Ruby Scoo’s epic build, ten years and counting...

[El_Freddo]

G'day everyone, the call was made to start my own conversion thread as another thread started about the adaptor plate had turned into something else.

So, I've got an EJ20 and a 2wd gearbox sitting in the shed now. I won't be using the gearbox for this project, it may end up somewhere else...

I've talked about the adaptor plate in the other thread - the consensus is to use 12mm thick alloy or steel plate. Andrew T gave some good instructions on how to knock it up so to speak, you can check that out here.

I'm currently looking at grabbing an EJ22 loom and computer - reason being that they're heaps easier to source than the EJ20 loom and it will allow me to drop in the EJ22 down the track if I ever feel the need, or if it won't run the EJ20 properly - just gives me an "excuse" to get one

The other loom I'm looking at getting (if someone doesn't have one free to a good home) is that of a post 87 touring wagon. This will have every wire from the front to the rear of the car, that way I can splice the EJ loom to this EA loom while Ruby Scoo is still crusing around. It will also allow me to use the electric windows and mirrors which is what I'm also after. The only real requirement for this is that it has air conditioning in the loom too. The other reason for this is that I currently have an electronic drain somewhere that I really cannot be bothered chasing, I'm currently disconnecting the battery when I leave the car

The other bits I'm hoping to add in along the way is a 3 inch lift kit that we'll put together on the parts bomb, tac it together then take it to my uncle's for the MIG welder treatment.

All of this going on, plus seasonal work will keep me busy over the christmas/summer months. And sorry to the WA boys, I'd love to be at the end of year bbq again but I've decided to do this instead (might grab a tatts ticket if I can find a pile of change).

That's it so far, this thread will progress slowly for now, it'll hopefully pick up the pace around november/december depending on what's going on.

Cheers

Bennie

[stamp_licker]

On every l series i've stripped the a/c loom is a seperate add on loom,runs out the passenger side..The splice in of the ej loom is rather simple, quicker than running another complete one in.Electric mirrors and windows can be added,but if you've got access to a tourer loom and like the challenge go for it.

[Bumpty]

Woop! Bennie has a conversion thread!
Can't wait to finally see Ruby Scoo transformed...

[BrennyV]

good to hear mate! cant wait to see it unfold

[El_Freddo]

good to hear mate! cant wait to see it unfold

Don't wait up... It'll be a slow one as I'm still gathering parts atm.

Thanks for the positive comments so far though.

Cheers

Bennie

[BrennyV]

Don't wait up... It'll be a slow one as I'm still gathering parts atm.

Thanks for the positive comments so far though.

Cheers

Bennie

could be as slow as my 205 into the lib looks like a big job

[Fatz]

good boy benny, bout time

[AndrewT]

Hey Bennie what kind of engine mounts did you motor come with? If it has square ones good, if they are round you should source some square ones to replace them. The round ones break very easy.

[L-Raiser]

Congrats Bennie! Good stuff ...welcome to the EJ brigade. Hope to catch up next time you over WA way... well thats what 'WA' stands for after all.....'Wait Awhile' hehe My project has been going nearly a year now...only weeks away from getting the keys...WOOHOOO!!!

L-Raiser

[El_Freddo]

Congrats Bennie! Good stuff ...welcome to the EJ brigade.

Not there yet mate, still got some stuff to do first...

Dad's getting into it - I really thought he'd be the other way around, you know, going on about spending more money on R.S. that I don't need to be spending as I've got the two MPFI EA82s in bits in the old house that could be used (but threads are pulling out etc, plus I hate working on the EA's if I can avoid it!). We've decided to go the EJ AWD while I wait for some "special" parts to arrive, this way we don't need the adaptor plate and thus an engineers report for the conversion. With all the mods in the end I hope to get a report on the entire car anyway - that way the boys in blue will be kept at bay.

So Dad got all the engine sensors last weekend, couldn't work out how to get the engine loom in the short time he had - I'm presuming the wiring goes behind the fire wall where the engine loom plugs into the main loom?

A good friend has been so kind to off load an EJ loom and ECU they have no use for and a used set of 26 inch sherpa tyres to me among other bits - just gotta find an okay 26 inch rim for a spare. I've got the 14 inch rims to put them on - here's a pic of them below in ruby scoo's early days (sorry image is so large, my early days of imageshak usage...):


^ click to enlarge.

