Sponaugle's H6 EZ30R 818S

[sponaugle]

Time to start the wire diet.

Since the 06 STI I bought had a pretty hacked up main wire harness I purchased a second complete wire harness from another wrecked 06 STI. As a result I have two of most of the major harnesses.

Here is how the shop floor looked starting out:



Here is a picture of the two main bulkhead harnesses. (Both are the same harness, once from my car and one from another car). This is the primary bulkhead harness that is really the backbone of the wiring.


In case you are curious as to what it plugs into, here is a small annotated picture:



Of the two main harnesses, one of them has a pretty hacked up ECU side, so I will be using the other main harness which has a very clean ECU connector.

You can see the hacked up one here:


Unfortunately this harness does have one problem, the ABS connector was cut off during removal:



The other harness doesn't have the problem so I can transfer over that connector. Since the ABS will probably be in the front, I would likely have to extend the wires anyways.

I also have two of the 'rear bulkhead' harnesses:



However I have only one dash harness:



I'll document the process for each harness, showing which connectors and wires I have removed how it is repackaged for installation.

Jeff

[Mechie3]

Here's my writeup for an 06 WRX harness. The STI harness will be similar in many respects. You can probably piggy back off of that and save yourself some work.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...h-Auto-AC-HVAC

[sponaugle]

Here's my writeup for an 06 WRX harness. The STI harness will be similar in many respects. You can probably piggy back off of that and save yourself some work.

http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...h-Auto-AC-HVAC

Yea, I have read that thread many times, and lots of good info there. I'll document what is unique to the STI where possible in case people end up using an STI harness. Great Stuff!!

Jeff

[sponaugle]

For those Subaru nerds out there:

I was flying into the Purdue University Airport and spotted the Subaru of American facility out of the window.



It is the home of all of the Legacys and Forresters. Pretty big place. Just think of all the Subaru goodness in those walls!

Jeff

[Frank818]

Personal plane, that was?

[sponaugle]

Personal plane, that was?

Private plane thru XOJet yeah. I think American used to have commercial service at Purdue, but that ended a few years back. It was (is actually since I'm still in the midwest right now) a family trip to visit my parents and my wife's family It is a Citation X, which is sort of the GT-R of private jets. Actually it was the fastest I think I have ever been at 706mph. On the way back to PDX I'm going to see if we can push it a bit more get the the planes top speed of Mach 0.92. Even cooler it can cruise at 51,000 feet which is sweet.



Jeff

[Frank818]

51k feet, wow that's pretty high, I didn't know those little Cessna's could go that high. For 23 million a piece, you gotta have something good, right? lolll

You're not planing on flying with your 818, I hope? Install the aero parts on the correct side to keep it on the ground.

[Mechie3]

You're not far from my house right now.

[sponaugle]

51k feet, wow that's pretty high, I didn't know those little Cessna's could go that high. For 23 million a piece, you gotta have something good, right? lolll
You're not planing on flying with your 818, I hope? Install the aero parts on the correct side to keep it on the ground.

Haha.. yea I'll try to keep the 818 on the ground where possible... although I must admit it would be cool to do wheelies in it.

You're not far from my house right now.

Sweet.. Yea I see you are in Indianapolis. I grew up in Kokomo and got my BSEE at Purdue, so I know the area well. My parents live in Attica, and my sister is an Attorney in West Lafayette. Lots of long straight roads here!

Jeff

[sponaugle]

Ok.. Back on track.. Before I left I did make some more progress on the wire harness diet.

I marked every connector with either blue or red electrical tape, red to remove, blue to keep. I then removed all the sheathing and tape, and started unwinding the wires not in use. I started with the rear and front harness.

The rear harness before and after:


With the extra connectors removed I labeled all the remaining connectors:


The front and rear harnesses didn't lose that much stuff as they have more critical things on them. The primary bulkhead harness has most of the removed stuff like HVAC, Doors, lights, etc. I have left in the harness what is needed for ABS, plus for steering controls like lights, turn signals, horn, etc to still work.

I started on the primary bulkhead harness, but will have to complete once I am back from vacation. There are a lot of wires in that harness.

I have to admit I was tempted to just cut off the connectors I need and make my own harness.. it would be so much cleaner. It is clear that there are a good number of connectors that will need to be either cut shorter or extended.

I assume that most people are doing the wire diet method instead of the building a new harness using the connectors?

