Here we go again...

[jdodds]

Its seeming that my subconscious mind would rather continually work on a DSM rather than have any hint of a social life. Yesterday, I started with the idea of pulling the trans to replace a few seals and check the internals over because it hadnt been shifting very well at all this week. Unfortunately, once I started tearing it down, I couldnt stop. This thread marks the beginning of the last great wire tuck of oh-ten. Ill keep it updated as I make progress. Heres a couple pics of my starting point.

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[tazndrew04]

very clean nice work

 

[mike96]

hey i think i have seen this done some where before...

join the club.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/blogs/mike96/1881-starting-over-i-seem-do-lot.html

 

[2GbTalonGuy]

Wouldnt it be the great wire tuck of oh eleven?? Or do you plan on finishing it this year?

 

[jdodds]

Yeah you would think so, but I work pretty quickly and dont really have anything else to do all week. Plus, this is my daily driver so I kinda need to finish it soon. After the wiring is done, I just gotta fix a couple small oil leaks on the engine and rebuild the transmission. Im still on track to have it done before the weekend though. It helps to have some pretty wicked insomnia at times like these. On average, Im awake for 20-24 hours, sleep for around 8, and then back to the 20-24 thing again. My personal record is just under 110 hours without sleep.

No im not on drugs....

 

[ssicb]

what exactly are you doing?

 

[jdodds]

Im cutting out all the un needed wires from all the things Ive deleted. (cruise, ABS, AC, emissions crap, etc.) Im also rerouting the harness through a few different places to cut down on the 3 miles of useless factory splices and loops. Id also like to see if I can give my charging system a bit of an upgrade as far as the wiring goes. Im not extremely happy with how its set up, especially since my battery is relocated to the rear.

I got hung up yesterday and lost about 12 hours on the job when I discovered some seriously strange spots in the harness from the previous owner. Im to the point where Im gonna see if I still have his old receipt from the trans shop to find him and kick his ass. Normally I wouldnt sweat it over a couple things here and there. I can understand that people make mistakes, but when you make this many, you dont belong near a tool box.
I also had to build a power supply from an old computer tower so I can make sure most of the electrical systems are operating properly before I button the harness up all the way. It had been a while since I had built one so that cost me around 3 hours of time. It might be a handy little item to have around though. Cant beat a 300 watt power supply for $3 right?

 

[wkmitsu]

This is awesome

 

[Spike420A]

Man i wish i could do somehting like this !!!!!
with out my car falling apart when i put it back together

 

[jdodds]

Well its not looking like Im gonna hit my goal of having her done today. It seemed that I was never meant to be quick about this job. Some personal stuff came up that killed a little over a day and then as soon as I get back to work on it, my computer cord breaks just as I open it up to look at a wiring diagram.

Im not too far behind though. Ive got a large pile of stuff thats not going back in. TONS of extra wire! The plan for today is to get the motor and trans fixed up so I can bolt those in. I cant do much else without knowing where exactly some of the wiring will be. Hopefully Ill have her back on the ground and running by sunday evening. Heres a few pics of my progress so far.

Stuck some sound deadener in to make the ride a little more comfortable. Its not much but It definitely wont hurt. Cant stick the dash back in until Ive ran all the engine wiring into there. Makes it easier when I can actually see what Im doing. Some things need to be in there to know where I have room and where I dont. I ended up moving the OBDII port somewhere else. Im kind of a tall guy so my knee would smash up a link cable in no time. Ill have a list of everything I changed once Im done.

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Finally a black dash!!!

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This mess would be the engine harness. Yes, Its gonna be a huge pain to get apart.

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[endeffect0]

wow thats a fairly serious overhaul. would love to do that to my car... but thats so far down on the list.

 

[sik4g63]

Good luck with your wire tuck. I am thinking about doin this in the spring with a engine rebuild/swap(?).

 

[jdodds]

After getting a kidney stone on Christmas day, getting the super flu a few days later, having my doc short me on my regular meds, and a few other bumps in the road, This is where Im at. Planned on having her done before the new year but thats obviously not gonna happen anymore. Should be done sometime soon.

Built a fresh tranny

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engine in

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This is where im currently at.

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[kimcheefists]

That looks amazing man. Keep up the good work! It probably makes you feel good to hear me say that I envy you..

 

[MichaelSuch]

Freakin awesome man! Keep up the amazing work. What color was the tranny painted?

 

[1990AWD]

That looks amazing! and damn, 110 hours without sleep? that's like four and a half days!

 

[Talipse96]

I know is about the wireing but let us know how the sound deadener works out for you. I would like to tone down the road noise a little bit too.
Amazing job by the way.

