Aj's 818S in Houston

[Ajzride]

One of the things I've been working on in the background and at night while I fight the cooling system if finishing up the arduinos. I could not find a box I liked that would fit in the space available (behind driver, above gas tank) so I fab'ed one up out of 16 gauge sheet metal. I chose 16 gauge because it is thick enough to tap for 8-32 bolts. I don't have a brake, so I had to bend it up with some 3/16 flat bar, vice grips, and C-clamps. Once I had it shaped and tapped it got powder coated. I am making a top that will screw on to mirror the top of the Coach-1 screw on lid.

The big board is the Mega 2560 that talks to the ECU and drives the gauge cluster. It uses a MC33660 to communicate SSM to the ECU, and then a serial over USB line to communicate to a tablet running RealDash. I have a thread dedicated to the effort here:

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...-Convertor-DIY

The smaller board is an Uno to drive the electric parking brakes. I had attempted to run it all from the Mega, but there is some funky code in the library.h that comes with the motor driver shields that keeps interrupting the timers and causing the SSM to abort communicating. It's probably better to separate the communications board from the higher power motor drivers anyway. The Mega is picking up the vehicle speed over SSM and sending it as a 0-5V signal to the Uno so that the emergency brake pressure can be decreased as speed increases, to prevent a total lock up if you try to use it as an emergency brake while moving. The Uno itself uses a VNH5019 motor driver shield to control the electric brakes. The shield can sense the amp draw from the motors, and it sends power until the desired amperage is hit, then it cuts the power. I have it setup to use a single ground signal as a toggle to set/release the electric brakes. The speed signal from the Mega will be used to linearly scale the max amps.

I have a little more testing to do before I can finish shrink-wrapping all of the wires and make it look cleaner.

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[aquillen]

Very cool.

[Ajzride]

Decided to move forwards with the cooling system for now. It seems to work fine so today I drained the hose water and filled it up with coolant and started the painful process of trying to bleed all of the air out again. Car heats and cools fine in the driveway, but as soon as you start driving it around the block it overheats pretty quick. Try again tomorrow.

[Ajzride]

Overall it was a good day, albeit with some hiccups.

* Got all of the air out of the system. Drove for almost 20 minutes with no overheating at all.
* Started working on Alignment. My upper control arms have been modified per Wayne's tips for shortening the early UCAs. I installed the camber bolt per hindsights thread and now I have almost 1 degree of negative camber. Still need to check caster
* I reset the coil over ride height since I moved the rear mounting point to allow for camber bolts. Whoever designed the rear suspension is demonic, the adjustment for the coils over is right behind the lateral link, can you can't hardly get a grip on it, and there is no room to turn.
* Adjusted car to 1/8" toe front and back.
* Took the car for another 20 minute drive, it feels very unsettled. Likes to jump left and right, especially on uneven roads. I"m assuming this is bump-steer but I've never experienced it before so I'm not positive. I do have the Baer kit.
* Went to tidy up all of the heater and vent hoses I added, and found that one of the heater hoses had gotten into the passenger wheel. I had to cut out that hose and re-bleed the entire system.
* Took the car for a final drive to make sure all of the air was out. Coming up the drive way the drivers axle popped loose again (see video below from earlier this year). I'm not sure why I can't drive with that axle loose since I have a limited slip (Subaru OEM), but it wouldn't go anywhere. Wife had to help me push it up the driveway, I will never live this one down. I have to find out why this axle keep popping loose, it just feels like it is 1/2 inch too short. Has anyone else had problems with a short axle?

[Hobby Racer]

* Adjusted car to 1/8" toe front and back.
* Took the car for another 20 minute drive, it feels very unsettled. Likes to jump left and right, especially on uneven roads. I"m assuming this is bump-steer but I've never experienced it before so I'm not positive. I do have the Baer kit.

You do mean 1/8" toe IN and not toe OUT, correct? Toe out would make the car dart from side to side and be unstable.

* Took the car for a final drive to make sure all of the air was out. Coming up the drive way the drivers axle popped loose again (see video below from earlier this year). I'm not sure why I can't drive with that axle loose since I have a limited slip (Subaru OEM), but it wouldn't go anywhere. Wife had to help me push it up the driveway, I will never live this one down. I have to find out why this axle keep popping loose, it just feels like it is 1/2 inch too short. Has anyone else had problems with a short axle?

