Mechanical Problems & Technical Chat - 93 Civic! Need help

I have a 93 Honda Civic hatchback. Auto, with 145,00km. I just purchased the car, but there are a few problems with it. I am a pretty expirenced mechanic, and i would like to do all the work myself, so i joined this forum to see if anyone had any input or expirenced the same problems I have.

When the car is in park, or neutral,it likes to jump from low to high RPM repeatedly. This does not happen when the car is in gear. (Drive or reverse).It sounds like there is a vacuum hose off, or something of that nature. Possibly an air leak somewhere?

The speedometer doesnt work most of the time, but kicks in sometimes.

The car is hard to shift from park to Drive. And vise versa. (Gearstick is stiff)

Other than those problems, I have a solid little car. Any advice, or knowledge about these problems would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks Alot!

well speedometer.....id check the wiring behind the cluster 1 and then jump under the hood and check that the speed sensor plug on the wire harness is plugged in make sure oyu hear a clip i had that problem in my hatch would not work but after i fixed the plug it worked.....had to splice in another one. To your rev problem i would thing it would be a air leak sounds like it....and the gear problem im not the one to ask i only had one honda auto a 87 prelude and it was perfect but yea id suggest lubing up the connections first and after that see if there is any change and go from there just knock one item off the list at a time.

For the rev problem, I would first check all the vacuum lines and make sure none or cracked. Get some carb cleaner and spray the vacuum lines, intake manifold, and throttle body from the outside. If the revs jump then you know there is a vacuum leak somewhere. If you do not find the problem or fixing vacuum leaks does not resolve the problem, run some seafoam through the engine. You might want to do this anyway. Seafoam is really great stuff, I had an idle problem on my civic and used some seafoam and never had any more problems. You can also try cleaning out the IACV. For the shift problem, check the shift cable. I had this problem on my 94 Civic. I took the gear shift assembly apart and disconnected the cable. The shifter moved very smoothly. I also checked the cable while it was bieng moved and I believe it was getting stuck(this was a while ago). Disconnecting the cable and getting at all the stuff isn't that hard.