For now its churn through uni stuff then start playing around. I got a mate on the look out for some box steel for the lift - he works as a sparky for Harvey Norm and said there might be some suitable stuff around in their scrap bin, we'll see what comes back...

The other thing I've gotta do it work out how to turn this back to something like it was before the rock kissed it:



It will be a fun exercise for sure! I should give her a wash too, still covered in mud! I also found a hole in the body work from factory in the rear left wheel well. It filled with mud and gunk from the 4wd'n trip, I still gotta clean it out properly. This explains why everything is so wet in there all the time - I thought it was my rear window washer bottle that was leaking a little bit!

I'm also looking at welding a rear diff now that I've got a spare, this will keep me entertained until I get an LSD - I just hope I won't look back once the LSD is sourced and in...

Anyway, another update later, I'll keep you posted!

Cheers

Bennie

[bretgc]

sounds like fun mate!

Good work!

Bretty

[El_Freddo]

Okay, so the sunday before the cup I went on a pick a parting mission - I had a list of various parts, most of which I didn't find...

The monday after that I got the rear diff welded. Wednesday night had it installed and a little test run (that wasn't really challenging). Friday night it got a real test on the side of Mt Macedon and the Sunday just gone was really put through its paces out at an old quarry in northeastern benders.

The pick a part stuff on the sunday before cup:

I got a third set of radius rod chassis plates for the lift I'm planning, found a muffler for Sunnie all at centre rd wreckers.

I decided to head out to Kilsyth - quite a bit out of the way from me (other side of melbourne) to check out some stuff before heading to Campbellfield PaP (my side of town).

I didn't make it to Campbellfield - I found an '88 touring wagon that was complete at kilsyth - it looked good, no rust or dings but had 400k on the clock. I realised I was after a complete wiring loom for my EJ conversion, so spent 5 hours stripping all the wiring, except the doors, out of this L for mine.

In the next week or two after I hope to splice the TW and EJ operating wiring together, source an AWD box, I will have trouble letting go of the welded rear diff when this happens (or just happen to stumble across an LSD - yeah right!), and then spend a weekend or two getting by with out Ruby Scoo on the road while it all goes in.

After this happens electric windows, central locking and electric mirrors will all be possible. Hopefully I'll get time to put it in before xmas as I've got a set of doors with all of this fitted.

Plan at the moment is to replace bearings all round - something that I hope to do next week. The rear swing arm bushes will also be done and a set of rear discs with new rotors and pads will be added at the same time.

I'm also hoping to get some steel sorted for the lift in the next week or two. Just gotta pay attention to the strut tower design to the the camber correct, also gotta look at the rear strut design for the lift too. The rest should be pretty striaght forward.

Once that's all done I'll have the 26 inch tyres on the 14 inch rims and she'll be an offroad warrior that will hopefully not cop anymore floor pan damage - its looking like fedration square at the moment!

I'll keep you posted as it progresses with any luck (internet at home sucks)

Cheers

Bennie

[Alex]

good boy Bennie

sounds like its starting to come together for ya

all the best

alex

[El_Freddo]

G'day all,
While the EJ stuff is currently on hold - I've needed to replace my bearings for some time now - this is what I've done, well, started to do.

I used the front hubs from the parts bomb that has decent bearings in there AFAIK - there's no play in them that's for sure. The old hubs have a mm or two of play in the CV shaft, the rears are worse again, especially the rear left, which I can't get the castle nut off of.

I was going to retain the drum brakes on the rear, swap in a second set of swing arms with new bearings and bushes without having to touch any brake lines. That was a good idea until I found out that subaru in all their wisdom have the brake line pass through a hole in a bracket - the only way to part the brakes and the swing arm is to undo the brake line. So the original plan to shove the rear discs on is in full swing as well.

The reason I decided to leave off the discs for now (even though I've got all the components and new pads + rotors) is that I got a set of backing plates off a 2wd turbo vortex. For those that thought there was no difference between the 2wd and 4wd rear disc setup (apart from the hub) are mistaken - the 2wd backing plate is identical in bolt hole locations but the hole for the bearings is too small for the 4wd bearings - by about 8mm in diametre. I've taken 4mm off all the way around, using a jigsaw I removed the bulk of the metal, then cleaned it up with a stone wheel on a drill bit. It's worked a treat.