I'll keep the excel sheet posted above up to date as I get things cut down. There might be a few changes.

[Mechie3]

I did the diet. Mainly because I wanted to keep as many systems as possible (mostly security) and I'm not talented enough in the EE dept to make my own wiring harness and have it work the first time. Looking back, if I had the skills, I'd much rather make my own. Would be cleaner and take less time.

[Kurk818]

Have you tackled the removal of the DCCD wiring?

[sponaugle]

Have you tackled the removal of the DCCD wiring?

I removed the dccd from the harness, and I have the connectors and the controller. If it turns out that I need it installed, I'll wire it directly. I did verify that the private CAN bus is just for the ABS , DCCD, and the steering angle sensor.

I will power up the DCCD on the bench and see what traffic it generates.

Jeff

[sponaugle]

I am now about 90% done with the wire diet of the factory harnesses. The main bulkhead harness is the largest and the biggest pain.

Here is what it looks like now:



This harness still has a number of relays as well as the interior fuse panel connections. To make things easier while I am installing things, I labeled all of the connectors and relays:





For anyone else about to start the wire diet, here is the procedure I used:

I started by mapping out all of the connectors on all of the harnesses, and figuring out which things I wanted to delete. See the spreadsheet a few posts up for the details of how that looks.

Once I knew what I wanted to keep and remove, I went around the harness and put blue tape on everything I wanted to keep and red tape on the things I wanted to delete. I then cut off the red marked connectors and used a label maker to put labels on all of the remaining blue marked ones. I removed all of the black tape and wire protectors, which left a harness with a ton of extra cut wires laying around. Starting at one end and threaded each cut wire throughout the harness until it either came out because it was already cut on both ends, or terminated into a connector.

Once all of the dead wires were removed, I took note of what color wires were on each connector that were free floating. These were from circuits I removed, but were still going through some of the bulkhead connectors. (for example if you remove security there are a number of wires that go to the dash that will now be disconnected. I then went through the wire diagrams and made sure the cut wire colors on those connectors went with circuits I removed. This is really just a step to double check that what I wanted to remove got removed without taking anything else with it.

I did discover one error I made where I removed a diode used in the headlight circuit.

There are a number of buried 'joint connectors' where wires are joined together. When you are unwrapping and cutting, be sure to tape or seal up these joints. You don't want to leave exposed wire ends from the wires you cut out. In some cases I used heat shrink, and in some cases just black tape.

Now that the harness is smaller, I need the 818 chassis to start working on layout. The factory harness is not a perfect match because on the primary bulkhead harness one end is near the steering column, but that same end needs to connect to the 'front engine bulkhead harness' which on the 818 will be partially in the rear. I will probably have to extend some of those wires to reach back to the engine area. The other end of the primary bulkehad harness goes to a rear harness ( fuel tank, etc) so that is well located.

I can see how it would be better to just build a new harness from scratch. Since I am going to run a 4 cylinder engine to get registered and then switch to the H6, I may just do a new custom build harness for the H6 since it needs a number of extra connections anyways.

Also, my straight cut synchro PPG transmission should be done this week from Andrewtech. Woot!

Jeff

[R.Spec]

Cool to have another 818 so close! I just ordered mine last week and can't wait to get it! We will have to connect sometime. I work at Horizontal Motorsports in Tualatin/Sherwood. We are gonna build it at the shop there.

[Frank818]

Are these from the steering column? The brackets look like they are. Too bad I am at work and can't check on my column now.

[Mechie3]

No. They come from under the glove box and console.

[sponaugle]

Cool to have another 818 so close! I just ordered mine last week and can't wait to get it! We will have to connect sometime. I work at Horizontal Motorsports in Tualatin/Sherwood. We are gonna build it at the shop there.

Absolutely. I'm just about to start organizing an 818 NW get together for sometime in July, so stay tuned. What delivery date did you get, since you just ordered.. curious what the lead time is now.

Are these from the steering column? The brackets look like they are. Too bad I am at work and can't check on my column now.

As Mechie said, passenger footwell area:

In Red circles:



There are two relays attached to the side of the inside fuse panel, but those get removed since they are for DCCD and something else I removed. There is also a starter block relay which I still have in the circuit, but could be removed since I removed the factory security.. however I plan to use that for my own security switch.

Jeff

[R.Spec]

Absolutely. I'm just about to start organizing an 818 NW get together for sometime in July, so stay tuned. What delivery date did you get, since you just ordered.. curious what the lead time is now.