Wow, didn't see that video before. It looks like the axles splines popped out of the Tri-Y lobe inside the half shaft assembly that goes into the trans. Is that what happened? If so you may have lost/broken the snap ring that retains the splines inside the Tr-Y lobe.

[Ajzride]

Yes, toe is 1/8 in for front and back.

I agree the Tri-lobe looks to have separated, will tear into it tomorrow and look at the snap ring. PO put the shaft together, so it’s an unknown quantity.

[lsfourwheeler]

If you're curious why you couldn't drive the car with the axle popped, the OEM Subaru LSD is a torsen or quaife unit. Which is a torque-biasing type differential. The quick version of how they work is they can send a multiple of one wheel torque to the wheel with more grip. This ratio is fixed depending on the differential. So your wheel with more grip could receive say 8 times the torque that the wheel with less grip is able to put to the road.

Unfortunately this means that if one wheel has 0 grip. Such as being in the air or disconnected from the axle, 0 times ~8 is still zero and you can't move. It is essentially an open diff at this point.

[Ajzride]

Unfortunately this means that if one wheel has 0 grip. Such as being in the air or disconnected from the axle, 0 times ~8 is still zero and you can't move. It is essentially an open diff at this point.

Well that sucks, but makes sense.

[Ajzride]

John Nailed it, the snap ring had come off the tri-lobe:

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The end of the axle was a little jacked up from spinning against the tri-lobe. I was able to clean it up with a small triangle file.

Image 3.jpg

Overall not as bad of a job as I had feared.

[AZPete]

Thanks for posting the cause and the fix. Useful to all in the future.

[Ajzride]

Got the electric brakes wired up, now I can stop carrying a wheel chock with me everywhere:

[sgarrett]

I have been known to use one of my shoes as a wheel chock. I usually have one of those with me....

Your solution is definitely better though.

[Ajzride]

My Android head unit that I will use for a gauge cluster arrive yesterday, so I started working out the details of where it will be mounted. My first thought was that I would mount it high enough that it was above the entire steering wheel, so that nothing blocked the view. However once I put it in a board and held it up there, I realized that would be blocking a huge swath of my view, and be unsafe and maybe even fail an inspection. So I then started to look at what it would take to get it low enough it fit behind the steering wheel (like a good gauge cluster should). My first attempt was probably acceptable, but i was looking for every little bit I could get, so I trimmed the bracket for the steering column a tiny bit to get another half inch drop:

Bracket to Trim.jpg

My silver line actually is a little lower than I cut, I cut the top side of the line so that I basically came straight off the dash frame and made it level (like it should have been from the factory)

I then built a temporary housing out of pink foam so that I can drive around with it for a little while and see if I can live with it:

Exterior View.jpg

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With this location, I think I can design my digital dash so that all of the information I want sits inside the steering wheel, and then put a few indicator lights in the upper corners above the steering wheel. If I decide I don't like it in this location, then I'm thinking about getting crazy and making a center mounted gauge cluster. Think BMW Z8, but digital and square instead of long and wide:

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[Ajzride]

Haven't made a lot of progress since my last post, 2 weeks of vacation and then I've been restoring a vintage drill press and bench grinder since I got back. The el-cheapo $95 Android head unit has already crapped out (USB port won't talk to anything), so I picked up a more expensive one from Amazon that will hopefully be better (at least an RMA will be easier).

4th of July marked 1 year since I brought the car home. I said at the beginning there was no timeline, but it would probably be a 2 year build. In my mind that was about 1 year of mechanical and 1 year of body work. So far I'm a few months behind that loose schedule. I certainly had no idea that the cooling system would kick my butt for 3 months, and the mechanical shift linkage took much longer than anticipated. I just need to get the alignment correct and then I will start working on body parts. I've already brought the side panels home from storage because modify the scoops and creating a plenum for my TMIC will be the first modification on the exterior. Hopefully that is only a few weeks away.

[Frank818]

What brand/model crapped out and what brand/model you got from Amazon afterwards?

[Ajzride]

The one from eBay was so cheap, it literally has no brand on the box or the device (Yikes!!). The one from Amazon is an MP5.

[Frank818]

Oops!!!! Ok no name crapping out makes sense. loll Sorry about that.

