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Thread: Coach-1 Wiring Harness

  1. #1
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    Coach-1 Wiring Harness

    Since I couldn't use the a Gen-IV Vintage Air AC system, I decide to save my infinity wiring system for a future project that would be bigger (physically) and have more room for electronic gizmos. However I wasn't really keen on using the stock harness, because I'm going to be doing a lot of custom stuff, and I was not a fan of the giant fuse box. I decided to go with a Coach-One (long) kit since I couldn't find any write-ups on one, and put something on the internet for others to check out.

    https://coachcontrols.com/index.php?...roducts_id=124

    I've wired two cars previously, both with American Auto Wire harnesses, A 1965 Mustang using car-specific kit and a 1978 Triumph using a generic 22-circuit kit. I like the AAW kits because they have the wires labeled every 18 inches, but I'm not a fan of the fact that they are really just a chassis harness and don't include a lot of basic stuff like a fan relay or power windows etc. The Coach-1 looks like a really n ice kit, it has built in relays for Fan, Fuel Pump, Lights, Windows, etc. It's really a full car harness, for about the same price that I paid for my vehicle specific kit from AAW. And, the Coach-1 has the wires labeled every 18 inches just like AAW.

    With the AAW kits, you basically get a fuse box with a giant bundle of wires coming out of it, then you have to route and feed from the fuse box to wherever you want it, which can be a pain with one end attached and tangled with 150 other wires. I like that all of the wires on the Coach-1 are individual and you get to attach them to the fuse panel as you route them.

    Opening up the box reveals pretty much exactly what you would expect:

    Coach-One Unbox.jpg

    There are about a dozen bags, each with wires that are similar in function rolled up together. This is really the only complaint I have about the system so far... If they had just taken the time to zip tie each of those wires into a roll as they put in the bag, then opening up the system would be much easier. Because after the wires got all jumbled up in shipping, trying to take out one wire to route resulted in a huge mess that required me to spend about 3 hours untangling each bag of wire and then rolling each wire back up and zip tying it to itself and setting it aside before I could get started.

    Ball-o-Wire.jpg

    Once I had all of the wires detangled and rolled up individually, I then took the ones I knew I would be routing together and made some mini-harnesses for routing.

    Mini-Harness.jpg

    What I'll be doing is routing all of my wires and making sure I'm happy with the routing (and haven't forgotten anything), then I'll go back and wrap it all with braided loom.

    To help with routing, I bolted some wire clamps to rare-earth magnets, and placed them on the frame in various places:

    Magnet Helper.jpg

    The kit uses traditional crimp connectors as opposed to the open-barrel crimps (at least on the connections to the fuse box). These will be okay for in-cabin use, but if the connectors for the lights/etc are also standard crimp, I'll be upgrading those to weather-pack double barrel.

    Crimp-1.jpg

    SHrink Connect.jpg

    Hopefully tomorrow I can finish routing all of the chassis wires, then I can start on integrating the engine harness.

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  3. #2
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    Just a little delayed

    Well this thread took a 3 month detour as I decided I needed to get the entire ECU wired up before I continued on the chassis harness, and it's a good thing I did, because I realized some conflicts I would have had.

    Today I finished up the ECU harness and started back on the coach system. One of the conflicts I realized was that the Coach system is built on bringing all the triggers into the main board and then sending out the power signals where needed. Example is in a traditional car, power leaves the fuse box, goes to the brake pedal switch, and then on to the tail lights. With the Coach system, there is a wire running from the brake pedal switch to the main board, and when the brake pedal is depressed it grounds that wire, and triggers the relay on the Coach board to send power to the brake lights. It really cleans up the wiring and eliminates a lot of hot wires running around the car and exchanges it for ground wires that won't cause a problem if they get shorted, Unfortunately it isn't how most cars work, and it has caused me to get creative integrating the stock ECU. The brake circuit is what made me realize this will have to be addressed. The ECU looks for a 12V+ signal from the brake pedal to let the ECU know to kill cruise control, but for the brake pedal to work with the Coach system it has to be passing ground and not 12V+. For this instance I just tied the ECU into the output on the Coach system that is going off to the taillights. If I come across something on the ECU that needs 12V+ and there is not a suitable output on the Coach board, then I will have to setup a relay to pass 12V+ to the ECU while sending ground to the Coach.

    I also made a decision on how I wanted to make all of the connections to the terminals. I'm a big fan of the Delphi weatherpack style crimps, which have 3 pinch points, 2 on the bare copper and one on the insulation.



    Unfortunately I couldn't find those anywhere in standard ring and spade configuration, only in the male/female specifically for the weatherpacks. I'm also too lazy to old school solder every termination. I decided to do it the redneck way... use half of a self solder butt connector. It actually worked out really well, and even though I took pictures of one with some heat shrink on top of the connector, I wound up not using it on the rest of them.

    Standard Crimp

    Naked Crimp.jpg

    Add 1/2 of a self-solder butt connector:

    Redneck Solder Prep.jpg

    Apply heat (use a popsicle stick or solder sucker to get rid of the excess older that squeezes out):

    Soldered.jpg

    I added heat shrink but decided it didn't look any better or provide anymore protection so I left it off the rest of them:

    Wrapped.jpg

    The coach panel has a built in relay for most of the stuff you would need in the 818 including a fuel pump relay, HVAC, Hi Beam, etc. The one thing it does't have is one that would be a good standalone relay for the drive by wire system, so I hacked up the bracket for the one from the donor WRX and mounted it to the side of the ECU:

    ECU.jpg

    I've wired up about half of the Coach system, I'll probably not work on any more of it until after I've gotten some go-karting in. What is left is brake/taillights, Radio, HVAC, Power windows, Power door locks... all stuff that you don't need for go-karting, and a lot of stuff that you don't know exactly how long to route it until you get some body work done.

