a neverending story - chris's turbo 900i

[ludichris001]

spent some more time on the wiring after work today, just needs a bit more of a tidy up, and my new battery cable needs to be fitted.
then after refitting all the little bits and pieces remaining (horns, washer bottle, etc) hopefully i can start going nuts one the engine and transmission

[misu]

Damn, your wiring looks better than mine . It looks like I will have to dismantle front of my car and rewire it. Fact is, that I've discovered some broken wire - left headlight ground wire is broken and I have to make an extra wire directly from headlight to the nearest ground point, just bellow headlight. So you already rectified this possible problem with oxidized ground wires around front cable loom ground eye.

[ludichris001]

haha yeah the grounds were my main concern. after checking and replacing all of the suspect wires and i ran a patch lead between the other ground point behind the LHF indicator, and the main ground point (the patch is under the conduit for the factory wiring now). i will also be doing another lead from that point into the interior and to all of the factory grounds, then back to the battery. while im there i will also do one for the rear/taillights grounds too.

because my battery is in the boot now, and its + cable goes straight to the starter + post, i have removed the white/grey cables from the little junction block infront of the A/C inlet duct, shortened them, and now they are going to get power straight from the + post of the starter. the power feed needed for the LH ecu also runs off that post too, and goes along the firewall (under that black cover for the factory loom) to the junction block.

[ludichris001]

finished tidying up the rest of the engine bay wiring and fitted new battery cable.. it seems a bit overkill (its a very thick cable) but i got it given to me for nothing..
i think its safe to say that any voltage drop i had with the old cable has been.. deleted

[ludichris001]

damn photo limit!

[ludichris001]

my dash looked at me funny...






today was the first day i actually had to look at the wiring diagrams, but only so i could find all of the factory ground points

so far ive routed the patch lead from the main point at the front, up over the RH wheel arch and in through the same hole that the LH wiring passes through.
then ran the wire up and along the top just under the windscreen, and down to the ground point under the dash on the LH side.
in between that i have added a couple of tails, one goes to the mounting bracket for the LH ECU (i also have another tail coming out of the LH harness connected to the main ground wire, both will be bolted together on the bracket), one goes to the radio plug, and the other goes to the DI/APC.
next step is to remove the LHF seat and run another tail to the ground point thats on/around the gear selector, then after that i will be slowly working my way back to the battery and tail lights/rest of rear end.

[ludichris001]

sensation blue




for my next trick i will be changing the lights behind the A/C controls to blue aswell, then all of the switches.
the gauge cluster took 6 LED lights, the A/C control will be taking 16 more of them..

the photos dont make it look as good as what it actually is

[SaabHat93]

Holy.. those are some BLUE lights.

Do they dim with the rheostat?

Looks good!

[ludichris001]

cheers!

no the original rheostat is not going to be used (its dead anyway, and the whole dash lighting section was melted for some reason.. ??), instead i will be using a dimmer/rheostat from a 9000, these light are way too bright to be able to drive with, so i will definitely need one

[ludichris001]

done most of the A/C controls tonight, still have to do the fan speed numbers, also decided to change the headlight switch, A/C, demister and recirc switch lights to blue.

heres how the a/c controls look so far:





i put a red LED behind the heater switch position indicator if anyone was wondering..

EDIT: not doing the headlight switch.. its almost impossible to A: properly fit the LED, and B: have it as bright as the rest (and even with a blue LED its still green)
all facia lights have now been done and i have made up another LED interior light, the other one died, and the new one has more of a "spread" light

[ludichris001]

okay so the dash lights are done and fitted, as for the rheostat, i ended up not using the 9000 one as it was too much of a PITA and very sensitive with LED's. instead i removed the rheostat in the gauge cluster and fitted a potentiometer in its place (not a wirewound one like the original) it is long enough to poke out through the front so its just as easy to adjust as the old one.
now i needed something to be able to control the voltage and still be able to support the current draw. and believe it or not i used a heater fan speed controller from a 9000, which adjusts voltage by PWM.
after a few modifications i have it all fitted and set up to run all of the lights, the controller sits in the middle under the dash pad with all wiring following the factory harnesses. the best thing about it is the fact that it just works

i also done this, which is going to be running off the same circuit for the dash lights:





i am in the middle of replacing the heater tap while the bottom half of the dash is out, once its all back together ill post some photos of the final result

[ludichris001]

hello again

well the 900i was put on pause for a couple of weeks due to an incident involving my '89 EMS (now named Mia ) which some of you may or may not have seen in the workshop forum...

anyway Mia is all fixed and back on the road now (yay!!) so i can continue on the 900i..

so far i have pulled the transmission down again to remove the torque converter (getting high-stall) and replace the pinion bearings and seals.

..i feel like ive done this before...

[ludichris001]

update or bump as you may call it:

funding for this project has now increased dramatically

so it will be up and running a lot sooner than what i first thought.

soo... the torque converter was sent off the other day and i recieved a call about it today, the drive spines are near completely shot and as far as hi-stalling it goes i was originally quoted close to $1000 just to remanufacture the converter to raise the stall speed..

but... after some conversation with the specialist working on my torque converter, it has been cut, cleaned, inspected, all bits that were worn have been replaced, upgrade to needle roller thrust bearings (original ones were bush type) and to my suprise the hi stall is a lot cheaper than first thought, instead of completely remanufacturing mine, the stator from a mitsubishi sigma converter is the same size at my one, and it should raise the stall to approx 2800RPM. done and done
and the total cost of all of this work comes to around $400 (insert extremely big smiley face here..)

as for the pinion bearings, i have them coming in a week, the small one is more expensive than the big one though! big: $38 small: $145 i have been told that its because of its oddball size they are a little more pricey... all other O rings are on their way aswell, still need to hunt down a new converter seal and pinion seals. should have the converter, and all of the rest of the bits back by next friday.

....and i will be getting a MS2 system now aswell.

[ludichris001]

had a lazy sunday afternoon today so i got bored quite quickly, which resulted in modifying the parcel shelf and fitting some new speakers (the old set has been fitted into the EMS)











i still have to lay new carpet over the lot so the colour is the same but it has come together well so far, and the sound quality of the speakers have improved with the boxes, the midrange sounds are a lot louder now (a little too loud to hear the lower and higher frequencies), and because of that, i will be porting the boxes when i get the time.

also took some photos of the new dash lights, this time in the car: