Building a car

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:12 am

Yep Dave they were working before we dismantled the dash (and didn't touch the plug in the engine bay). However it turned out to be fixed by jiggling the plug in the engine bay, go figure!

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BrennyV
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Post by BrennyV » Wed Mar 12, 2008 12:40 pm

great job you have done there andrew! looks the business in the flesh.
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Alex
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Post by Alex » Wed Mar 12, 2008 1:38 pm

was great last night, watching the RX make a my99 wrx piss. Love it!

alex
my07 Outback
my13 Hyundai i45(shhhh)
my02 Gen3 Liberty limited ed.

previously
L-series wagon, LSD, EJ20turbo, 29in tyres, 'wanky wagon'
2000 gen3 outback, lifted, otherwise stock.

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Wed Mar 12, 2008 4:57 pm

Actually Dave, you did mention that there was no voltage going to it. I guess u must have tested it with the test light? Dunno....point is it was a weird problem with a very weird resolution!

I assumed the plug was alright seeing as it hadn't been touched since the last time it was working, plus the dashboard had been completely pulled apart and reassembled meant it was much more likely something the dash would cause a problem.

Random it ended up being the plug on the actual wiper motor, although maybe not so random given how full of gunk it was! :)

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Subafury
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Post by Subafury » Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:45 pm

Alex wrote:was great last night, watching the RX make a my99 wrx piss. Love it!

alex
yeh guys concentrate on the important things! that wrxy was FMIC'd as well. gotta love subaru sleepers!!! he also gave the ba xr8 ute a run for his money. i have a shitty vid- mostly wind. maybe ill post.

btw fyi there were 2 identical test lights that i made. might of been some cunfusion in regards to that.
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El_Freddo
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Post by El_Freddo » Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:14 pm

Andrew, i'd love to see how quickly you could stick one of these together if you didn't have to work!

Try a one week build???

I dunno of anyone else that has done a turbo conversion in such a short time frame, maybe one for the guiness book!

One question, is the car un-regerstered or is it still running on some old rego (just that you mentioned the police inspection), meaning that your getting the conversion "legalised" in the RX?

Anyhow, well done!

Bennie
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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Thu Mar 13, 2008 12:30 pm

It's unregistered. The previous owner is "Woob" from this forum.
As I understand it he got a yellow sticker on the car for some kind of minor defect....let the license lapse and handed in the plates.
At the moment I really need to obtain a temporary movement permit each time I drive it on the road.

After a couple more days test driving and ironing things out I will be taking it to one of the licensing centres and having the police inspection carried out. Then I will be able to register it in my name and get a set of government license plates for it.

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El_Freddo
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Post by El_Freddo » Thu Mar 13, 2008 1:02 pm

AndrewT wrote:At the moment I really need to obtain a temporary movement permit each time I drive it on the road.

After a couple more days test driving and ironing things out I will be taking it to one of the licensing centres and having the police inspection carried out. Then I will be able to register it in my name and get a set of government license plates for it.
Thought so. That's the sort of thing we do in the country areas on back roads - only difference is that the locals know what's going on usually...

Good luck with the inspection, i'm sure you'll pass with flying colours.

Cheers

Bennie
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Suba
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Post by Suba » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:18 pm

With the request of the thread starter(andrewT) I have deleted some of the posts in this thread that were really not constructive and getting abit off track.

Mike.
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Post by Lapsed » Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:33 am

Any more progress Andrew?
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SUBARU OFF-ROAD RECOVERY VEHICLE

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Thu Mar 20, 2008 9:13 am

Okay brief update...

I have put roughly 650kms on her so far (I say roughly because I am still yet to fit the speedo cable!).

She is going very well but there are a few minor teething problems as expected.

There is a rattle coming from the shifter linkage at very slight load, only in 3rd, 4th and 5th and only at speeds of about 60km/h +. My wagon has the IDENTICAL problem and I suspect it's because I have not put a little tension spring back on the shifter linkage. I just need to find the spring and that should be resolved. Does not effect the driving of the car at all, just an annoying noise.

