The Bolton Build - 818C

[FFRWRX]

I thought I should start a build thread since so many of them have helped me; hopefully I can pay back a bit and maybe help others.

The background:

I bought my kit partially built. It came from western Canada, made a brief stop in Mississauga, and then I bought it and brought it to Bolton (just north of Toronto, Ontario). I have not been in touch with whoever started this build, but they did a very good job. It was built to the point of a running car (2006 Impreza WRX donor) with some of the body panels in place. It included the Factory Five black wheels, most of the carbon fibre pieces, powder coated frame, padded interior pieces, trunk kit, and boxes and boxes of parts.

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When I got it, it wasn't really running. It would start with enough effort, but wouldn't have any power or run above idle. Not sure exactly what the issue(s) were, but I cleaned some of the grounds, corrected the spark plug gap (from .046" to .031") and replaced the O2 sensors. Starts and runs now.

I have a 4-post lift which makes it much easier to work on. I took the roof section off the car and hung it from the ceiling.

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First priority was to put an exhaust system on it. I wanted a catalytic converter to reduce the exhaust smell, and a muffler to keep it fairly quiet. I used 2 1/2" pipe. Since I have the trunk kit I wanted the exhaust to be well below that, which also means it can't cross over the tranny from one side to the other.

Being limited in the room to run any length of piping, I bought a cat, muffler, and some 'U' bends from Summit Racing and put it together. Please excuse my welds; I know they are pretty awful. It is the way I chose to adjust the bends that caused most of that. Instead of taking things apart and re-cutting the angles on the ends of the pipes, I cut a 'V' out of the pipe, closed the gap, and welded it. Good in theory, ugly in practice.

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I've got about 2" clearance with the tire and the CV boot, so I'm going to wrap the pipes. There is a support just after the muffler up onto one of the frame members. The tail pipe piece is clamped so I can adjust it to make sure it is straight and to see how far I want it to protrude.

Next priority was the wiring. The stock harness was all there, with the exception of the airbag stuff. There was so much wire and connectors stuffed into the center console that I just couldn't leave it like that.

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I've made a lot of progress with the wire diet, thanks to the information posted on the forum. I'll start to detail that next.

That's it for now,

Rick
former FFR1063 owner/builder -- the first Factory Five car in Canada

[jforand]

Welcome! I have an R going on the build forum as well. I anxiously await the day it moves on its own!

[FFRWRX]

The Wire Diet

I’m part way done what I think is a pretty serious wire diet. Before I get into the details, let me say a few things about it. The first is that this is a work in progress. So whatever I state here that I’ve done, I could correct later as I learn more. But right now the car starts and runs with the dieting I’ve done so far.

I considered several options with respect to the harness:

1) Leave it as-is with the stock harness. This was not really an option for me as there were so many wires and connectors all stuffed into the center console that I didn’t like it.

2) Do a wire diet. Lots of work. Pretty good information in the forum, but certainly not a complete start-to-finish guide. A lot of learning and research.

3) Buy a completed harness. iWire used to do a complete one and as of this writing are considering doing one again if they get a decent group by. Expensive though. They have a cheaper option where you do a lot of the work yourself, but still cost a bit. Also looked into Wayne’s (VCP) harness and decided against it.

4) Do a harness from scratch using a generic harness kit. Cheaper than buying a ready-made harness, but a lot of work.
I did read about many people that started a wire diet and then gave up and bought a harness. I can understand that now. There are times when the car won’t start and it is very frustrating trying to figure out why. There are so many wires, circuits, connectors, fuses, and relays with the stock harness that you will never completely figure it all out. The factory wiring diagram has 150 pages of just the circuits. The wiring diagram for my old MGB was 1 page (insert Lucas jokes here!). But with the method I used (even though I did run into the no-start a couple times) the issues can be minimized.

So, my advice to those considering a wire diet:

1) If wiring frightens you and you are really not comfortable with it, don’t do it. I’m comfortable with it. I did a wire diet on my first Cobra build. I did a harness from scratch in my 2nd Cobra build. I did an engine and dash swap in a Fiero and did most of the wiring from scratch. And still, this one was intimidating.

2) If you are going to just follow the thread that identifies the connectors and remove the circuits identified there (Mechie3’s thread “Wiring Guide: 06 WRX Sedan with Auto AC/HVAC”), and that is all you are going to do, I’m not sure I would bother. Yes, you will remove about 10 lbs of wiring and connectors which is a lot. But when you look at the completed harness you will think you haven’t removed anything yet. You will still have a huge tangled mess. My opinion of course.

3) The real savings comes after that previous step when you put the harness back in the car and then get serious about removing unneeded circuits and shortening the wiring runs.

4) Make sure you have the factory wiring diagram for your particular car. Read all the threads on wire diets and make notes; know where to find them later for reference.

5) Keep in mind that all the stock harness will fit in the car and work. That is what the 818 was designed to use. So if you want to just leave it all stock there is nothing wrong with that.

6) You can do as much or as little as you like. Once you start the wire diet you will find that some connectors have a wire removed from one end that you cut off. Now you can cut the wire from the mating connector, trace it back to where it comes from, and removed it too. Now you find that where you removed that wire, there was another one connected to that is no longer doing anything and you can remove it too. You will find some bulky connectors that only have a few wires left in them, so if you like you can cut out the connector and solder the wires (or crimp, whatever you are comfortable with). It can lead to a huge chain-reaction of removing things. For me, that was the enjoyable part, as the pile of unused wires and connectors grew.

