing belt, fix a leak the seems to be coming from the distributor base where it goes into the head, fix a stripped oil pan drain plug, and put new seals in the tranny where the drive shafts go in. Thought it might be easier to do all this with the engine/tranny out of the car. Your thoughts if you please. Thanks!

 

Yea, something about the 3rd gen's I just like and as stated the MPG's the lillte things get....wow.

Hard to call on the clutch. Is the cable still moving the arm? Your description of the zip tie makes me wonder if the cable is having issues or if after 260K the clutch is just gone?

I did the clutch on one of my 3rd gens (87 LX) many moons ago. I just dropped the trans.

I've done serveral timing belts on these as well, not that bad with the engine in the car.

Going to be your call on how to go about it - pull everything or just drop the trans

 

Wait a minute...
You say the clutch releases closer & closer to the floor. That's opposite from what I assumed in your other post.

A worn-out clutch would release higher & higher until it begins slipping even when you don't press the pedal at all.

Try adjusting the clutch cable shorter.

 

Pushed up on the bell crank with cable disconnected and I could hear something come apart inside the bell housing. Half way there on dis-assembly. I'll post what I find. Thanks for the reply

 

At the risk of 'eating crow' I must say this as I now have the tranny out of the car: Forget what I said about kudos to Honda engineers. While not a journeyman mechanic, I have been underhood of many a vehicle. Without question, my Accord is THE WORST car I've ever worked on! Seems the engineers gave no thought to the fact that someone would have to work on it once the car left the factory. All kinds of hidden bolts and nuts in inaccessible places! To get one of the last, hidden (almost) bolts out, I had 3 feet of extensions on my ratchet! The bolt was on the passenger side, and I was in the wheelwell of the drivers side! And oil leaks! My Gawd! I have Plymouth mini van with 300k on the ticker. Still relatively clean in the engine room. OPEC came over the other day. Thought there was an oil well under the hood of my Honda. I am going to be a good boy because I don't want to go to hell! And hell will be working on a Honda like mine for eternity!
OK, I have black feathers on my chin and crow breath. I can now say what I've found so far. There seems to be a problem in the bell housing where the clutch actuation arm (which is what the clutch cable attaches to) works the throw out bearing. It's totally covered in oil/dirt/filth (I'm surprised the clutch worked at all. Some of that oil had to get on the clutch disk), so I have not got to disassembly yet. But, when you actuate the bell crank arm, the throw out bearing barely moves. I'm sure this is the issue, but I'm going to have to steam off the crud to find out exactly what.

 

See below:

 

Here's the problem: The bolt holding the release fork to the shaft broke. Oddly, I did not find the head of the bolt in the bell housing.

 

It might have "rattled" out. The list it as a "special" bolt.....Honda PN# 90029-611-010. Saw a few places where you could get it for under $5 but didn't check on shipping

And IMHO, you are there. I'd replace the clutch and flywheel and even the rear main seal - last time you ever want to see it or worry about it. Put it all back together and enjoy the ride

 

Wait, I was assuming you could get the "rest of it out"....if not you might be better off getting a "used" arm from the bone yard.

I'm still with a new clutch, fly wheel and rear main...yea if you have the time and it is ok the flywheel can be turned for ~$25 but the last time I did this I could get a new one for ~$45 and not have to wait for the shop to turn it......and with the flywheel off, you are looking right at the rear main seal, it's been there for ~25 years and X amount of miles...why not replace it. I hate not to and get another 5k down the raod and have a rear main seal leak and have to get right back to where you are now.

 

It definitely broke, but I was able to get the broken part out. I did suspect all the oil in the bell housing was coming from a bad rear main seal. Do I have to loosen the rear main cap to replace it? Thanks for the help.