Upper Harness

Friday, July 1, 2011

After the harness edit, it was time for install. Not only did the new harness (grabbed from the Pearly's old engine) now have only the required connectors, it also didn't have a vampire tap on its TPS connector.

(Screwdrivers point to removed connectors; new harness is at top.)


The harness was a little tricky to fish out from under the throttle body, especially with all the additional mechanics underneath it.

The Nismo injector connectors were different than the Subaru ones, so they needed to be swapped. A very tiny screwdriver's press on the plastic tabs next to the electrical hoozies got them out easily.


I was a little concerned about pulling off one of the connectors while replacing the harness, so I removed the airbox from the throttle body. This reminded me of why we never remove the airbox from the throttle bodies. It's a pain in the ass to get it back on.

No more vampire tap on the TPS (brown). Note that the idle controller normally found under the throttle body is actually relocated next to it (grey connector, tan actuator).


All told, the harness fit back into place pretty well. I probably made a mess of the hoses putting them back in, so I'm going to revisit their locations later. One additional change I made was fixing the canister purge solenoid to the intake manifold so it wasn't floating on top of the engine. It's kind of hard to see, but it's between the bypass runner and the intake, under a hose.


Always handy to have reference material.

Top Harness

There are two main harnesses on the SVX's engine. The "top" one mounts to the bottom of the intake manifold, supporting the six injectors, PS switch, TPS, two idle controls and the EGR, canister purge and IRIS activation solenoids. Since the IRIS and EGR are out of the picture, I figured that I'd eliminate their elements in the harness.

One thing that was interesting was the amount of extra wire that led to the passenger side injector leads. I'm not quite sure what the rationale was behind that.


I removed the wiring straight back to the connector, using a very small screwdriver blade to pop out the two pins that wouldn't be used anymore, and I stuffed some RTV black in the holes where they used to be.


Substantial mass reduction? No. Necessary? Probably not. A cleaner install? Absolutely.

Proprietary Hardware Conflict Two

Opting to keep the newer alternator from the Pearly, I went ahead and pulled it along with the one from the Silver. I found that there were a few differences... The ground connector, the spacing of the wing mounts, and the retention bolt diameter. Two of those could be overcome with some mild work, but the bolt hole was too far to go. Alas...


I connected the vapor canister between the manifold and the bypass valve. Now that I think about it, hooking up the purge solenoid might be a good idea... whoops. Here's the tee in white:


I've got to work out this mess. The wiring is disproportional and pretty battered.


Corded tires are corded. I put the new tires on the gold BBSs - RE-01Rs, 245/45/17.


Not for nothin', but headlights still fog.

Proprietary Hardware Conflict One

About two weeks ago, I replaced the serpentine belt that does, well, everything. In the process of tightening the belt, the adjustment bolt's head sheared off. It's an M16-1x90 with a shoulder cut under the head, about .360 wide by .270 diameter. I got a replacement from Mike's leftover stock and am back in business.

The DCCD controller cometh!

Of the many ways to install a DCCD controller in a car that's never had one before, the cheapest one involves a Velleman K8004 pulse width modulator. In simple terms, it takes a voltage signal and converts it to a constant voltage signal with varying pulse length.

The one that was in the car was in rough shape, so I picked up a fresh kit and soldered it up. The DCCD needs a 100Hz, 12V max signal. I got out the oscilloscope and adjusted the K8004's pots to a 0V minimum, 12V maximum, and 100Hz cycle.



This sequence shows the differential signal going from wide open to full lock:


I'll do a clean wire job and life will be good!

Tail happy!

Sunday, May 1, 2011:

For lack of knowing the consequences, I removed the shift surround from the console in order to install the leather shift boot that arrived recently. Naturally, the thumbwheel control for the DIY DCCD controller went with it.

This means that the center differential was completely open.

Needless to say, the back end was ten kinds of loose, and the SVX wound up on the grass at Cherry Valley twice. I pulled several large gobs of mud from one wheel.


Fortunately, the weather held out after the event, and I was able to get a wash in before the club meet.

Nothin' Special

Today entailed just a little cleanup work.

I replaced the two bolts that held the ABS controller in place with a pair that were shorter, vac'd, shampoo'd, and vac'd the passenger side carpet front to back (easy with the seat out!) and plunked the seat back in. Since the trunk carpet was convenient, I did that, too.


Ameer showed up, and after we hit the Taco Bell, he gave me a hand in replacing most of the catch cans' hoses with black ones that don't show how filthy the lines get. We also emptied the catch cans.

I'm guessing that's a lot of gas? Yeesh.

More tomorrow!

ABSolutely not.

My boss was rather surprised to hear that I got a new belt - 55.5 inches. He didn't think it would fit me! It went over the pullies on the SVX nicely, though.

There are quite a few things that can be removed from the car for the lack of their purpose. One of them is the ABS controller and its harness. The module itself is under the passenger seat. 15mm bolts hold the seat in, and 10mm bolts hold the module in place. After pulling this and trimming all the wires (I intend to remove them from the harness in their entirety later), I taped off the brown and brown/red ones (power from the fuse and the alternator) and threw the thing on the scale. Two pounds! Every bit counts...


The easy way to control the DCCD is with a Velleman K8004 PWM kit. It converts a DC voltage into a pulse width signal. Our goal here is a 100Hz signal, varying with duty cycle to adjust the torque bias. The Silver has one of these in its console, and Tom told me it was "shorting out". I figured I'd have a look.

See that resistor? It's a 4.7k that's for testing; it's not supposed to be there. I picked up another K800 to replace the resident one...

Mixed Progress

April 10, 2011:

The shifter surround that I snagged a few days back fit exactly over the tabs that hold the panel around the shifter in place, making it quite useless. Fortunately, they are in demand, so I was able to recoup much of the price I paid. There ends this entry's fail.

Between yesterday and today:

* I swapped the centers of the steering wheels between the Pearly and the Silver. The one in the Silver said "Impreza" on it, and it's surely not one of those. It now just says "MOMO". Trick of it is, I wanted the cruise control switch to stay with the Pearly, partly for keeping it active for some possible future buyer, but also because it may as well stay, as the wheel in the Silver doesn't have a hole to accommodate it. This meant a lot of messing around with the bracketry that the airbags mount to the wheels with. I also had to do some goofing around with the horn wiring. I didn't even get around to taking pictures during it all. Maybe I'll shoot some later.

* The antenna is finally installed. This turned out to be a real pain in the ass. I don't know if there are different antenna bodies and different trim pieces, because these surely didn't match. There was a key on the antenna shaft that didn't have a matching keyway on the trim. The trim had a pair of legs that collided with a land on the antenna, keeping the mating surfaces too far apart. All told, with a file and some needle nose pliers, I was able to rectify the obstructive bits and all went together. Some time ago, I'd installed the new side lamp bulb holders, so my business behind the trunk panels is complete! The trunk is all buttoned up and good to go.


* Lewis had snagged me a piece of trim to complete another project. There's a C-shaped plastic piece that goes on the back deck under the glass that covers the wiper arm shaft, which is installed as of today!

I've got some great ideas on how to get the DCCD working. It could actually go right through the Hydra for automatic mode. Details as they roll in!