Very briefly, here is what I did. Removed the whole harness from the car and dumped it on a bench. Removed the connectors and circuits I didn’t need using the guidelines in the Mechie3 thread. Removed a few more circuits that I was pretty sure I didn’t need. Put it back in the car, hooked everything back up, and then started more wiring removal. Ran into a few snags along the way that I will describe so hopefully you’ll avoid them.

Before I started this I couldn’t believe that people spent 40 hours or more on this. How long can it take to strip some wires out of a harness? You have the harness, the information to guide you, what’s wrong with people taking so long? When you start, you will see why it takes so long. There are times I spent several hours just to figure out why the car wouldn’t start after removing something that I had already disconnected and had the car running. Hours pouring over the various wiring diagrams and connector identification references trying to figure things out.

OK, with all that negativity should you even attempt this? If you are comfortable with it, have the time, and want to save thousands over buying a complete harness, then you should definitely do it. It is very rewarding to have 15 lbs of wiring cut out of the harness and the car still runs!

As I write this the harness is in the car, the car is running, and I am removing and shortening more wires.

So, the details………………up next………….

A preview of what I've removed so far:

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Plus this:

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Rick

[AZPete]

Rick, I agree completely with your well-written post. Since my 818 was very early (#25), I dieted the donor harnesses because there was no other option like I-wire or Wayne's harness. I did not have as much wiring experience as you because I bought the I-Squared harness for my Mk3 roadster. Terrified but determined, I used Mechie3's post of the terminals and the donor diagrams to cut out a lot, lengthen, shorten and then squeeze it into the center console. It was a huge thrill when the engine started on the first try and I learned a lot, but I spent about 2 months on the wiring. I don't want to diet a donor harness again, but if I had to, I would delete the many redundant circuits to make the scrap pile much bigger. A few guys designed and built very efficient harnesses from donor terminals and custom boards for 818R cars but did not have features that I needed for my 818C like cruise, turn signals, ABS, wipers, etc. Your advice will help others a lot!

[FFRWRX]

The Wire Diet Part 2 (or, What was I thinking?!)

Even if you aren’t considering doing a wire diet, maybe some of what I’m describing here will help in wiring up your car. I may be going into too much detail but I have the time and am not always good with keeping something like this up to date, so while I’m in the mood I’ll write.

As most people that modify the wiring in any way have certain features they want to keep and ones they don’t, here is what I wanted in my harness:

1) Retain the basic instrument cluster with all the gauge and light functions
2) All external lights working
3) The obvious one, I wanted the engine to function normally
3.5) Edit: forgot that I'm keeping the daytime running lights. There is a module and a large resistor for this, so there is some complication to it, but I'm keeping it.
4) That’s it.

What I wanted to delete:

1) All door sensors
2) Keyless entry
3) Interior lights
4) ABS
5) Airbag systems (these were already gone when I got the car/harness)
6) All A/C and climate controls*
7) Radiator fan controls*
8) Secondary Air system (air pump and all related components). No emission testing on “kitcars” where I am.
9) Body Control Module (was pretty sure I didn’t need it)

*Having said that (or written that) I am going to put A/C in the car and of course want the rad fans to work. So why delete all of the factory stuff if I’m just going to put it back in? From what I’ve found, the factory stuff is very complex and generally runs through the ECU. So there are a lot of wires to tell the rad fans when to come on. An aftermarket A/C system will be independently wired, not tying into the ECU or any other stock components.

Believe it or not, getting rid of the factory rad fan system deletes 2 fuses, 4 relays, and a mile of wire (I’m in Canada and we are metric, so make that 1.6 kms of wire)…give or take. An aftermarket system has 1 relay, the fuses combined with the wiring for the unit, and ties into the battery which is right up front anyways. And it has a thermal probe that goes into the rad, so the whole system is stand-alone and really helps to clean up the excess stock components. The A/C has a number of fuses, relays, and wires. The Secondary Air system has 2 relays. Think this doesn’t make too much of a difference? Here is what I’ve taken out:

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OK, enough talk. This is what I did. And as I said before, this is a work in progress, so if anyone sees me heading off a cliff please let me know.
When I bought the 818C it had the stock wiring harness installed, with the airbag module and sensors removed. That is an easy system to remove as it is fairly stand-alone. So you should at least remove that.

I pulled the harness out of the car and dumped it on the bench. I did weigh it first and it was 42 lbs (yea, yea, I’m in Canada and metric but I still think in lbs more easily). I don’t know if it was a mistake to just dump it all on a bench, as it was quite a tangled mess and I couldn’t see how to untangle it. So if you are starting with one from the donor, maybe try and keep it laid out a bit better. Makes it much easier to trace wires.

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First thing is to use Mechie3’s guide and remove what is identified there. He tells you where something is optional (want to keep a lead for powered accessories or something like that – I didn’t). Not wanting to put his effort down by any means (I don’t know that I would have started this without it), but it will leave you with questions now and then. Partly because you may have a different harness than what he started with, you may want to keep or delete things that differ from his needs. It would be a good idea to print out or flag all the pictures he provides of the various connectors as I found myself going back to it 50 times…probably more.