Jeff

They told me november the day before I ordered. I havent got a call yet. I will be giving them a call tomorrow probably. I just talked to Matt Kincaid one of my coworkers and he said he remembers you from way back in the early subaru days of pdx tuning etc.

[sponaugle]

Woot! Time to start building.. my car has arrived!



The car being delivered at Perrin Performance.



The chassis sitting in my trailer ready to be unloaded at my house.

Now the real fun begins!

Jeff

[Kurk818]

Congrats!. The fun starts now

[Mechie3]

Very nice! Looking forward to seeing this build.

[Aero STI]

Very cool, Jeff. The initial assembly is a lot of fun. I even found the wire diet enjoyable. Things slowed down when I got to mounting the body panels. That's something I would love to have outsourced.

[sponaugle]

I started doing inventory today of everything. My car was complete on 5/10 but didn't get picked up by Stewart until 6/1 because I was traveling.... it seems that extra bit of time waiting there made a difference in terms of backorder stuff. Take a look at the Backorder BOM:



When my car was originally packed up there was a pretty large list of backorder stuff, but by the time it got picked up there were only 4 items on the list left: a 3/8s rod, the transmission cover, the headlights, and the radiator hose set. I can get quite a bit done without those items! I guess FF is catching up on backorder stuff now.

I got the chassis out of my trailer and into the shop:

[waruaki]

Congratulations

[Frank818]

Yeah they are catching up pretty good on BO stuff, mine was last end of April and nothing on the BO list was useful for me (did upgrades or not using cuz I am using another engine).

That blue subbie could have been the donor.

[sponaugle]

That blue subbie could have been the donor.

Haha.. yea... it is sitting there thinking... that could be me!

So I finished up the inventory, only one mistake on FFRs part ( a small part ), so all is good. I didn't realize how many aluminum panels there were. I am fortunate that my wife has let me convert our guest house into a man cave/ham shack/reloading station/electronics prototyping lab and now body panel storage!





I do have a question for people who have done powder coating; Did you powder coat every aluminum panel, or just the ones in the cockpit area? Given you have to fit each panel and drill for the rivets, you would have to do all of the fitting first then remove every panel to send off to coating. That seems like a lot of work, but it would be nice to have everything coated.

I suppose I could powder coat all of the internal panels and just paint the other ones.

Jeff

[AZPete]

Jeff, I powder coated only the alum panels that will be seen and not the ones to be covered. Coated were the wheel well panels, front compartment sides & floor, panel under the seats, rear wheel well panels, and others that will be seen. Not coated were the rear firewall, cockpit sides, dead pedal pieces, center console, door frames and any other interior pieces that I will later cover with leather or vinyl.

[Jaime]

I second the leather or vinyl on the interior. I plan on using body filler under the vinyl so the rivets don't show.

[CptTripps]

I second the leather or vinyl on the interior. I plan on using body filler under the vinyl so the rivets don't show.

That's going to be a LOT of filler, and I'm not sure it'll work out how you want. Maybe a better idea would be to use a closed-cell foam like a yoga mat. You could use a regular paper hole punch where the rivets are so the vinyl will smooth over them.

Just a thought...

[Scargo]

There are flush-headed rivets.

[Jaime]

That's going to be a LOT of filler, and I'm not sure it'll work out how you want. Maybe a better idea would be to use a closed-cell foam like a yoga mat. You could use a regular paper hole punch where the rivets are so the vinyl will smooth over them.

Just a thought...

I was going to do something like that. Probably one layer of vinyl with holes and body fill the holes, then a second layer. I don't think any rivets are flush enough not to show through.

[Triathletedave]

Haha.. yea... it is sitting there thinking... that could be me!

So I finished up the inventory, only one mistake on FFRs part ( a small part ), so all is good. I didn't realize how many aluminum panels there were. I am fortunate that my wife has let me convert our guest house into a man cave/ham shack/reloading station/electronics prototyping lab and now body panel storage!





I do have a question for people who have done powder coating; Did you powder coat every aluminum panel, or just the ones in the cockpit area? Given you have to fit each panel and drill for the rivets, you would have to do all of the fitting first then remove every panel to send off to coating. That seems like a lot of work, but it would be nice to have everything coated.

I suppose I could powder coat all of the internal panels and just paint the other ones.

