RM1Sepex Build Thread

[Frank818]

Dan I'm so ****ing sorry about all your ordeals. First, the worst body any guy got, then the worst trans. I'm crossing fingers you'll get that fixed real soon, you don't deserve all that ****.

[RM1SepEx]

Frank, my motor blew too

[RM1SepEx]

Bob, yes the in gear notches are very positive, however when you are in any gear the little pegs between the rods lock out being able to get it into two gears at a time. I have a photo embedded in an email. I sent it to you.

The detents lock it in each gear, the shafts also have detents so when on shaft moves, the other two can't. Right now in my trans you can engage first with 5th or reverse.

[Erik W. Treves]

dan... if your tranny has this piece in it.. it has to get indexed into slot in the back cover.. that happened to mine 2 twice until I figured it out

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Dan
Can you circle the part you are talking abut in this picture?

[RM1SepEx]

nope, the plunger interlocks pins slide so that the shafts can't move at the same time. I've just learned about them... on the blow up I emailed PN 32824A you can see the slots in the side of the shafts for the detent balls, these shuttle between the shafts. As soon as it moves from the neutral position is slides to the indent on the other shaft so it can't move. I've never seen them, just the blow up and the discussion with Zach Fothergill who resolved my problem after just 5 minutes or so of debug. It's taken months with the local Subaru dealer.

[RM1SepEx]

dan... if your tranny has this piece in it.. it has to get indexed into slot in the back cover.. that happened to mine 2 twice until I figured it out

yes, once my trans had a problem with that too, the tech had bent one of those steel fingers and it caught in the slot of the shift fork vs just stopping it's movement back. We tried messing with that 2x, thinking it was my problem.

Bob, see the 3 slots that the gold tone shifter arm slides into. Each of those slides forwards or backwards for a gear. Each position has a detent slot cut into the end of the shaft. When any shaft is moved from neutral to another gear the shuttle pin slides and locks the other two in place. Try it with a screwdriver when the case is open. In mine it was possible for 5th and reverse to be out of neutral and still shift to first or second with a screwdriver. The shafts are missing the interlock pin

[RM1SepEx]

Hopefully my last transaxle update! Pulled trans again and split the cases. These shifter fork shafts have 3 detent, one for each gear and one for neutral. These slots are engaged with the spring loaded balls and are located on the side of the transaxle. 90 degrees from these are the shuttle pin detent slots. They are located at the same position as the neutral detent. The rev - 5th shaft and 1st - 2nd shaft have one slots, the 3rd - 4th shaft has them on both sides. This center 3rd - 4th shaft has a small hole drilled through it. The photo also shows the holes for the shuttle pins in the case. these go in big pin # 32824*A, 32824*B, 32824*A. This puts the B pin in the hole drilled through the 3rd - 4th shaft. Bob, the photos show the notches where the shuttle pins seat in the shift fork shafts.

When my case was split the second time, a shifter fork rod was pulled out too far and the B pin fell out. That's why my trans allowed 1st and rev - 5th to be engaged at the same time. so I solved my bent rev lockout issue and picked up a somewhat related issue complicating debug. There is also another of the A pins in the black, cast iron reverse shuttle assembly.

trans.png P1130171.JPG P1130172.JPG P1130175.JPG P1130176.JPG P1130177.JPG

Another big thanks to Zach F, he was extremely helpful!

Transaxle is back in the car, I should have her back under her own power today.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Great news Dan, Enjoy the ride.

[flynntuna]

Dan, if you could take a few minutes while putting the transmission back in, to measure the length of the bolts mounting the transmission to the engine I'd be very grateful.

[RM1SepEx]

Too late, done! Now back to cleaning up body stuff etc

[Frank818]

Dan, this has to be the last time you pull it apart. No matter what, I hope you made sure it was the last time of your life you pulled it apart. I don't want to see you doing it a 7th or 8th time.

Now go drive that baby with your baby and come back with the car running!

[RM1SepEx]

engine out twice, timing belt water & pump while in the car too. The trans has been out and the cases split 3 times, the rear of the case in the car 5 times. Yes I hope that I'm done. I can see how Wayne is so fast though. Each time I come up with a faster way to do it and he has built a bunch of kits. I'm going to focus on the gel coat next and I think I can improve my door alignment a bit. My door to access the oil fill and dipstick can't be simply held down with velcro stuck on. It gets too hot in the sun and the pressure in the engine compartment pushes it forward. I think that I need mesh with larger holes. It's the only place that I used the FFR mesh too! ;-) My speaker location takes up too much of the dead pedal. Even at 5'8" the legroom is cramped, no fuel tank behind the seat would be best.