Where I differed from that right away was to delete the Keyless Entry and Body Control modules and all associated wiring. These 2 modules do tie into each other a fair bit so removing both makes sense. Also, if I want keyless entry later, I would buy an aftermarket system and not have something that ties into the ECU with all its associated wires.
So I deleted those 2 modules and pretty much everything else he said was optional.

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Having taken that as far as the guide went, I was pretty discouraged with what I had left. Maybe I was remembering the Cobra I did where most of the stock Mustang harness was left on the floor. While I did have 10 lbs of stuff on the floor, I still had a tangled mess of harness to deal with. You might be discouraged at this point. Or maybe you will think how well it is going. Glass half full, glass half empty, or glass twice as big as it needs to be!

So now I took the harness and dumped it back in the car, literally:

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Then I laid it out as it would be when things are hooked up. Didn’t look much better. All that work and it didn't look much different. In fact it looked worse, at least when I started it was all in the center console:

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At this point I thought it would be smart to actually hook up everything and not just leave it with the connectors close to where they will go. This step is very important! Before you go any further this is the only way to make sure you haven’t removed something in error that you need for the car to start.

Of course mine didn’t start. With the help of the forum it turned out to be very simple; there is a 2-wire connector for the immobilizer antenna (which is around the key switch) and I didn’t have that plugged into its mating connector. But even something so simple can leave you very discouraged at the time and ready to give up and buy a harness. And there are so many grounds all over the place. Some of them will be deleted later, but for now hunt them all down and connect them. It would probably be a good idea when you remove the harness to put some tape on them with a bright color. I know grounds are supposed to be black, but if you put black tape on them you won't find them in the mess of wire. I kept finding more and more as I tried to determine why it wouldn't start. So put a bright color tape on all the grounds so you can easily find them later.

So now you have the harness back in the car, it is hooked up, and the engine starts and runs. Beautiful! Time for a beer (a Canadian one).

This is when things get interesting. From here on I found it very rewarding as I deleted a lot of stuff as I progressed.

Time for that beer. For me, not you. You are working on your harness.


Rick
ps. AZPete summed up perfectly how you approach a wire diet: "Terrified but determined"

[sgarrett]

Yep....the harness has been the hardest and least satisfying part so far. And that includes lining up the doors! I haven't fully tackled the windows yet....but I can't imagine them being harder than the harness. For me it was close to 6 months of elapsed time I think.

But it is really satisfying when it is done! And especially satisfying when you did it yourself. Now when I have an issue I have no problem jumping into the wiring guide and finding the solution.

[FFRWRX]

While I was poking around in the early days trying to see why the car wouldn’t start or run well, I removed the MAP sensor to see if it looked OK. In my haste to install it, I broke it. It broke right where the O-ring sits:

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No big deal I thought, I’ll just buy a new one. Then I looked up the price….OK…now it is a big deal. These are over $200 for a factory part! On to plan B.
I have a lathe and like to make small things (currently working on a “Demon V8” – a 1/5 scale gas powered V8 engine with everything made from scratch even the spark plugs…..but I digress), so instead of $200 I could use $0.10 worth of aluminum and repair it.

I carefully trimmed off the bit of broken plastic from the main part:

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And saw that I had about .020” between the mating face (that mounts onto the intake manifold) and the surface to attach the new piece:

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I turned a small piece of aluminum to match the broken part. I included a thin flange to bond onto the main MAP part:

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Bonded it to the main part with a bit of instant glue. The bond isn’t really critical as the new piece is clamped down when the MAP sensor is installed; it really just has to seal against any serious air leak.

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Turned out to be a fun little side project. They are always fun when they work out. When they don’t work out, not so much fun.

Rick

[FFRWRX]

My intention in putting the harness back in the car was to shorten some of the wires that are too long. Due to the new configuration of the harness and related components (the ECU being at the back of the car instead of the front) some of the wires run all over the place to get to their final destination. So having everything hooked up and the harness roughly where you want it to be (not a lot of choice here) you will see a lot of extra wires in the middle of it.
The harness was not all connected yet in this picture, but what is all this stuff doing here?:

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But before I got to dealing with that, I thought I should pull the relays that I’m not using and see where that gets me. This is where I finally started to feel good about this wire diet.
There are 2 main relay holders. There is one at the front that mounts to the side of the fuse box (officially the “fuse & relay box”; that’s the large tan colored one). There is another one at the rear, referred to as the “main fuse box”. Seems a bit strange to me since the front one has more fuses and I would think it is the main one, but Subaru didn’t ask me.
Let’s start with the one at the rear. This one (ignore the white strap going over it):

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Here is what the relays do:

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Remember that I’m deleting the Secondary Air stuff and the radiator fan controlling stuff. See that? Six relays that I don’t need. I also don’t need the 2 fuses. It isn’t the fact that I don’t need the fuses and relays that is significant, but the fact that I don’t need any of the wires going to those fuses/relays. That is a pile of wire!
Something else I found:

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I don’t need the ABS motor or the Engine sensor, so 2 more components to delete. A bit of inspecting and you see that the fuse box is sort of a frame with the various holders snapped into it. So you snap out all those modules that are no longer being used and you get this:

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You can just see at the bottom the row of relays that have been removed. Now you take a saw to it and end up with this:

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This is a lot smaller now and can be mounted where the original unit couldn’t. And now all the wires that were connected to those fuses and relays can be removed. And here is where I made a mistake that I’ll describe and maybe save you the hours I spent trying to understand what I did.

