The Top DSM Community on the Web

For 1990-1999 Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon, Plymouth Laser, and Galant VR-4 Owners. Log in to remove most ads.

Please Support ExtremePSI
Please Support ExtremePSI

Street Build 1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM

This site may earn a commission from merchant
affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Finished up the front tie rods. Didnt bother to take a picture because it just looks like its supposed to now. I was able to find a clamp from NAPA. They were universal and i just did a test fit and trimmed it down to the size of where it clamps around the inner boot. This whole process was pretty easy to do with the the Rack in the car. I slipped the boot on, and then onto the rack, and then opened up the clamp and slid it over the boot and used a cv axle boot clamp tool that i have.

My extreme psi stuff came in!
Kiggly main girdle, main studs, kiggly street springs, balance shaft delete.

Vivid racing got back to me and we were able to get the GSC s2 cams ordered, should be here next month ( backordered) but I think the s2s were the right move for this FP red, and even when I upgrade later on down the road

I picked up a new toolbox as well. Good deal at our local Lowes! $900 for both the chest and the bottom.

I noticed awhile ago that the passenger side outer tie rod is also torn. so I ordered a Moog replacement for that as well. (part # ES2347RL).
While i was at it i ordered all new Lower ball joints for all 4 corners. I understand that there are 6 of these on the AWD because upper and lower control arms in the back, but the 3sx upper control arms already include new upper ball joints so I only ordered 4 new ones. also Moog Brand (Part# K9617 )

While the car is down and ill need an alignment since I replaced the innner tie rod, i decided to replace the Rear Upper Control arms. Those were actually really easy to get off. and back on. I struggled with getting the inner side in but it turns out that i just didnt have the dowels inside the boot all the way. Once i got that figured out it slid right in. Despite the rest of the other parts of the car being pretty rough, this control arm was actually in pretty good shape. No tears on the ball joint, and the inside bushings actually looked after market too.

IMG_20210502_204855.jpg


IMG_20210505_200927.jpg


IMG_20210505_162303.jpg


IMG_20210506_201354.jpg


IMG_20210506_203840.jpg


IMG_20210506_205517.jpg
 
Last edited:
Finished getting the upper control arms installed. I actually didnt use the washers that came with them that are supposed to go on the nut side of the ball joint (towards the front side of the knuckle) because with the washers installed i couldnt get the castle nut torqued down enough to get the cotter pin in. I took the washers off, torqued to 50ft/lbs and cotter pin slid right in. i adjusted the camber the best i could on both sides. The driver side is fine, the passenger side looks like its still got a little bit of negative camber, even after adjusting it a little.

Funny thing! Doing some research, i came across a post here: https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/dme-1g-awd-rear-camber-kit-install.249588/ that showed a control arm camber kit. Odd, its looks familiar. I looked at mine and sure enough i have that same kit..I believe it is the DME camber kit. So i already had a kit i guess.. i wasnt able to see that before.

After setting the passenger side, and getting the wheel back on, i noticed that the wheel is toed out quite a bit now. After doing some reading it looks like i might be able to adjust it as long as the adjustment on the subframe isnt seized up like it normally is.

Got my passenger side outer tie rod end after work and got that installed. I was right, the old one was trashed. Not quite as bad as the driver side, but it definitely needed replaced.

While i was working on that, my AEM cam gears showed up! Man these look way better in person vs online. Glad i picked them up!

Awhile ago I noticed that my passenger side front wheel sticks out probably 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch further than the driver side does. Hopefully thats nothing too big either.. ill keep that in the back of my mind, if an alignment doesnt fix that.

IMG_20210506_213304.jpg


IMG_20210507_155930.jpg


IMG_20210507_162800.jpg


IMG_20210507_170104.jpg


IMG_20210507_170101.jpg


IMG_20210507_155816.jpg


IMG_20210507_173509.jpg


IMG_20210507_171014.jpg


IMG_20210507_171026.jpg
 
Last edited:
Mmm a bit off i got the same size tirees 235 45 17s right mine are firestone firehawks good progress i have a built engine with the girdle. I have volk uppers too in my rear set up. with toe eliminator kit.
 
reading through this and seeing the progress come alive is like watching a m night shyamalan movie LOL i love it!
 