MP5... funny, this is what I get when I search Amazon for MP5: https://www.amazon.com/Crosman-DSBR-...4425771&sr=8-2

lollllll + a bunch of ammunition.

However MP5 Tablet provides a better expected result, never heard of that brand but there are so many Android brands now... What screen size? Hopefully this one will last, or at least last sufficiently longer!

What if you need to replace again but can't get the proper overall size, will you still be able to make it fit or you'd have to to modify you cluster or "cluster casing"?

[Ajzride]

Both of the ones I have bough are 10.1" screens in a double-din radio mount. I'm not worried about not being able to find 10" android head units in a double-din mount for a long time.

I finished up the drill press today so I'll be back on the car tomorrow. First job is putting int he new screen and the second job is changing out the tie-rod ends to try and get rid of some more bump-steer.

[Ajzride]

After a two-week vacation, I've spent the last two weeks restoring an old bench grinder and drill press a family member gave me. This was very different than working not he 818, much more like restoring my mustang. Lots of rust, dust, and debris. Gunked up old oily junk etc. I blew both of them apart, wire wheeled them back to bare metal, and replaced anything that was a consumable. I managed to get away with painting nothing. The stuff that was too big for powder coat (or had bearings) got coated with Raptor liner (the grey in the pictures), everything else is powder coated (blue and black). The drill press was given to me because the motor was smoking, turns out it is a split phase (self starting() motor and there was a huge dirt dobber nest closing up the start release spring. As soon as I busted that out the motor worked perfectly. The drill press is a 1969 Craftsman, and the benchpress is a Diehl from probably the early 70s.

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Tool-DrillMotorRaw.JPG

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I spent the first half of the day cleaning up all the dust from the restoration, and rearranging the garage to hold both of them, then I turned my attention to the gauge cluster. It looks like the second head unit I bought from amazon is the exact same thing as the one I had from eBay. The body is a different color, but the plugs are exactly the same, I didn't have to rewire anything. But as soon as I plugged it in, it worked perfect. In my last post, I had dropped the panel down low, right on top of the steering column so that the gauge was directly behind the steering wheel (like in most street cars), however this was much too low. After only one trip around the block, i realized I was looking down and having to take my eyes way to far off the road. So now I've raised it up so that it is just above the steering wheel:

Dash-NewDashLocation.jpg

With it down low, I was using displays that had one round gauge in the middle, and then extra information on the sides. With it up top, I needed to go to a setup with two round gauges on the edges and extra information in the middle. This one is still very much a work in progress, but it is my first take on a from-scratch display:

DashNewDisplay.jpg

[Ajzride]

Like everyone else, it didn't take long for me to decide the bump steer was flat out dangerous on this car. I hit one bumpy section of road at 35 mph and almost found myself in a ditch. I have the Baer kit, but I could only get about 22mm of shims installed before I ran out of bolt. Hindsight said he had the best luck with 46mm, which required drilling out the spindle and buying a heavy duty 5/8"x4" bolt. I'm okay with doing that, I already have a 5/8 drill bit, but wanted to try something else first. Thanks to a tip for Rogier, I did some digging and found that speedway sells a 5/8 rod end for tie rods, and an assortment of spindle studs to go with it. The closest to what it looked like I needed was a 4" Pinto stud:

Susp-PintoStudvsBaerStud.jpg

The taper was really close, but not exact. I probably would have been fine to leave it like it was, but I thought I could do better, even without a lathe. I took the taper, colored it with a sharpie, inserted it into the spindle and tightened the nut on top finger tight, then spun the stud with a wrench. When I pulled the stud out, I could see on the taper where the marker had worn off, and knew what my contact patch was. Then I put the stud in my drill press, let is spin while I lightly held a very small jewlers file up against it to start adjusting the taper:

Susp-TaperModifiedPartial.jpg

Susp-TaperModifiedFull.JPG

I'm not sure if it really comes across in the pictures, but I feel like I have a really solid contact patch across the entire profile of the stud. I'll keep an eye on it and if I see any abnormal wear, then I'll just have to drill it out for a 5/8 bolt.