I took out all those relays and made sure the car still ran; it did. Then I stripped out all the wires connected to them and tried it again; didn’t start. Huh? How can that be? The circuits were completely disconnected and the car ran, so deleting the wires shouldn’t have done anything. Technically correct.

Here is what I missed. In the wire diet so far you find that there are many splices in the wiring, where other wires run off from the one you are tracing; Mechie3’s guide points this out. When I was removing wires I would take the wire from the relay, for example, and trace it down to the main harness. Then I pulled on it a bit to see if I could identify it at the other end of the bundle running through the middle of the car. Most of the time you see it move, so you grab it there and continue tracing it to wherever it goes and cut it off. What I missed with one wire is that it had another one spliced into it buried in the bundle of wires. So I pulled at each end, identified that I had the same wire, and cut it out. What I missed was the wire spliced into the middle of the one I was tracing needed the connection to the front of the car to get power. Follow that? The lesson is, fully trace any wire you are about to cut out to make sure it is isolated from any other wire. And start the car often to find out if you messed up somewhere! The best time to start the car is when you do something and say to yourself "that couldn't have made any difference at all, so I don't have to try the car again".

I did find what I did wrong fairly quickly, but took many hours to double check that I could rewire the one I cut out (that I shouldn’t have) to another location to get power.
That was some serious progress in the wire diet; a whole section of a fuse box with a ton of wires….gone!

Next, the relay holder at the front.

Rick

[AZPete]

I've been there with the redundant wiring of the donor harness, so I appreciate your tracing and verifying routine before cutting out wires. If I had done that a few years ago, I would have cut out many more wires.

[FFRWRX]

There is a relay holder at the front of the harness that has 6 relays and 2 fuses. I think this attaches to the side of the tan colored fuse box. This one (ignore the Marr connector, it’s temporary):

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There is a strange/interesting thing with the wiring of it. These are the fuse wires on the back:

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The white and white/black wires run through the fuse. What sense does that make? It runs through a 10 amp fuse. Maybe they ran out of thinner wire?

It was a little harder to find out what these relays do. Even the factory wiring information I had didn’t show them. I supposed being relays they shouldn’t burn out and don’t need to be replaced. I found this:

Side Relay Holder (attached to fuse & relay box near dash):
In order (top down):

6. Rear Power Supply (wagon) / Heated Seats / 2004 manual lists this for the STI HID Lamps
5. Heater Mirrors ~ Heated Windshield
4. Starter Interlock [part of security system]
3. Fog Lamps
2. Power Windows / Sunroof
1. Ignition Relay *

Fuse-1 (blank) / Fuse-2 (blank) / Fuse-3 (for ABS control module system) 10-ampere fuse colored red / Fuse-4 (for Rear Power Supply / Heated Seats) 20-ampere fuse colored yellow

*I traced this circuit and found that this relay effectively controls the A/C, cooling fans, and blower-motor. So although Subaru calls it an Ignition Relay, it's really a cut-off switch to shut-down high-draw items such as the blower motor or cooling fans so that you get as much cranking power to the starter as possible.

So which ones do I need? Turns out I only need number 4. Number 1 was a maybe, but I deleted it.

With the wires cut off the back, and making sure the engine still started, I had this:

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The Marr connector that you see is from the mod described by Mechie3 for getting rid of the starter-cut relay. I later soldered them properly and saved the connector for my basement wiring.
Now with all the wires traced and removed (and some of them are fairly thick so it is a lot of bulk removed), there is only one relay being used. So out comes the handy saw again to cut the box down, and I’m left with this:

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Yes, that’s it! From a relay box with 6 relays and 2 fuses to one relay at the end of some wires, that can be tucked away anywhere. Now that’s what I call a diet!
And I have enough spare relays to last the rest of my life……plus a few years:

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Next, a bunch of connectors are removed along with miles of wire.

Rick

[FFRWRX]

As I’ve said (and others too) there are a lot of wires that go through the center console area that don’t really have to be there. A bunch of wires go from the engine (A) to the ECU (B):

A.jpg

But to do that, they run up through the center console, through one or two connectors, and then back through the console again to get to the ECU. So how ever many wires that is, they are running twice through the console area.
After doing the basic wire diet, you’ll find that some connectors don’t have many wires left in them, like this one:

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So I took this connector and basically cut it out and soldered the wires together. I choose soldering since that’s what I’m comfortable with, but some people like to crimp. Either one is good as long as it is done properly.
In removing the connectors you’ll find that by tracing where the wires go, you can not only get rid of the connector, but a lot of the wires too. You’ll find that a lot of the wires start and finish at the rear of the car so you can take out several feet of wiring.

If removing the connectors makes you nervous, here are 2 things to consider. The first is that, to me, I can’t see ever using a connector to help remove a section of the harness if I ever have to. The factory needs the connectors to make assembly possible, but I don’t see that they are useful now.

And maybe more important, guess what the most unreliable part of a wiring harness generally is? Yes, the connectors! So by eliminating some of these connectors that will be pretty well hidden away under the console where you really can’t get to them anyways, you are making things more reliable.