reading through this and seeing the progress come alive is like watching a m night shyamalan movie LOL i love it!
Thanks! it's been quite the project. I can't tell you how ready I can to finally be able to just drive the damn thing though! But at least everything should be new and up to spec
 
Thanks! it's been quite the project. I can't tell you how ready I can to finally be able to just drive the damn thing though! But at least everything should be new and up to spec
im stoked for you to finish it but will be bummed out when there is nothing new to read or watch you do LOL
 
Got my bushings in today, these are real purdyy. Anyone interested you can pick them up from here:

Went to work getting them installed. I threw some extreme with grease on every part of every shaft that slid inside any of the bushings. Including the spring as well. For anyone wondering the order of the assembly at the end (furthest to the right, with the master cylinder arm) is: Bushing, wave spring, master cylinder arm, washer, lock washer nut.

I plan on taking this into a shop tomorrow and having it welded up. All the way from the arm to the threads making sure the threads are part of the weld as well.

Here's a video of my brake play, before and after as well:

Moog ball joints should be here sometime this week, but I doubt I'll get to them for awhile.

IMG_20210510_155923.jpg


IMG_20210510_162559.jpg


IMG_20210510_162838.jpg


IMG_20210510_162840.jpg


IMG_20210510_162849.jpg


IMG_20210510_163320.jpg


IMG_20210510_163326.jpg


IMG_20210510_163633.jpg


IMG_20210510_163832.jpg


IMG_20210510_164100.jpg


IMG_20210510_165443.jpg


IMG_20210510_165452.jpg


IMG_20210510_165922.jpg
 
Dropped off the pedal assembly yesterday to be welded. They called me this morning and asked if they could weld the master cylinder arm right to the shaft without the nuts and washers in front. This makes sense as there's more material closer to he shaft. I gave them a go ahead and they did just that. I picked it up today and they gave me some washers, one of which was big enough to clear the weld so it sat against the arm, another to space the lock washer and nut out. So now the arm is welded right to the shaft at it's thickest point it can be, AND it's got washers on it to help. Threw some red locktite on the threads and snugged down the nut with the washers on. Going to try and get the pedal assembly itself in today, we'll see how far I get. The shop that I had do it does alot of custom fab and the owner has an awesome blown 400 vette.
They've got some cool pictures of they're projects on their Facebook page if anyone cares. https://www.facebook.com/RDChassis/

2 of my 4 ball joints came, but only one of them was right. Same part number on the box but one of the actual parts had no bag, just flopping around in the box and looked completely different than the other. Boot wasn't installed, it didn't look like it had any grease in the actual joint, and there wasn't any big c clip included. Returning that one for the correct one.

Picked up some Eibach camber bolts for the front so that I can make sure my alignment is as dialed in as it can be.

I'll update more once I actually do something now LOL

IMG_20210512_161556.jpg


IMG_20210512_161657.jpg


IMG_20210511_160340.jpg


IMG_20210512_161428.jpg


IMG_20210512_155754.jpg
 
GUYS.. GUYS..

it worked!
Pedal assembly in, everything was fairly easy except for getting the pedal assembly in, and getting the steering column on, CORRECTLY.

For anyone doing this here's my advice:
It's longer but easier to pull the brake boost and master cylinder. BUT it's possible without pulling it. Just get the brake boost as far away from the fire wall as possible, when inserting the pedal assembly you'll need to rotated the whole assembly towards the front of the car, so that the back side can sit above the little shelf up there. Once it clears the shelf, pull the entire assembly towards the back of the car and you should have enough room to slide the master rod (heh) into the hole it needs to go through and mount the assembly on the stud.
It's also worth noting that when pushing the brake booster back into the firewall, to make sure that the U bracket, goes OVER the brake pedal so you can push that pin through. Don't just jam it in there. Same with the clutch master.

While I was under I cleaned up everything the best I could. It's not 100% back together as I still don't have the covers on yet. Here's before and Afters from when I started vs it currently.

Here's me testing the rebuilt clutch pedal. Keep in mind too that I haven't even bled the system since I put the speed bleeder in either.

I plan on buttoning everything up tomorrow and HOPEFULLY it will run.
I still need to put this MT90 in, torque the lugs and grease the new tie rod ends and control arm heim joints.

Keep ya posted

IMG_20210421_192441.jpg


IMG_20210512_185102.jpg


IMG_20210512_174021.jpg
 
Heim joints, outer tie rods greased, intercooler piping back on. It's starting to look like a car again!