Once I had the taper matched up, I cut a 46mm spacer from some thick walled tubing, reamed it with a 5/8 drill bit, and put it all back together. With a 46mm spacer, I just barely have 3 threads sticking through the nylon lock nut at the top and bottom:

Susp-45mmSpacerInstalled.jpg

Susp-TopNut.jpg

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Unfortunately I didn't get to really test out the improvement in bump-steer because of a few problems. First the fuel pump module appears to be gone. At first I thought the immobilizer was acting up again because when I turned the car on I didn't hear the fuel pump prime. I even went through all the trouble of hooking back up the factory dash to see if the immobile light was turned on (I probably need to install a standalone LED for that), but it wasn't, so I bypassed the FPCM and just let the pump run anytime the ignition was on, and the car started up and idled fine. Next I disconnected the battery again for 30 minutes so I could follow the instruction linked below to re-learn the idle (since I always keep the battery disconnected).

https://www.subaruforester.org/threa...onnect.154161/

However, going through that process made the car run like absolute garbage. In addition to dying anytime you coasted to a stop (which it always does, and I've always thought it was the idle learn being skipped), it ran like total crap. It was spitting, sputtering, bucking, surging and pretty much underivable, it took a ton of work just to get it around the block and back to the house. I'm wondering if the problem is my car taking so long to warm up while it is trying to learn idle, or could it be a fuel supply problem with having the fuel pump running at full speed all the time (it shouldn't have a fuel pressure regulator tied into a return line). Or could the FPCM not turning on be a sign of a bigger problem I need to look into? Still trying to learn these Subarus. Other than dying at idle, the car has always run pretty well until today.

[aquillen]

Press and grinder - beautiful resto work. That drill press I'd bet is more solid and tighter runout than anything you could buy today in any box store. Especially aggravating is both my presses have vertical "slop" so that when a drill bites into stock it pulls/jumps up or down just a hair which can cause stalling and crappy drill work. (that's even after me trying to work them over).

Bump steer - like how you tackled the taper, just the kind of stuff I like to come up with too. Look forward to your result. I used that Pinto part as well, 818 friend loaned me a taper reamer that happens to match the Pinto. But I believe your method would have been easier because working that reamer by hand and getting it right in the process is not easy at all (at least not if on the car).

[Ajzride]

Yes, the drill press run very true and is far superior to the one I bought from Home Depot, and I bought the most expensive one they had

[Ajzride]

Today I set my mind to figure out why the car was running like garbage. This time, it didn't even wait until it was warmed up to act like an idiot, first fire after a week of being off and it was sputtering and spitting like a 65 nova with a cam two sizes too big. First thing I did was check the wiring on all of the sensors, and sure enough, I had missed plugging back in the O2 sensor when I installed some cooling stuff, but that didn't fix the problem. Next step was to start unplugging things to see if they made no difference (likely not working or connection issue) or made things better (not working). The first thing I unplugged was the MAF, instantly it started to run like a champ. Did a little reading, unplugging the MAF disables most of the air circuit, so it could be the MAF, O2 sensors, a few other items. But since the O2 had already been unplugged at one point, I decided to work on the MAF first. Cleaned it with some alcohol and a toothbrush and the problem seems to be solved. Ran for 60 minutes in the garage like perfectly and then went around the block twice with no issues. Once it cools off a little bit I'm going to take it for a longer drive and hit my bump-steer testing curve and see how it handles that.

While I had the car idling in the garage, I replaced the J-hooks on the battery with some 3/8-16 all thread. Battery feels much more secure now.

Still think my fuel pump control modules is bad, I have the pump tied directly to the relay running at full speed with key on for now. If anyone has a spare they can let me test with before I fork out cash for a new one, please let me know.

[Frank818]

MAF are sensitive to dirt and oil, usually cleaning it works, thank god that seemed to be the issue! Easy fixes are SO welcomed! I hate all those engine issues, I hate it so much when something goes wrong with the engine...

[Ajzride]

Bumpsteer appears to be resolved as well, the car is no longer scary. Tomorrow I will start on the drivers quarter panel modifications.

[Ajzride]

Started on body mods today. My first goal was to reshape and enlarge the scoop in the quarter panel, but that required relocating the gas cap. For now I just closed in the existing hole, will mark where I want the new hole once I have it on the chassis and my ducting routed.