Tomorrow the second set of rear swing arms will be in with the new bearings, bushes and discs - I'll be waiting for dad to get home to bleed the brakes unless a mate is available during the day.

This will have me ready for the SA Goolwa outing - I'm really looking forward to it

The EJ wiring will hopefully be started in the next two weeks - as soon as I'm back from adelaide I'm working away from home for a week, so there's no time for that in the next week...

Still gotta get some EJ headers and the engine loom that plugs into the main loom.

Cheers

Bennie

[Captain Obvious]

wow what and effort bennie, keep up the good work, nice looking rims ive always liked them!!!

bryan

[El_Freddo]

wow what and effort bennie, keep up the good work, nice looking rims ive always liked them!!!

Thanks Captain Those rims I think you're talking about (the 14 inch alloys) havn't been on ruby scoo for a good two years now... They'll be back on soon though, hopefully with some lift to boot too.

About 30 mins ago I finally took ruby scoo for a drive with the new bushes, bearings and rear discs - the handling now is amazing compared to how it used to float around on the play in the rear bushes and the responsivness of the discs all round is a huge mark up from the front disc and rear drum combo those things came out with standard.

So now I'm hoping to get a front end alignment done tomorrow if I can find a joint before my sis and I leave on our fly by road trip tour of adelaide that include the goolwa 4wd session - the main reason for visiting SA this weekend. Having the front end aligned isn't overly important, but would like one done for piece of mind as the last one they did their machine somehow uses the rear end to get the front end in correct line - how that's done with some dodgy bushes and shot bearings I don't know...

Tomorrow will also see ruby scoo get a scrub up treatment - I'm not proud of how filthy I've let her become - particulary the junk I've accumulated in the foot wells and rear cargo area...

So, rear end and rear discs nailed... Now to find some time for wiring Or lift...

Cheers

Bennie

[AlpineRaven]

hey mate,
Looking good - how is things going for the EJ conversion - is there something that you're looking for - any specific part? Is the EJ loom from gen1 or 2 Lib? EJ20 seems to be a good upgrade eh..
What have you decided to do about the rear part where you hit the rock with?
Keep us updated.
Cheers
Tristan

[El_Freddo]

Looking good - how is things going for the EJ conversion - is there something that you're looking for - any specific part? Is the EJ loom from gen1 or 2 Lib? EJ20 seems to be a good upgrade eh..
What have you decided to do about the rear part where you hit the rock with?

G'day Tristan,

First off - the rear rock dent, think I'll start off by rust proofing it then re-sealing. After the goolwa run (which was a wicked time) when the car was finally washed properly after our last outting, it doesn't really look too bad, might just keep it as a battle scar

The wiring I'm after is a 2 plug engine wiring with all sensors, don't know which generation. I'm sure its a 2 plug, I'm yet to unbox the EJ wiring and unleash it's mess

The rear discs went in, the car stops heaps better now. And the welded rear end worked well on the beach and the back 4wd roads that BRUMBI showed me, good times!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

G'day all,

Today I busted out the EJ wiring looms, one labelled (auto loom), one not (manual loom)... I've noticed some differences due to the auto computer loom, no problems there. After looking at the mess, getting over the shock I then get excited that I could have EJ air con and cruise - then I remember that I just want the engine loom as the AC wiring, to me, would be difficult to splice into the existing system.

Cruise would be good though, is it possible to have this on the L from the EJ system?

Also, I don't have the speedo from this loom, how do I work out which wire is temp, oil, amp etc? I think finding the fuel pump wire won't be too hard... I THINK. Will I need a pin-out list or is this used for those doing a turbo converson in a liberty?

I hope to be playing around with the wiring to get one EJ loom cut down while keeping one labelled in a box for later Hopefully with any luck I'll have the EJ loom spliced into the touring wagon loom soon, then I'll have to source an EJ box (i'd like to shoe-horn an EA part time gear set into this to retain the welded diff and keep away from using an adaptor plate). On this topic of the TW loom, do I run the EJ wiring in the same location as the old EA MPFI loom or do I have to run it along a different route through the engine bay? Any info on this would be a great help.

Cheers all (I'm excited)!

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Something I forgot to mention/ask above, is it difficult to keep the EJ wiring for the head lights? What's the go with the under-bonnet fuse box in this case and will the wiring for the lights/indicator stalk plug/splice in without me having to pull my hair out?

Cheers

Bennie