The new throttle body studs seemed to have worked out pretty well and it was much much easier to get the nuts threaded on. I was even able to use a 3/8s rachet with a 4" extension to get them completely on with really no problems at all!

Installed the camber bolts. I'll be honest I understand how camber bolts work, but I don't understand how these ones work. I was able to slide them in no problem and they rotated freely, and didn't move the knuckle in or out.. so hopefully that's not a problem.

All that's left is:
Fill Trans with Fluid (MT90)
Bleed clutch more
Get interior put back together

Then I can get'r started and set base timing, do a little cruise tuning and go get an alignment.

Thinking I'm going to move my fuel pressure regulator to the driver side strut tower. Right now it's just kind of ghetto bolted to the brake master reservoir with some aluminum flat stock.
PXL_20210514_022807825.jpg


PXL_20210514_031047665.jpg


PXL_20210514_031555409.NIGHT.jpg
 
Alright alright alright!
Started today off with installing some wheel center bore adapters as I noticed that only TWO of the old wheels had them installed.. picked them up from eBay.
Here:
Those were a breeze to install. I then went to bleed the slave. I installed a Russell speed bleeder and oh my god it's amazing. Put a line on the bleeder, crack it and press the clutch, pull it back up, and do that as many times as it takes to bleed then close the bleeder. Clutch feels great now! I can feel in the pedal when the pressure plate fingers are completely flexed out, and the clutch is fully disengaged.

Next up was the trans fluid. I picked up this fluid transfer pump from Amazon. It fits 1gal/5qt jugs as well as 1liter/1qt bottles too.
Here:

That went fairly easy and took me only 5 minutes to fill the trans!

Pulled the Mpi fuse and primed the car with oil as it's been sitting for awhile. Built up 20 psi and then out the fuze back in. Time to start boys! It fired right up just like it did before.

For the first time in awhile, it moved under its own power! The new clutch is super grabby so I'll have to break it in decent.

I had this same ACT extreme duty clutch on my sti with the same streelite flywheel and I took it to the track and melted the clutch assembly together on a 6500 rpm launch.. I called act and they said since it's ceramic,.it doesn't really need a break in. Just regular driving for maybe 50 miles or so to wear some the high spots and good to go.

I won't be doing that this time..

Here it is! First time seeing it completely with the new wheels, and tires on. I'm super stoked to start tuning this thing again!

PXL_20210514_232136103.jpg


PXL_20210514_232322347.jpg


PXL_20210514_233946146.jpg


PXL_20210515_001927783.PORTRAIT.jpg


PXL_20210515_002744850.jpg


PXL_20210515_003847287.PORTRAIT.jpg
 
Got her all washed up today. Pulled it out to clean the garage.
This thing cleans up great! I'm going to try and get an alignment done next week.

The wastegate dump tube also needs fabbed up. I have ALWAYS wanted a hood dump but I don't really want to worry about rain or snow or anything hurting the wastegate if I decide to take it out. It would make things much easier though. I'll take this dump tube to the same place I had weld up the clutch pedal and have them fab something up to get it to dump out the bottom.

It also has a pretty bad exhaust leak where the downpipe meets the catback so I think I'll have a local shop build up a full 3" catback. Still deciding on if I want a muffler or just straight pipe.. I don't want it to be unbearable when driving so maybe a muffler, but no cat or resonator?

I'm really liking these RPF1s too. I think they fit the build and profile of this car pretty well!

PXL_20210515_212120973.PORTRAIT.jpg


PXL_20210515_214254655.PORTRAIT.jpg


PXL_20210515_215358805.PORTRAIT.jpg
 
Busted out the Ol DA today to try and get rid of these awful scratches and and water spots. I run a Griots G9 Dual Action with Lake Country pads. Today I used a Lake country Orange, the stiffest Foam pad I had before going to a microfiber. The only compound I have is Maguiars Ultimate which turned out to not be enough to take care of a lot of it. Still, it turned out better than it was!

Planning on picking up some Megs 105 and 205 and going back at it.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention I took it for a short like 3 mile drive today too. It definitely needs an alignment but overall it went pretty well!