Here is how I do it. I pick a connector that I want to delete and mark one side of it “start”. That is to help me remember where I started in tracing the wires. I put a clip on one of the wires and start tracing to see where it goes (yes, I could use a smaller clip but that’s what I have):

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Trace the wires and see where it ends. In many cases it will end leading into a major engine connector. I leave those connectors alone. So then I mark that end of the wire with another clip. Then I go back to the connector I started with, go through it and see if the wire is the same color (some of the wires change color as they go through the connector). No, I don’t mean magically change color, I mean they use a different color wire, so be careful with that. Now trace that wire and see where it goes. In many cases it will go to the ECU. Mark that end of it.

Now you have a wire that is marked near the engine and basically the other end of it that is marked near the ECU. So you cut it in those 2 places and connect the ends. At that point I pull the original wires out and back to the connector and either coil them up or cut them off the connector to help keep things organized as I continue with the remaining wires.

This is not quick and easy work. Take your time and be very careful checking the wires as you go. Some of them will go through another connector and may change color. But to me it is very rewarding to remove this:

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And replace it with this (running from the engine on the right to the ECU on the left):

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Here is another shot I took to show how much of it looks before trimming it down:

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See how the green and blue wires start from one place, run through a connector, and then go back to the same place they started. May make sense in the stock Subaru but doesn’t make sense here.
I didn’t remove all the connectors, just the ones in the center console area that seemed to have wires starting and ending at the back. And I took off the ones like this:

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A connector for 1 wire. Remove it and you get this:

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A splice joint replaces a connector and a few feet of wire. Not huge, but it all adds up.
Another one that can be deleted:

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This takes up a lot less room:

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That's all the pictures I can do in one post so.......continued....

[sgarrett]

Wow. Thanks for detailing all of the work. It took me so long to do it I ran out of steam to post these kinds of details. One thing I noticed, however, is I was a little too enthusiastic about removing things that I had to go back and add in again later. I have still saved all the connectors (and lots of other stuff I don't think I need) until I am all done.

One example might be those green connectors you removed. In the wiring manual it says those are connected for 'test mode'. I could be wrong, but I think they are usually not connected. You connect them to go into test mode. Of course, since I haven't gotten the car to the point yet where I know if I need it or not this is still just guess work on my part.

[Ajzride]

Yep, you usually only connect those two so you can flash the ECU. I replaced the connectors with a toggle switch.

[FFRWRX]

The green connectors you guys are talking about are still there. This is a different set of connectors. These were closer to the rear of the harness. Not sure what is running through them, but I can look into it for interest sake. The other green ones are near the front and I didn’t touch those. Replacing those with a switch sounds like a good idea.

Edit: You guys are partially correct....and so am I. Found it in the wiring diagram:

XX.JPG

What I removed/shortened was the connector that leads to the test connector. So many connectors!

[AZPete]

Nice clear explanations of a complex project. It's too late for me, but will help others.

[FFRWRX]

Nice clear explanations of a complex project. It's too late for me, but will help others.

Thank you. That's what I'm trying to do. There is a lot of information on wire diet, but it is scattered around. I'm trying to make it a little more step-by-step, but that isn't really possible with how complex it is and how most builders will have a different donor car and different things they want to keep and delete. So if I can show in fairly good detail what I've done, others can use it to guide them along. They can also know in a bit more detail what is involved to decide if they want to tackle it or not.

You have helped me a lot and you are going to help me again......I just ordered all the A/C components so I'm sure I'll be asking you questions when I start on that!

[FFRWRX]

At least this is one diet that when you are done the weight will stay off!

Like I said, be careful when tracing wires. Some of them change color through the connector. The factory wiring diagram is usually pretty accurate when showing the colors and the change through the connectors:

K.jpg

Another bit of mess that can be cleaned up. Cut them off at a convenient point, re-join them, and save some wire bulk:

L.jpg

So that is pretty much it. I’ll leave the harness for now. Once I neaten it up and put it back in the center console area I’ll see if more trimming is needed/wanted.

I went from this, when I got the car:

M.jpg

To this now:

N.jpg

I’ll tape it and/or zip tie it in places and see how it looks. This is what I removed:

O.jpg

And how much does all that weigh you ask? Go ahead, ask.

17 lbs of wire, connectors, relays & holders removed. I started with a harness that already had the airbag stuff removed. When I weighed it initially it was 42 lbs. So now it is down to about 25 lbs. Not too shabby! But it isn't really the weight I'm concerned with, but weight equals complexity of wiring, and that's what I simplified.

Looking back, it was well worth it. I saved several thousand dollars over buying a harness and ended up with one that takes up so much less room. But it does take time and you do have to keep your wits about you when doing it.

Oh, I also have enough spare wire now to last for many car projects. I already used some to extend the tail light wires; hardly made a dent in my wire supply!

And speaking of tail lights, next step is to take the bunch of mismatched lenses and sockets and make some usable lights from them.

Rick

[FFRWRX]

Since I bought my 818C partially assembled I’m not 100% sure what came from Factory Five and what was added or changed later. I assume what I’m showing here is part of the basic kit.
What I have is a black socket, a grey socket, an LED 2-color bulb, a conventional 2-filament bulb, a clear lens light, and a red lens light.