Jeff

When I received my kit, the first thing I did was to take all of the aluminum parts and panels plus any uncoated steel parts in for powder coating. A wee bit excessive, but I got a good price for the whole kit, and I never have to worry about powder coating anything last-minute as I install parts. It was just a lot easier this way.

[Evan78]

I do have a question for people who have done powder coating; Did you powder coat every aluminum panel, or just the ones in the cockpit area? Given you have to fit each panel and drill for the rivets, you would have to do all of the fitting first then remove every panel to send off to coating. That seems like a lot of work, but it would be nice to have everything coated.

I suppose I could powder coat all of the internal panels and just paint the other ones.

Jeff

My frame ran $425 to powder coat, plus another $80 for the front radiator support and rear chassis brace. At the same time, I asked for a price for all of the aluminum and was quoted $1100. I didn't know what would show and what wouldn't so I didn't bother with any of it. Also, if you have the coated before drilling the rivet holes, the powder coater may want to drill some holes for hanging the panels.

[sponaugle]

When I received my kit, the first thing I did was to take all of the aluminum parts and panels plus any uncoated steel parts in for powder coating. A wee bit excessive, but I got a good price for the whole kit, and I never have to worry about powder coating anything last-minute as I install parts. It was just a lot easier this way.

Interesting... did you have any cracking when you then drilled for the rivets?

My frame ran $425 to powder coat, plus another $80 for the front radiator support and rear chassis brace. At the same time, I asked for a price for all of the aluminum and was quoted $1100. I didn't know what would show and what wouldn't so I didn't bother with any of it. Also, if you have the coated before drilling the rivet holes, the powder coater may want to drill some holes for hanging the panels.

Thanks. that gives me a good ball park. I need to figure out what things I will put carpet on etc. I could also just paint the aluminum panels, but of course that is easy to scratch so not as good as a real powder coat.

Jeff

[AZPete]

There are flush-headed rivets.

To make a rivet head flush: drill a 1/4" hole in a piece of wood, drill a 1/8" or 3/16" hole in the aluminum panel and then place the panel on the wood so both holes line up. Place a phillips-head flat-head wood screw in the hole and place the tip of a phillips-head screwdriver on the screw. Tap the screwdriver gently to make a small recess in the panel. When you rivet the panel in place the rivet head will be flush. This is especially good for panels you cover without any padding.

[sponaugle]

I took a look at the Front Suspension brackets that attach to the spindles. They are designed to work with the 5x100 spindles not the 5x114.5 ones. The 5x114.5 brackets I am using are a bit thicker and the bolt holes are a bit farther apart.

Here is a picture of the bracket and the spindle from the side:



And the top



You can see the newer brackets have a second smaller bracket inside, and that bracket seems to be held in place with two thru-hole spot welds. It looks like if I drill out those welds the inside brackets will come off. I would then have to enlarge the upper hole, and potentially cut a washer shim to fill part of the now larger hole.

Anyone else done this mod yet?

Jeff

[Triathletedave]

[QUOTE=sponaugle;158247]Interesting... did you have any cracking when you then drilled for the rivets?

Not so far. The fellow who did my powder coating is pretty fussy, and did a good job. No regrets on my side. Total cost was $800 CAD

[Wayne Presley]

I took a look at the Front Suspension brackets that attach to the spindles. They are designed to work with the 5x100 spindles not the 5x114.5 ones. The 5x114.5 brackets I am using are a bit thicker and the bolt holes are a bit farther apart.

Here is a picture of the bracket and the spindle from the side:



And the top



You can see the newer brackets have a second smaller bracket inside, and that bracket seems to be held in place with two thru-hole spot welds. It looks like if I drill out those welds the inside brackets will come off. I would then have to enlarge the upper hole, and potentially cut a washer shim to fill part of the now larger hole.

Anyone else done this mod yet?

Jeff

There have been a couple that have done it, Pull the inner plates out and put them outside and redrill. The kit is designed around the WRX spindle.

[sponaugle]

There have been a couple that have done it, Pull the inner plates out and put them outside and redrill. The kit is designed around the WRX spindle.

Thanks Wayne! I found the note from Kurk818: http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...k-with-the-818

I'll give it a try. It looks like in his case the inner bracket was welded on the edge in a few spots, not the thru-hole spot welds on mine. I'll drill them out tonight and see how it looks.

Thanks!!

Jeff