PXL_20210518_001442304.jpg


PXL_20210518_001450197.jpg


PXL_20210518_002859620.jpg


PXL_20210518_002903053.jpg




PXL_20210518_005053424.jpg


PXL_20210518_003806543.jpg


PXL_20210518_004905159.jpg


PXL_20210518_004827564.jpg


PXL_20210518_004832729.jpg
 
Last edited:
Forgive my ignorance here, but in the pics where you have the panel off under steering column, where is the starter relay?

I keep reading that it's the "middle one" in a series of 3, are they facing AWAY from the camera?
 
Dropped the car off for an alignment tomorrow at 1030.

On the way there it was overheating a little, and my brother behind me said that there was a little bit of smoke coming out of the exhaust. Not sure of color but he said later down the road it smelled like Oil. Could be residual burn off from my PCV incident awhile back. It was only a 15 min drive but it was 80 here. Not sure these eBay fans are going to cut it. I got 2 ideas:
1) Upgrade the main passenger side fan to a Spal unit
2) wire up the 2nd fan to turn on with the A/C, or with the first fan.

decisions, decisions..

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to drive it home no problems!

PXL_20210519_222232675.jpg
 
Doing some research i came across this post: http://www.galantvr4.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=1217328&Main=1217298

it seems that you can use the FPS (Fuel pressure solenoid) to ground and activate a relay. Using that you can also set perameters in Link for FPS, which means that you can actually set custom turn on points for your fans if you wire them correctly.. sweet. I might look into that.
 
Just picked the car up from alignment. Safe to say it was absolutely needed!

I drove it maybe 2 miles and in those 2 miles I bet the ecu lost power 5 times.. back to this stupid issue again. I might double check a few harnesses in the bay and undo some wrap and check some wires and if I don't find anything, I might throw up a post in troubleshooting.

For anyone that wants to double check what I've already done to solve this, see post #47 and #48:
Post in thread '1g build - The Real Life Trials and Tribulations of building a DSM' https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/1...tions-of-building-a-dsm.530076/post-153792756

basically the ecu/ Mpi relay circuit seems to loose power. I know this because if I'm data logging, it ends the log, the relay clicks, and the cel comes on. Fuel pump stops priming when keying on, the CEL stays on when keying on ( doesn't disappear after a couple seconds) everything else has power, and runs and works but the car will only turn over and never start. This happens while driving, it just literally looses all power. Sometimes it's just for a second or two, and it comes back, sometimes it stays off. That's ultimately what caused me getting rear ended awhile back.

This happens completely randomly..it could sit for a couple days doing nothing and it started before and then wouldn't start now. Or it would start and run fine, and then park it and it die while idling. It was doing this before the ECU was sent out to EcmTuning, the checked all the caps and tested good.

i Suspect there's some wires from the battery that are shorting. When I got the car there was lots of mice poop in the bay so I'd assume they probably got somewhere and chewed a few wires.. now to find where.

if anyone has any pointers on this, I'm all ears. This seriously makes this car a gamble to drive as it could just die while driving and not come back..

PXL_20210520_231402125.jpg


PXL_20210520_234639329.jpg
 
Last edited:
So I pulled the batter and battery tray out last night to trace wires and make sure nothing was chewed away anything. I found most wires to still be in near perfect condition, and there were zero chew marks or unsheathed wires anywhere.

My ground wire from my battery to the firewall was looking a little rough, so I might pick up a new replacement.

I tested continuity between all 3 fuses on the positive terminal and they all showed under .5 ohm.

I then tested continuity from the battery connector itself, to the battery side of the MPI fuze (just the blue connecter inside the fuse seat) and it tested at .3ohms.. so good there. I visually checked the main power wires running to the fuse box on the passenger side strut tower, and they look perfect.

Everything in the bay seems to be in good condition so I think my problem lies inside, probably within the ecu wiring..

PXL_20210522_034309592.jpg


PXL_20210522_034314421.jpg


PXL_20210522_035413513.jpg
 
Support Vendors who Support the DSM Community
Boosted Fabrication ECM Tuning ExtremePSI Fuel Injector Clinic Innovation Products Jacks Transmissions JNZ Tuning Kiggly Racing Morrison Fabrications MyMitsubishiStore.com RixRacing RockAuto RTM Racing STM Tuned

Latest posts

Build Thread Updates

Vendor Updates

Latest Classifieds

Back
Top