Here are a couple of the pieces:

a.jpg

After studying this collection of parts I concluded that:

1 – the 2 color LED should be used in the clear lens light holder; this gives amber for turn signals and white for backup light
2 – the LED only fits in the black socket
3 – the conventional bulb only fits in the grey socket
4 – both sockets fit in the clear lens fixture; the grey one nice and tight and the black one a bit loose
5 – neither of the sockets fit in the red lens light

So, we start with the clear lens light that needs the LED bulb. Thus, the LED bulb goes in the black socket and that goes in the clear lens light. It is a bit loose though. I found that if I switch the O-rings around (put the one from the grey socket onto the black socket, the socket then fits nice and tight into the clear lens fixture. One done.

Neither of the supplied sockets fit in the red lens light. Either I’m missing something, some parts were lost or switched, or I don’t know what I’m doing.
I solved this by ordering some sockets on-line while I was buying other stuff. I think these were “GM” sockets. I wasn’t sure what I was getting when I ordered it.
The socket I got is on the right:

b.jpg

It didn’t fit in the red lens fixture either, but a little work on that with a moto-tool and it fit. Not the neatest job, but the socket fits in and locks with a twist and it holds the 2-filament bulb. All is good now.

I installed the lights and wired them up and it all works and looks good. Those 2 color LED’s are pretty cool.

Compared to the wire diet, this was an easy issue to sort out. Others may have done it in a different way.

Rick

[lsfourwheeler]

The sockets used by the Hella lights supplied by FFR are very weird. Replacement sockets for the reverse/turn signals are basically impossible to find- I tried and ended up having to buy from FFR. I'm not sure what socket is used for the brake lights but you could try going to an autoparts store with the light and seeing if one there fits.

[FFRWRX]

I'm not sure what socket is used for the brake lights but you could try going to an autoparts store with the light and seeing if one there fits.

I did manage to make it work with the sockets I bought for the red brake lights, but you are right. It might have worked out better and easier to take the light to a store and see if something fits.

[Dave 53]

I just got my 818S home. I bought it in pretty much what seems to be the same level of completion as yours. It runs and is drivable, but the body work and interior need to be finished. I'm even more thankful it has an iWire harness after reading your post!
818 7-19-20.jpg

[FFRWRX]

I just got my 818S home. I bought it in pretty much what seems to be the same level of completion as yours. It runs and is drivable, but the body work and interior need to be finished. I'm even more thankful it has an iWire harness after reading your post!
818 7-19-20.jpg

Yes, the iWire harness certainly makes things easier. Sometimes we spend time to save money and sometimes we spend money to save time. Depends on what we are comfortable with. I admit that sometimes I'll make something just for the challenge when I could probably save time and money by just buying a part. I really had no idea how much effort there was in dieting the harness, but it seems to have worked out well in the end.

[FFRWRX]

When I got the 818 it had the A/C stuff removed. I’m putting A/C in the car and have the excellent reference put together by AZPete.
So I can order pretty much everything I need from Vintage Air, but I didn’t have a compressor on the car. In fact, the car had the clutch line running here:

c.jpg

It was running right where the A/C compressor had to go. Not a huge deal, but the line had to be moved. Moving it from where it is now to the left of the compressor seemed the easiest way to go. The flex line from the slave cylinder sort of points in the wrong direction and forces the line to run where it is now. I would rather have it run on the other side of the large hose:

f.jpg

There is a relief groove in the cylinder that part of the line fits in. I ground a new one where I wanted the line to go. I cut off a bolt with the same thread and made a plug for it before grinding:

g.jpg

Now the line runs on the other side of the large hose:

r.jpg

And comes out on the other side of the compressor:

x.jpg

I ordered some of the parts I needed for the A/C belt tensioning, but didn’t have the main bracket. Didn’t feel like ordering one so I made one from some angle iron; welded and powder coated:

d.jpg

Assembled the rest of the parts on the bracket:

e.jpg

It is a pretty clever way they tension the belt. The only thing I don’t understand is why they use a reverse thread on the long bolt. Really messes me up when I’m trying to adjust it.

That got the compressor mounted and all the other A/C parts came in. In his reference AZPete used an evaporator (Mini Space Saver) that has been replaced by a newer model, so the newer one is what I ordered. Borrowing the picture from his reference, this is the evaporator he used:

h.JPG

This is the newer one held in place:

a.jpg

The main difference is the motor does not stick up higher than the main unit. Don’t think that makes much of a difference as there is room there under the top of the dash for either one. I bought the unit with heat, defrost, and A/C. It is being held as high up as it can go without doing any mods to the dash structure. I’ll prop it up like that, put the dash on, and see what it looks like from the passenger seat. It will probably be fine at that height.

---------------------------

On a completely different note, I’m considering my options on changing the shifter. The car came with the stock Factory Five one; shifter and cable setup. I’m saying “changing” not improving. The strange thing is that the shifter was so nice and tight with virtually no slop and very little movement from gear to gear; very different from what I’ve read. Now I never drove the car, only in and out of the garage a few times which didn’t really involve much shifting, but I’m comparing it to the shifter in a Miata (which I’ve had several and they have a really excellent shifter) and the Factory Five was at least as good. Strange.

So why do I want to change it then? The Engineer in me doesn’t like the fact that the cables run forward and then all around the car to get to the tranny. I also like the look of the setup with the cables running along the tranny and not having one come in from the side.