    Once I've done some go-karting and I'm sure I don't need to be messing with the wiring anymore, I'll go back and finish wrapping everything in braided sleeve.

    As you can see, I decided to move the Coach panel up, I initially had it down at the very bottom on the outside of the inner firewall. I've moved on the rear-firewall and I'll make an access door to get to it if needed after the car is running.

    Wide Angle.jpg

    Coach Panel in Progress.jpg

    The two wires taped to the ECU are the immobilizer, which is causing me heartburn, but I'm covering that in a separate thread.

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  5. #3
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    Power Distribution

    I started today by going back to ECU/Coach integration, and added the factory fuel pump control module to the mix. Had left it out thinking the EFI was a return system, but when I started laying out he plumbing using the parts purchased by the initial owner, I realized it was returnless, so I had to added the FPCM. I basically moved the wires between the fuel pump and the coach to the FPCM, and then wires from the coach to fuel pump to the FPCM. It just sits in the middle now, along with 2 wires back to the ECU that I had left unhooked initially.

    FPCM.jpg

    I spent the rest of the day working on power distribution. I spent several hours playing with battery location placement. After several iteration of it on my Mustang, I've decided I'm not a fan having the battery and the motor on opposite ends of the car, it creates complications. I looked at 3 or 4 places in the engine bay that I could put it, including the popular ones right beside the transmission, but in the end decided I should put it where FFR intended.

    Battery.jpg

    However I really hate having a long hot wire running the length of the car for the starter. I've tried fusing a starter wire before for a long run, but even with 150AMP fuses, they still blow frequently. I opted to use an old-school muscle car solenoid, this way the wire to the starter is only hot when trying to crank.

    Solenoid.jpg

    I also added a battery disconnect:

    Disconnecxt.jpg

    Hopefully tomorrow I'll get to the keyless entry/ignition system.

  6. #4
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    Easygaurd Keyless

    I bought an Easygaurd keyless entry/ignition system that works just like 2015+ cars, where you get to keep the key in your pocket the entire time. It features two key fobs, a control unit, and 3 antennas. I had initially wanted to mount it in the back near the coach-1 control panel, but the pre-made cables for the pushbutton were too short, and I didn't want to extend it. Besides it needed to interface to a lot of the wires already up under the dash. I decided to mount it up under the steering column, exactly where the immobilizer was before I removed it. I pulled the bracket off of the immobilizer and affixed it to the easygaurd with a 8-32 machine screw.

    Immob bracket.jpg

    Easy Bracket.jpg

    Easy Mounted.jpg

    I think the brake pedal is the most complicated item on the car electrically. I've rewired it 4 times by now. I converted it from 12+ to 12- to work with the Coach-1, but I did that wrong, so I had to go back and fix it, then I had to go back and make it work both ways (positive and ground) because the EasyGuard needs a 12+ signal to know when you are trying to start.

    Other than the brake pedal confusion, the entire ignition portion of the Easyguard is up and running, and it works great. If anyone cares, there is some video on my build log:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erk9...&index=19&t=0s

    I'll try and get the door locks and lights wired up next, even though I don't have any solenoids or lights... I just need to get the wires in place.

  7. #5
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    I'm about done with the unique aspects of wiring up the coach-1 harness. I got the headlights, blinkers, and horn off the column wired up, so all that is really left is the rear lights and blinkers, and the wiper. I'm still planning on power windows, and I'll be using door poppers instead of locks, but all of that stuff is fairly straight forward from an electrical standpoint.

    Once again the Coach-1 system is all ground based for the switches. The Subaru light switch is ground based, so that wired up with no modifications, but the blinkers were positive based. To wire them up to Coach-1, just wire connect the 12+ feed into the blinker switch to a chassis ground.

    For anyone curious, I bought the Coach-1 Long kit, which was recommended for a mid-engine car, but since the 818 is so small I don't think it was necessary. Attached is a picture of how much wire I had left over from the blinker triggers, it's over 10ft. With the panel behind the passenger seat, I doubt I could have gotten a much longer run for blinkers and still had a ton left over.

    Excess Wire.jpg

    Overall I'm really happy with the Coach-1 harness. It has all the relays and fuses built in for almost everything you would want to do, and it saves a ton of custom wiring with ice cube relays all over the place.

  8. #6
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    Complete newbie here. This replaces entire wiring harness from donor? No connectors from donor etc. or do you splice some of that stuff in?

    Ed in SoCal

  9. #7
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    This is definitely not a full replacement. This only controls the chassis, not the motor. And you have to splice in the connectors for the ignition switch, blinker switch, etc. If you want a full replacement you want an iWire.

  10. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ajzride View Post
    This is definitely not a full replacement. This only controls the chassis, not the motor. And you have to splice in the connectors for the ignition switch, blinker switch, etc. If you want a full replacement you want an iWire.
    iWire just discontinued making harnesses for 818s.

  11. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by grabera7 View Post
    iWire just discontinued making harnesses for 818s.
    Makes sense, no one is buying 818s anymore.

  12. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by grabera7 View Post
    iWire just discontinued making harnesses for 818s.
    Unfortunately this is true, at least for the time being. We do plan on coming out with some DIY kits that could apply to this application next year so hopefully we can still help out. Our DIY items will be more engine oriented so this might be a good solution for the body wiring.
    When we say to our customers "if there is anything you need, please ask," we mean it.
    iWire Subaru Wiring Services
    Over 100 Custom 818 Wiring Harnesses Built
    http://www.iwireservices.com/factory...18-wiring-kits
    [email protected]

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