Occasionally the check engine light comes on while driving and when you let it idle immediately after that it runs on 3 cylinders. However as soon as you touch the throttle (and I mean touch, even a tiny bit) the 4th one kicks back in again and gives you full power when you take off. This is due to an intermittently faulty coil. The stock RS coils are very very commonly faulty and this was expected. I have tracked down a good price for a set of Bosche coils and will be doing the conversion shortly.

Economy seems good, obviously without the speedo I cannot be sure but the fuel certainly isn't dropping fast.

The motor had quite a few oil leaks when it arrived in the frontcut (cam covers, front crank seal, rear main seal etc). Since I replaced all of these before putting the motor in, it hasn't developed any of these again so far.

I have the thermo fans both running from the EJ wiring loom, activated by the ECU via the standard relay. I want to change this slightly by adding a second relay in the engine bay so they draw their power directly from the battery. At idle, when the fans kick in, there is a very noticable audible change in tone from the fuel pump which indicates they are probably drawing a bit too much from the EJ loom. Other than that the cooling system is working brilliantly. She runs cool all the time. I've had her in some pretty heavy traffic on some quite hot days last week and she hasn't crept over 1/4 temp.

I've had to take it fairly easy booting her around, can't keep the boost on for ages at a time because I don't really have a proper intercooler setup yet and the air temp will spike too high. I'm just using the intercooler part of the WAIC from the wagon temporarily....no water in it or water lines, pump or front radiator yet. I am just waiting for a guy off the Liberty forums to hurry up and put in his new front mount so I can have his WAIC kit :)

Still need to take it to the exhaust shop to get some flanges put in - Luckily my welds seem to be holding up fine so far. Need the system realigned slightly as well because it touches the rear diff slightly and rattles a bit.

Got some new 13" tyres fitted to the factory mags and a front wheel allignment, she drives smoother now - the old tyres had developed some flat spots after sitting for so long and were probably way out of balance.

There are a few other minor non-conversion-related things that still need doing before she is ready to take to the pit inspections;
- remove the rest of the crappy window tint
- touch up the bits of primer paint with some white
- get the seat belts to retract a bit more convincingly
- replace L series steering wheel with another one which has a horn button that works
- bleed the brakes more, they are still slightly spongy


I am leaving for Bali on Sunday for 9 days so there won't be any more progress for a couple of more weeks from now really.

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Post by AndrewT » Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:35 pm

Update;

Took her to the licensing centre this morning for the police roadworthy inspection.

She passed first shot!

I went to Welshpool which is one of the centres where they don't take bookings, you just rock up and hope for the best. I couldn't get a booking at Warwick which is much closer to home. I came nice and early but still had to wait for over an hour. (Some rally spec WRX was taking ages to get inspected).

Finally I got my turn...

The guy got me to drive forward over the pit stay in the car with the engine running.
Standing next to my car he asked me to start rocking the steering wheel left and right. Then while i was doing that he walked around the front and went down into the pit. I continued rocking the steering wheel for a little while before he asked me to stop. Not sure what he did after that but he was under the car for about 2 minutes, occasionally I felt the car shudder slightlly while he pushed and pulled things under there. He came up and asked me to follow him down to show me something. He just had a question about one section of the outer layer of the chassis rail because it had obviously recently been repaired (last night I cut out some rust and welded two little bits of metal over the holes then covered it all up with the usual under-body tar stuff). I just explained that to him and he was satisfied.
I went back up and sat back inside, then it was time to test the lights.
Indicators, tail lights, headlights etc. All working fine (except I cheated slightly for one of these!).
He then asked me to operate the windscreen wipers and washer - okay.
Then he asked me to pop the bonnet. He went and got a light which he connected up to my battery for power. He started shining this down various crevices over the top of the engine. I think he was mostly just looking for the engine number so he could write it down. He looked in the engine bay for a total of about two minutes then closed the bonnet without comment.
Then he opened the passenger door and checked the seatbelt retraction. Then opened one of the back doors and checked the back seatbelts all clipped into their latches properly.
Then it was time for his test drive. He gave me a choice of riding with him or waiting at the base, I choose to wait while he went by himself.
He was gone for about 2 minutes, came past me, parked the car then came to chat to me.
He told me that I should really put some new wiper blades on as the ones on there are pretty manky and old (I knew this, just ran out of time to organise some). Then he said he would pass it and would be back in 10 minutes with the paperwork.