The Factory Five one (which I think is a Toyota unit?):

b.jpg

I’m wondering if I could use it and modify it to have the cables come out the rear, or flip the whole thing around so the cables will then come out the rear with no mods. Any reversing of the throws would be done at the tranny, which I’ve seen many schemes from others that do that. It does seem to be a pretty good unit with very little play in it.

That’s it for now.

Rick

[Ajzride]

I turned mine around, the shifter arm just needs to be pressed out of the ball and pressed back in rotated 180 degrees. I might still have my rotated in the storage unit if you want it. Local machine shop did mine for $25. Obviously the the motion of the side to side (1-3-5) has to get reversed, which is not hard to do.

[FFRWRX]

I tried taking my shifter apart and gave up after releasing the 2 metal clips. It didn't seem to want to come apart after that and not really knowing what I was doing I clipped them back in. Yes, the shifter is in a bit of a strange angle if the unit is swapped around. I was looking at how the shifter shaft was splined into the pivot ball and wondered about pressing it out and turning it around. Did you take the whole thing apart to do that? Looks like I can maybe do it without taking it apart with some clever supporting in the press.

The side-to-side moves more in one direction than the other, so that will reverse when the unit is installed swapped around. I don't think that matters though, other than maybe the neutral position of the shifter itself may not be in the same position. I may give it a shot. I haven't used my press enough.

[Ajzride]

Remove the two clips, drive out the pin holding on the side (triangle) piece. Then a flat head pry bar (cat claw) can be used to work around the ring and pop it off. It's on really tight, but comes off and is plenty secure when it goes back on with the clips. Once you get it out, just use the press to remove it from the ball. I wouldn't attempt to press it inside the housing, the plastic is not really that strong, I broke one housing.

[FFRWRX]

Did some trail fitting of the A/C evaporator unit.

Kind of difficult to prop it up, but I think this is close:

a.jpg

That is with it up very close to touching the dash framework. Seems to still be sticking down quite a bit. I'm not sure about the position of the dash, but I must have it close.

A question.....since I'm not sure I have the dash in the exact correct position, how much room is there between the metal framework and the dash itself? Looks like about 3 1/3" to 4", something like that.

I could cut out one of the support pieces and weld it back on higher up to allow the A/C unit to move up a bit.

Looks like my unit is about 8" high from where it would hit the frame at the top when mounted.

b.jpg

And it looks like it needs about 3 1/2" clearance with the dash to run the ducts. The defroster ones may need a bit more:

c.jpg

Without modifying anything it would have enough room for passengers feet, but maybe up a little higher would be better.

Rick

[Ajzride]

I moved mine a lot more towards the center, it gave the passengers foot more room, and tucks up behind the console. Since my unit had all the lines on the side, it gave me more room to work the bulkhead.

[FFRWRX]

Remove the two clips, drive out the pin holding on the side (triangle) piece. Then a flat head pry bar (cat claw) can be used to work around the ring and pop it off. It's on really tight, but comes off and is plenty secure when it goes back on with the clips.

Do you mean this pin?

IMG_0876.jpg

I tried getting that one out but the retaining washer won't let it come out. Couldn't get under that washer to pry it off.

[FFRWRX]

I moved mine a lot more towards the center, it gave the passengers foot more room, and tucks up behind the console. Since my unit had all the lines on the side, it gave me more room to work the bulkhead.

This is with it as far to the left as it can go; it is against the pedal box:

ac.jpg

I'm not sure when I had it propped up that it was all the way over to the left or not.

Edit: I was looking at your build thread Ajzride and you have a different A/C unit than I have.

[Ajzride]

Cut the washer off with a dremel, new ones are less than a dime at the hardware store. Then press the pin out with a c-clamp and a deep well socket.

Yes I have a different AC unit, thought you might still be able to go more left but I guess not.

[aquillen]

I spotted the shifter in a Corolla while roaming around in the scrap yard a couple years back, tracked it down to
.
03 04 05 06 07 08 2003 TOYOTA COROLLA
.
If you have a you-pull apart lot, you could have one to beat on for cheap if you break yours. (For that matter I have one to part with in my left overs).

[MonzaMan]

Hey Rick,

I'm also building an 818C, and am not too far away... Guelph/Cambridge area. I'm only back in Canada a few time a year unfortunately, so shop time is very limited. I'll be back all of August (with the first two weeks spent in quarantine). Maybe when I'm allowed into society, I could pop by for a look-see, see that I'm not completely going the wrong way on my build.

[FFRWRX]

I spotted the shifter in a Corolla while roaming around in the scrap yard a couple years back, tracked it down to
.
03 04 05 06 07 08 2003 TOYOTA COROLLA
.

I looked up that shifter and yes, it is the one Factory Five supplies. I also found a short shift kit that a couple companies make, so that is one way to reduce the throws for anyone that is using that stock shifter.

[FFRWRX]

Hey Rick,

I'm also building an 818C, and am not too far away... Guelph/Cambridge area. I'm only back in Canada a few time a year unfortunately, so shop time is very limited. I'll be back all of August (with the first two weeks spent in quarantine). Maybe when I'm allowed into society, I could pop by for a look-see, see that I'm not completely going the wrong way on my build.

Sounds good. I'm about an hour from you.