 

[jdodds]

I know is about the wireing but let us know how the sound deadener works out for you. I would like to tone down the road noise a little bit too.
Amazing job by the way.

Ive had a little bit in there for a while. As far as road noise goes, it helps a ton if you place it in the right spots. Ive found that the easiest way to go about it is do the following:

Rip your carpet out, tear off the old carpet pad and replace with the foam stuff that you would put in your house. You can get it from home depot. Add a little more than you used to have in there and try to cover as much of the floor as you can.

Inside the door panels - clear out the old plastic dust shield stuff first. Then clean the back side of the outer door skin really well with acetone, then denatured alcohol. You can get the peel and stick stuff from home depot for about $16 for a 6"x25' roll if you want to keep things cheap. Use a heat gun to get it to form to any bends. If you want something better, go with an actual sound deadener. After youre done with that, get as much covered on the area that the panel mounts as you can. The goal is to seal out the door cavity.

In the rear panels, you can stuff them with polyfill. Its basically like a pillow stuffing. Make sure you dont have anywhere that water and moisture can get in so you dont have mold later on. Glue more carpet pad on the back sides of the panels with 3M super 90 spray adhesive. Pay close attention to wheel wells.

Just junk the old sound deadener from behind the dash and replace with something newer. A mass loaded vinyl would work well up there.


Since doing that stuff to mine, Ive been very satisfied with ride quality. The car feels much more solid and Ive used my heater twice since doing it. All the new stuff I put in was a thicker butyl rubber type deadener that was actually meant for deadening sound rather than sealing a roof. Its about 4x thicker than super cheap peel n seal from lowes that I had originally bought. Better stuff can be had from home depot thats about twice as thick for roughly the same price. My only complaint with the hardware store stuff is that its asphalt based so it might have a bit of a smell. I havent ever noticed it before though.

That looks amazing! and damn, 110 hours without sleep? that's like four and a half days!

Shit will almost kill you. I blame my insomnia for all my end of the year health problems. Got a refill on my sleeping meds so it isnt as much of a problem as it was before.

 

[Shake_Zulla]

Two things... I like your use of my favorite word in "WICKED bad insomnia" and second I like how everything snowballed into stripping the whole car. I think thats the curse of loving cars, for every one thing you know needs to be done there are two things you havn't found yet. Looks great man!

 

[Talipse96]

I planned on changing my interrior to black with some interrior dye, not paint. I was thinking of doing that carpet padding already. Never thought about putting anything around the doors except that dyno mat. The polyfill is a great idea, would have never thought about it.
Thanks for the help.

 

[jdodds]

Had to edit some of my posts in this thread to fix the pics. Doesnt seem like Ive got much done in the last little while but its coming along. Last week, I started working backwards a little bit to correct some problems with my design of the harness. Things are moving forward again now.

Amplifier installed.

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Old speaker wire vs new stuff

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This is just under 15lbs of mostly OEM wire. Yes, I took the time to organize it because I was needing a few different wires and got sick of digging through the box of tangled wire. After I organized it, I put it all on the scale to see what I cut out of there. Its quite a bit if you consider that every one of these wires have had the pins and connectors cut from them. Ill get a total on everything once Im done.

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Fuse box cut down and mounted

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Closeup of how all my splices look in the harness.

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Left front corner of the body harness.

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The engine harness is completely done and installed in that pic.

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The only work I have left is in the interior harness and some suspension work. Things are coming together nicely.

 

[98mitsubishigst]

beautiful work.

 

[SlashGSX]

Wow that is some great work! This makes me so envious and motivated at the same time.

 

[RadDsm]

Fram FTL

Great work so far though.

 

[jdodds]

I had bought that about a month ago for an oil leak that I was gonna fix. Thats how this all snowballed into what youre seeing now. Since Im here, Ill post a little update on how things are going.

So after relocating the fuse box and deciding on a better placement for some things in the engine bay, I ran into a huge problem. The connectors that were running from the front harness and engine harness are now in totally different locations. This resulted in me having to pull the already finished body harness from under the dash. Luckily, I hadnt planned on installing the dash until I get the car started to make sure all the different systems were working. If I had gotten the car all the way together and had to go back and change 2 wires, it would be a massive pain to do so.

Heres a quick drawing of a stock setup vs. my revisions to the car. Theres quite a difference between the two and it ended up being more extensive than I initially anticipated. Far too late to turn back now.

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This is the "B" harness that is under the dash right before I started trimming it up.

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Interior pic as of now.

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