The stock fuel tank is crap between the gooped seal for the senders and the poor low fuel delivery but pulling it out will destroy my vinyl interior. I should have put it in the front from the beginning like Bob did. My plan to build as provided rapidly led me down multiple do over rat holes.

She is pretty addictive to drive tho...

[Frank818]

Fuel delivery issues related to tank? Isn't that related to pump, fittings and hoses more than the tank itself?

[RM1SepEx]

wide flat tank w/o any real baffling, high G forces, no fuel, That's why Craig did his setup and why Bob runs a smaller rectangular tank in the front

[Bob_n_Cincy]

wide flat tank w/o any real baffling, high G forces, no fuel, That's why Craig did his setup and why Bob runs a smaller rectangular tank in the front

Filled with foam. P1050085s.jpg

[Frank818]

The foam is a great idea but it seems to use a lot of space?
Plastic golf balls with holes (Rasmus' idea) is the same thing when you put a lot, does it any (foam, balls...) reduce that much gallons? And you just throw the foam in without placing it in any way?

[RM1SepEx]

Frank that foam is all air, I have an aftermarket cell in another project filled with it.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

The foam is a great idea but it seems to use a lot of space?
Plastic golf balls with holes (Rasmus' idea) is the same thing when you put a lot, does it any (foam, balls...) reduce that much gallons? And you just throw the foam in without placing it in any way?

Frank, The foam comes in bricks. I neatly stack it in leaving a hole for my pump to slide into.
my tank holds about 80 lbs of gas. the foam is only 2 or 3 lbs. So the lost volume is pretty low.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedw...dAHhoChszw_wcB

[RM1SepEx]

BTW, checked my suspension alignment, the rear transverse links were less than 1 degree from flat and when I adjusted it to zero angle it made a huge difference in the handling of the car! I thought less than one degree would be fine ( the alignment shop used a bubble level)

[Frank818]

Dan, what did you use to be more precise than 1-deg?

Are you talking about the 2 lower lateral links? And you mean flat as 100% parallel to the ground and to each other?


Bob, the foam is out of stock but I get the idea in part. I'll test drive mine in high lateral g-forces and if I starve then I'll come back to that idea, keeping both your names in mind.

[RM1SepEx]

electronic level, yes rear lower lateral links, yes parallel to the ground

starving a turbo build is not a good idea...the term BOOM comes to mind

[Hindsight]

I did the same, using a digital level, though I don't know that I could get them parallel to the ground.... I was able to get them parallel to eachother though. I have a pic in my build thread of it, but basically just set a piece of angle aluminum across the links at the inboard end and checked the level with a digital gauge, then moved the aluminum angle to the outboard end and checked the level with the digital gauge there. They weren't level, but I adjusted them until the angle at the inboard end and outboard end was the same.

[Frank818]

Parallel links look twitchy, hey.

No Dan no boom. Turbo won't be running, I'll just do a couple of tests in 50-60mph tight corners for a few seconds, low pressure in engine at low RPMs.

[RM1SepEx]

Make the arms level by placing a digital level across the rear arms as far out towards the wheel as you can. You have arms that change effective length as they go up and down. You want them to be level so that they are in the same place in the arc. If they aren't then as you add and decrease power the wheels self steer the car from the rear. The inner points may be a slight bit off as the pivot in the rear ia an eccentric to allow toe adjustment. With adjustable rear arms you can get them perfect by adjusting the eccentric bolt position to match the height of the other. The parallel of the arms along their length is effected by ride height and out of your control.

[Frank818]

Can we say that if the car doesn't seem to want to steer from the back the arms are adjusted correctly?

[RM1SepEx]

It would be a fair assumption

[RM1SepEx]

So we started playing with vinyl today... what does everyone think? The curvature required us to start in the center and arc the vinyl across the rockers

P1130291.JPG P1130292.JPG

[Frank818]

Sorry, you played with vinylester for Kurk's scoops or vinyl decals? I think the decals cuz I don't remember seeing them before. They cut the car's look pretty well, I think they're better than not having them.

I don't know how you fitted the engine cover without cutting through the sides of the humps to clear the rollback. Lucky you, in the end, after a 2nd set of panels. You deserve it!

[RM1SepEx]

Frank, roll bar clearance on the engine cover is very tricky, balance how far back you can slide the side panels while getting alignment for every other panel and the wheel openings. Mine are actually ground behind the gel coat for maximum clearance and I've glued on a thin rubber sheet on the roll bar to prevent rubbing. I found the limiting factor was the door latch brackets but you could enlarge the slots a bit.