He came back and gave me the paperwork and told me to go inside to pay and organize my new government issue number plates.

I ran into a slight problem here. Back when I bought the car it was unlicensed (plates had been handed in). I paid cash and took the car. I was mostly intending to wreck the car at the time so it never occurred to me to do any transfer of ownership paperwork or get a receipt. Unfortunately now to register it under my name I need to fill out a statutory declaration of ownership which needs to be checked with the previous owner. That's all done now but it takes 2 weeks to process!
So I'm all officially roadworthy but I have to wait 2 weeks to get my number plates and rego. No biggy I guess, just a bit annoying.

Anyways..... needless to say I'm very happy! She passed first go!

Special thanks to Matatak, Subafury and Alextacy for the last minute WackyWorkshop prepping session last night :)

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BrennyV
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Post by BrennyV » Thu Apr 17, 2008 4:38 pm

congrats andrew! great job
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PIX @ www.webshots.com/user/4muff

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
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Alex
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Post by Alex » Thu Apr 17, 2008 5:56 pm

saweet!

ps. Alextacy's clicking fingers are still sore from stripping that tint off :(

alex
my07 Outback
my13 Hyundai i45(shhhh)
my02 Gen3 Liberty limited ed.

previously
L-series wagon, LSD, EJ20turbo, 29in tyres, 'wanky wagon'
2000 gen3 outback, lifted, otherwise stock.

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BrennyV
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Post by BrennyV » Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:11 pm

let us know when you want new tint. ill hook ya up ;)
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
VER7 STI (FOR SALE) & RIP EJ22 AWD LEONE
PIX @ www.webshots.com/user/4muff

I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
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Matatak
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Post by Matatak » Thu Apr 17, 2008 6:54 pm

Awesome :D
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Wagon is no longer....:(

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Thu Apr 17, 2008 7:16 pm

BrennyV wrote:let us know when you want new tint. ill hook ya up ;)
Thanks Brenny. I have plans to upgrade the RX's doors to a complete set of Touring Wagon ones I have sitting here (from a certain other totalled wagon!). Once I've worked out the wiring for the electric windows and mirrors on those I'll definitely get a nice dark (legal) tint!

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Post by Subafury » Thu Apr 17, 2008 8:01 pm

yay! a well put together machine i think.
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Post by BlackMale » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:33 pm

AndrewT the rego of the car is not the difficulty here (we all know that the WA rego center is full of idiots that do not know anything about motor vehicles) – congrats on passing.

The difficulties are in the legalities of it all… so has it passed an engineered check/compliance? Do you have a blue plate in the engine bay and/or a fat wad of paper in the console to show the police should they ask? and/or are you able to insure the thing? Etc?
Toyota 105 Series LandCruiser (that nobody on here wants to really hear about).
RX Touring Wagon - fitted out for 4WDing (currently collecting dust).
RX Project - will be road only at this stage (and currently taking way to long to finish).

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AndrewT
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Post by AndrewT » Thu Apr 17, 2008 9:49 pm

Of course there are lots of legalities this car no doubt does not comply with. The same would apply for probably 90% or more of people's cars which are driving around with conversions.
In the real world you don't need engineering certificates. I'm not worried at all.

If the police give me a yellow sticker then I'll just take it to the pits and pass it again (yes I have been here and done that already, with a way more extreme car than this one). It's roadworthy and I have the stamped piece of paper to say so. Road worthiness is all that matters, it's what legally allows you to drive the car around.
I did ask about obtaining a permit for the engine, but as I've been told in the past, it isn't required.
The car is in perfectly safe working order, again this is all the matters in the real world. Once I've installed a Crossbred kit it's going to be better than a standard L series car engineering wise or otherwise.

But yeah, if I was worried about all the ridiculously bureaucratic system of legalities associated with modified cars then I'd just drive around in an inferior car with less modifications, but wheres the fun in that! :)

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