[FFRWRX]

Thanks to Ajzride I got the shifter apart. Just to make it a little clearer for others that might want to do this, here's how.

a.jpg

Snap the 2 retaining clips open. They don't come right off, but they come away from holding the nylon ring in place. Use a dremel or something similar to cut off the washer that is holding the large pin (circled in blue). Maybe there is another way to get one of these off, but it certainly holds in place very well. Tap out the pin after the washer is off and the triangle shifter piece comes with it. Then you can pry up the nylon retaining ring at the top. It is held in place pretty well but it will come off.

b.jpg

The reason I'm doing this is to see about reversing the shifter housing in the car, but leaving the shift knob and shaft in the same position from before it was reversed. This is all sort of an experiment to see if I want to use it after flipping it around. Not sure yet, but so far it's looking good. So I pressed off the ball with the short piece sticking off it, flipped it 180 degrees, and pressed it back on. It took a lot of force to get that sucker off! Getting it back on is the tricky part with the bend in the shaft.....can't press straight down on it.

While I had it apart I modified a few things. The shifter was too long for my liking so I cut it down a bit. Since I don't know what shift knob I'm going to use, this is how I rethread a shifter shaft. Instead of running whatever thread was on it to start with (which is difficult if you have to reduce the diameter of the shaft) I drill and tap it. I use a standard tap, doesn't really matter what thread you use. Then when I know what shift knob I'm using, I make a small threaded adapter piece and locktite it to the shifter shaft.

c.jpg

I also did a small mod on the retaining pin. I didn't have a new washer to use, didn't feel like going out to find one, and also I thought I might want to take it apart again and didn't want to grind off another washer (which can mess up the nylon if you are not careful). So I drilled and tapped it, and made a retaining piece to hold it in place.

d.jpg

Greased up and back together:

e.jpg

Since I want to be sitting in the correct position to see where I want the shifter to be, I need the seats in place. They were in place when I got the car, but I found head room was almost lacking. The way the seats were mounted put them a touch higher up than they could be. With some mods to the mounting system I can drop them about 3/4", so I'm working on that. Since I have to get some metal to weld in to the cross pieces in the car that the seats mount to, I'll get some material to modify the dash area where the evaporator will go to raise that up a bit. Lots of different things on the go, but lots of fun.

Rick

[FFRWRX]

I wanted to change how the seats were mounted in my car to lower them a bit. The seat sliders were spaced away from the seat with hex nuts. Between those and the stamped mounting brackets about 3/4” was added to the seat height. I figured I could take off both of those pieces.

a.jpg

The first thing was to weld in some extra pieces to the frame to line up with the mounting holes in the seat sliders:

b.jpg

Now I knew that I wasn’t going to have dead-on alignment with the holes in the seat sliders and the new holes in the frame, so I wanted a little bit of play in the mounting bolts before they were snugged up. Also, I wanted the bolts to go up from the underside of the car into the seat sliders. Having the bolts go down from the top means a little more sticking out under the car and I didn’t want that (the bolt heads are thinner than the nuts). So here is what I came up with. Might seem a little finicky, but it got the job done.

I needed the hex nuts to be trapped in the seat sliders, but still be able to move around a little. Despite what it looks like in this picture, the nuts could rotate fully in the rail if I just put them in as-is.

c.jpg

I gave each one 2 spots of weld on opposite corners:

d.jpg

Now they can’t rotate in the seat sliders, but they still have to be held in place but allowed to move a little bit.

I cut the heads off some hex bolts:

e.jpg

Now here’s the finicky part. I borrowed/stole this idea from how part of an engine I worked on was assembled. Slip a nut into the seat slider and thread the cut-off bolt into it. That makes guide pins to drop into the holes in the frame in the car, while allowing the nuts to float around. I also welded some spacers to the seat sliders to angle the seat back a little.

f.jpg

Now the seat is dropped into the car, fiddling around a little so all the guide pins go through the holes and out the bottom of the car.

g.jpg

Then carefully remove each pin and replace with a bolt.

h.jpg

Now the seat is in the correct position and I can determine where I want my sawn-off shifter to go.

i.jpg

I don’t know what seats these are. They came with the car and seem pretty nice.
I did notice that there is not really any point to having the passenger seat adjustable, since it sits pretty much against the angled frame rail at the front and the fuel tank at the rear. I may or may not still use the slider on that side just to mount the seat, or may make something solid to replace it.

While I have the welder out I’ll work on the mods to the frame under the A/C evaporator you can see in the picture. I may also make some structure to raise the console behind the shifter to make it more arm-height.

Nice working in the garage and welding when it’s 90F with high humidity.

Rick

[AZPete]

Very clever how you welded a spot on each nut, then made guide pins. I hope I can remember the trick whenever I might need it someday.

[Ajzride]

Very slick slick on the seat mount. I went through a lot of trouble to make mine so that there was nothing below the car and it was all in the passenger compartment, but I'm thinking it would have been better to have done what you did. Those little bolt heads being under the car shouldn't be an issue and it looks way faster to fabricate.

[FFRWRX]

Very clever how you welded a spot on each nut, then made guide pins. I hope I can remember the trick whenever I might need it someday.

I had to take the seat back out to work on the A/C compressor mounting and hopefully tidy up the wiring. While it is out I should machine the guide pins with a taper to make it easier for them to align with the holes in the car frame. Also, I thought if I put some RTV or something like that on the nuts the next time I install the seats, bolt them in, then it will cure with the nuts in the correct position and maybe I won't even need to use the guide pins after that.