I was asking about the orange vinyl graphics, as we looked at more orange it overpowers the car quickly.... I still can't find my orange powder coated grill for the front, I need some sort of rock grills for Kurk's scoops. I'd like to go CF for the scoops and an additional targa bar over the roll bar. I'll order a couple of the FFR badges for the front and back. I need to do some sort of rock guards for the leading edge of the rear wheel wells, I'm at 2000 street miles and the chipping and abuse in the gel coat is brutal. I'll add some sort of mudguard at the trailing edge of the front wheel well too.

PS just finishd my first 200 mile stint without a gel coat void popping off too!

[Frank818]

I have some limitation factors that prevents me from pushing the cover back, but that's ok I'll live with the trimming.

Do you have pictures of your gel coat chips?
Are Kurk's scoops eating rocks?

[RM1SepEx]

No rocks so far but the front edge of the rear wheel arches get beat up real bad, I just ordered some 5D CF vinyl (looks like clear coated gloss CF) to cover the area and absorb the rock damage. I'll terminate the orange stripes and replace with the vinyl that looks like CF

Gel coat damage is hard to photograph on the white gel coat but it's pretty bad after 2000 miles. The popped areas are wherever you have a sharp edge. Leading edge of the engine cover, edges of the front fenders around the wheels, edges of the top of the body sides along the engine cover, mostly the very front edge where the doors and engine cover come together.

[Hindsight]

Looks great Dan! Good to see it this far along. I too have issues with the front of the rear quarter panel, near the vent. Am thinking about cutting a small piece of carbon fiber vinyl wrap to stick on there, like the Porsche guys do. Everyone loves carbon fiber, even the vinyl kind lol. I already have a canned answer for when people ask me if my center console is rear carbon fiber: "It's real carbon fiber vinyl wrap!"

[Frank818]

I'd be curious to see what others with many miles say, if they had the same issues at the same places. That's sad though, after so much effort and 2k miles later it looks like a 20yo car driven off road.

[svanlare]

I think the decals look great!

[RM1SepEx]

Frank here you go, before and after gel coat repair shots:

[Frank818]

Holly crap!!!!!!! That's super bad!

I don't understand on the top front of the side sails where the doors shut. Thought there wasn't airflow up front there and it's covered by the door so how can rocks hit there to the point of chipping off the entire gel coat.

I don't think a wrap will sustain that beating. With plastidip the good thing is that it's easier to repair.


Hey, how's our trans doing?

[RM1SepEx]

not about air flow as you drive they body jiggles and wiggles, void edges crack and pop. Every time that you take a cover off you stress areas, they crack and pop. The rear edges of the wheel wells, I'd guess that rocks may have something to do with those. The top edge of the left sail panel was incomplete, the front upper edge ended in a knife ended shaped point, looked nothing like the other sale's termination.

Note: both of my doors have settled and need to be lifted at the rear about 1/16 inch. The left side also needs to be rotated a bit as the bottom alignment is off 3/32 or so out at the rear bottom edge of the door. Aligning everything and keeping it there with slotted holes isn't perfect. Once I have it where I wasnt it to stay I'll add some 1/8 roll pins.

Bottom line: each of those tight radius areas are difficult to mold properly. some panels have no fill at all in these areas when shipped others have gel coat and air pockets before the fiberglass. These small, tight areas have to have fiberglass filled tightly into them to get a strong, long lasting surface. I used a bright light and found quite a few that I was able to fix before finishing the car, others have just shown up. I've found that the gel coat doesn't match perfectly so a tiny transition is sometimes visible if you inspect the area. I've finalized sanding and buffing those areas. The photos were taken before final sanding and polishing and they are never perfect.

The rock chip area is the front edge of the rear wheel opening. Rocks hit it from the front wheels. I'm addiing some 5D CF vinyl over the damage and to act as a sacrificial surface, a gravel guard. You can't see these well as the coloration is very subtle and it doesn't photo well. I also ordered some thin CF stock to make some simple mud and rock guards

The hood has a few chips and gouges already as well. It's so low and cars in front of you kick up crap... My wife's Miata takes a beating too and the 818 nose is lower still.

[flynntuna]

You've got an early kit don't you? Those voids in the glass look bad. I have a red gelcoat body, I'll have to make sure I thoroughly check for voids when I get to that point.

[RM1SepEx]

You've got an early kit don't you? Those voids in the glass look bad. I have a red gelcoat body, I'll have to make sure I thoroughly check for voids when I get to that point.

See my sig, serial # 17, These are my second set of many of the panels... I've seen a red body in the 240's that was worse than mine, it's a crapshoot

Worked on my rear trunk today. Made cardboard pieces for a full width, flat floor trunk. I have about 1 1/2 inches to the cat and muffler so I made up an aluminum heat shield to go between the exhaust and the trunk floor. Gold foil reflective tape will also be used under this layer.

P1130300.JPG P1130297.JPG