Seattle, WA 818 build thread!

[Dave 53]

[QUOTE=erachner;539872]A little more progress - got the front CV's separated and cleaned up. Found a hairline crack in the steering knuckle that I'm not willing to live with. And got the steering rack preparations underway. Getting very close to being able to fully assemble the front end suspension, steering, sway bar, and brakes.

Nice catch on that crack. I'll be taking a close look at mine.

A while back, a friend of mine in Seattle sent me some pictures of 818 in progress that he came across. I bet it was yours!

The picture of the BRAT brought back memories. My first car was a 1981 Subaru 4WD wagon that I bought brand new for $6,111 out the door.

[erachner]

I've decided instead of just posting the highlights, I'll be a bit more chatty and post every little thing. Where better to keep a comprehensive log of everything that went into this car than in the build thread?

So here's this week's accomplishment: got the finishing touches on all the axles. Front axles all cleaned up, rear axles were already assembled but now have fresh boot clamps on them.

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[erachner]

A little bit more progress:

I replaced the steering knuckle with the hairline crack, installed a fresh bearing and seals, and reassembled the front right corner with the new parts.

pressymcpressface.jpgnewknuckle.jpghubassembly.jpg

After that, I solved the steering rack fitment issue (described in further detail over here) and got the steering rack mounted.

rackmounted.jpg

[erachner]

More progress! I cleaned up the sway bar brackets, mounted the bar, and assembled the end links.

tidybrackets.jpg endlinks.jpg

As forewarned by the assembly manual, the end links are overlong for my '07 WRX sway bar:

toolong.jpg

So I trimmed them down, shortening the driver side by about 1.5" (0.75" off each end) and the passenger side by about 2.5" (1.25" off each end) and hooked them up. The sway bar is a very close fit with respect to the rest of the suspension and I have to admit it takes a pinch of faith to feel confident that all the moving parts will stay out of each others' way as the suspension travels, but there's room for adjustment.

driverlink.jpg passlink.jpg

Next up, installing some fresh brake hardware:

freshbrake.jpg driverbrake.jpg passbrake.jpg

And, boom: fully-built front end suspension, brakes, and steering rack. Another milestone along the journey.

completefrontend.jpg

[Dave 53]

Great progress!

There are two (one each side) aluminum panels that get riveted in from the inside. Triangle shaped piece that goes just aft of the sway bar. It will be much easier to install those two panels before you do the steering column, radiator hoses, brakes, etc. The rest of the panels can wait.

[blomb11]

Great progress!

There are two (one each side) aluminum panels that get riveted in from the inside. Triangle shaped piece that goes just aft of the sway bar. It will be much easier to install those two panels before you do the steering column, radiator hoses, brakes, etc. The rest of the panels can wait.

Yes exactly what Dave said because the access once everything is plummed makes it hard to drill the holes for the rivets. You can see the brake lines go through both panels left and right.

IMG_1156.jpg

[erachner]

Yes exactly what Dave said because the access once everything is plummed makes it hard to drill the holes for the rivets. You can see the brake lines go through both panels left and right.

IMG_1156.jpg

Aha, thank you both very much! That's an invaluable tip.

This weekend's activities are a sort of administrative pause. Now that I'm beginning to develop the kind of eyes to recognize at a glance which parts and components go where, and when I'm likely to need them, I'm taking inventory of things and sorting them into bins. I've got the "using these soon" bin, the "probably not going to need these but not throwing them away yet" bin, the "not need til much, much later" bin and finally the "no idea what these things are" bin.

I've noticed that I've definitely lost some parts over the years of schlepping the kit from storage unit to garage to storage unit again. Looks I'll be picking up a new radiator, side mirrors, and possibly rear control arms very soon, unless I get lucky and find them buried in the back of the parts van.

hownow.jpg

[BigDanSubaru]

Great progress!

There are two (one each side) aluminum panels that get riveted in from the inside. Triangle shaped piece that goes just aft of the sway bar. It will be much easier to install those two panels before you do the steering column, radiator hoses, brakes, etc. The rest of the panels can wait.

Yes! Do yourself a favor and put these in now. I waited and I am regretting it. Huge PITA to get in there to drill and install rivets.

[erachner]

I got caught up on some side quests in recent weeks, and also held up by having to order some parts I managed to lose over the years, but I've been back at it and it's time to post some updates.

I decided to do a test build of the rear suspension, just to get a clear visual picture of how it all goes together. (The assembly instructions are great, but I really just needed to see it in the metal.) As of this photograph, it's only hanging together, many of the bolts don't even have nuts threaded on them, but at least I can see what I'm doing:

reartestbuild.jpg

At that point, I figured, what the heck, and decided to put the wheels on. Sure, I'll have to take them right back off when I put the engine in and do the final assembly of the rear suspension, but in the meantime, it frees up a lot of space in my storage pile and has the added bonus of making the chassis much easier to move around

wheelson.jpg

So now I'm doing the final prep for the engine. It needed a new timing kit, so while I was at it I went ahead and installed a new water pump and thermostat.

newwaterpump.jpg

But when I went to attach the new timing pulleys, I made a terribly stupid mistake and stripped the threads out of the hole on the block where this idler pulley mounts up. (The mistake, by the way, was thinking I could torque the pulley down while it was under light tension with the belt running over the top of it. Of course, I had not yet pulled the pin on the tensioner, so the tension on the pulley was weak, but it was still enough that the bolt didn't go in dead straight and that was it. A rookie mistake if I've ever made one - I should have put the pulley on and only then put the belt over top of it.)

oopsy.jpg

Thankfully, with a bit of seasoned professional help, the threads in the hole were repaired and supplemented with a certain quantity of Loc-Tite. The new timing kit is now fully assembled, and quadruple-checked for proper alignment.

allfixed.jpg

Next up, I have just a few more finishing touches for the engine before I attach the transmission and drop it all in the car. Hopefully a big update will follow this weekend!

[Dave 53]

Maybe you've already done it and I just can't see it in the pictures, but it will be much easier to do the "cooling mod" with the engine out of the car. I just Googled (or search this forum) "818 cooling mod" and it came up.