FuelFillerPlugged.jpg

I want to change the shape of the scoop. Right now the top extends up towards the top of the car. It is supposed to match up with a body line on the door, but the body line on the door is so poorly defined it is basically invisible, and it leaves the scoop looking funny and small in my opinion. The scoop will now follow the body line of the quarter panel:

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A little work with the body saw and I'm ready for new glass:

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I'm also going to push in the scoop to make it much deeper (about 5 inches deeper):

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I glassed in the bottom (since it was just bridging a gap) and will let that cure for a couple of days, then I will need to fab up a form from foam, cardboard, or 3D print for the top.

[Ajzride]

Body work will definitely take a year. I'm sure I'll get better and faster the more I do it, but fiberglass only cures so fast. 3 days just to get one scoop roughed in.

DriversScoopRough.jpg

[aquillen]

It'll be worth the effort. Like your plans -

[Ajzride]

It'll be worth the effort. Like your plans -

Speaking of my plans... I just realized the only rendering I've posted is 16 months old. My youtube channel has a whole video dedicated to my cosmetic plans, but I never updated here. Needless to say, I've been through dozens of design iterations since I started, but hopefully now that I'm actually cutting things up, I've got it mostly nailed down.

RenderJune2020.jpg

The key things:

- Quarter panel scoops reshaped and enlarged. One side will feed a plenum on TMIC, other side will feed the CAI
- Hood reworked to have one hole, used to exhaust radiator air
- Lower bumper completely reworked
- Toyota Celica headlights
- Custom Engine cover that comes all the way up over the roll bar and has a sealing surface for a hand-made targa top.

I think the side scoops and the hood scoop will be the most tedious, because I'm working within existing structure. For the engine cover and lower bumper, I can start from scratch and 3D print a buck to lay the fiberglass on.

[Frank818]

So it will look like that rendering?
Get it done now.

[Ajzride]

I'm catching up on a YouTube channel with a guy building a Tesla powered K-1 Attack. It's crazy how much better then K-1 looks than the 818, given the exact same wheelbase.

[Ajzride]

Well, the new head unit has already started having issues. White streaks running up and down the left side of the screen. Already on it's way back. I took the time to do some reading on what a good brand for Android head units would be, since they all seem to be fly by night chinese junk, and it seems that Joying is the market leader and Pumpkin is viewed as a good economy line. The Joying unit was $369 and the Pumpkin was $283. Since it seemed most of the extra money on the Joying was for audio features i won't use and a higher resolution screen I don't need, I decided to try the Pumpkin unit. Should be here Sunday and I'll post an update.

[Ajzride]

Drivers side quarter is modified. The panel is not prepped for paint yet, and the fiberglass work is pretty much at the same level of finish as the factory five fiberglass is (so full of pinholes). I won't start prepping panels for paint until I've had them all fitted and adjusted.

The plan for the passenger side is to fill the drivers side up with expanding foam, pull the plug out, 3D scan it, invert it, and then 3D print the passenger side. Should be much easier than forming it all by hand.

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[Frank818]

What's the black stuff on the driver's panel?

[Ajzride]

What's the black stuff on the driver's panel?

Just spray can primer so it was all one color.

[Flamshackle]

Aj I can’t wait to see how this comes together! Love the idea for the body and thinking similar things myself.

[Ajzride]

I saw all the fun the coupe guys were having getting their windows to work, and I just had to join in. Placed an order to with FFR for the new door frames and all the power window and glass components so I can have side windows on my car.

[Ajzride]

It's just temporary, but the car finally has a panel on it. I'm using 8-32 machine screws and tapping the frame rather than using rivets. I want the panels to be removable for paint.

ScrewsNotRivets.jpg

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[Hobby Racer]

It's just temporary, but the car finally has a panel on it. I'm using 8-32 machine screws and tapping the frame rather than using rivets. I want the panels to be removable for paint.

All my panels are attached with 1/4"-20 flange button head socket cap screws that go into rivet nuts. I can't tell you how many times I have taken all the panels off my car!

You won't regret making them removable, trust me.

[aquillen]

The front firewall sheet bits I riveted. Everything else either rivnut or drill/tapped, depending on if it was thick enough metal. Mostly 10-32 and some 1/4-28 here and there. For the aluminum rivnuts I use alloy steel screws to hopefully avoid corrosion galling problems. Where tapped threads directly into the steel frame, etc., then I use stainless. I've had most everything on and off, sometimes way too many times to count....

Now and then I did put a rivet, then next thing that happened seems it was drilled out for some reason.