Another XR Build Thead. This time with 1000% more Saab

Welp. I've been now 31 hours without power, so this is a fun time. On a side note, I got to use my chainsaw to take down a 15" diam 30 ft long branch that fell from one of my maple trees, so that's always nice.

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john vanlandingham
Matt didya hack off the fuel pump mounting crap? Do it. Pump in the tire well and that crap will be in the way some day.
Also I have some quotes at $235 for windshields.. Want to confirm and push for a "carry out" price..
Let's start sniffing if'n anybody from round here is going to the any event up there...nudge nudge knowwhatImean, eh?

You hear anything about the windshields? I am just about to hack mine out, so I'd like to start getting an idea if I'm getting one from the US of A of if I am paying the extortionist rates for the local shop to ship one from the US to them?

I am just about to start re-assembling my wiring harness. I have been on vacation and sick, so my time has been spent pulling apart the old chassis harness and getting rid of all the crap. I am planning on relocating the relays and using circuit breakers and such for controls, which should start this weekend.

I'm also waiting on some more paint to finish up the bumpers, rear hatch and interior. I called SPI who I had used in the past and found they have a cdn distributor that is pretty close to the posted prices, and has fairly inexpensive shipping, so I ended up ordering another gallon (2 gallons sprayable) of epoxy rather than ordering the crap from TCP Global. I hope it will spray as well as the last SPI stuff did since the TCP paint was an exercise in frustration....

Matt its morning so I'm rushing around but a little suggestion to make life and work easier---unless you want to suffer needlessly...
Do the circuit breakers on just the absolutely "NEEDED" circuits to keep the car going at SS speeds..
You don't NEED to fuck with circuit breakers for blinkkers and tail lights or dome light, or even dash lights.. But FUEL PUMP yes you need that, FAN yep, wipers/defrost YEP... etc
Do what you WANT, but try thinking a bit..

But remember to spend. SPEND. SPEND!!!

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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john vanlandingham
Matt its morning so I'm rushing around but a little suggestion to make life and work easier---unless you want to suffer needlessly...
Do the circuit breakers on just the absolutely "NEEDED" circuits to keep the car going at SS speeds..
You don't NEED to fuck with circuit breakers for blinkkers and tail lights or dome light, or even dash lights.. But FUEL PUMP yes you need that, FAN yep, wipers/defrost YEP... etc
Do what you WANT, but try thinking a bit..

But remember to spend. SPEND. SPEND!!!

Yep. 100% with you. I ended up getting a fecking steal on circuit breakers through a friend who does a lot of automation, so I am using them mostly for consistency (and swapability) sake. I am also not using the fancy ass push pull types that all the websites reccomend, because the normal push to reset only type work fine and are a 1/3 of the cost. They have exactly the same rating/trip curves etc, so yah.

What I am doing is a little overkill, but at least I will know exaclty how things are wired and will be able to actually repair things in a limited time if I need to or completely bypass a circuit.

If anyone else wants to go down this circuit breaker road www.digikey.com (or .ca for cdns with canadian shipping) has almost anything the fancy ass 'racing' suppliers have at VERY much cheaper pricing.

Did you happen to hear anything back on the windshield?

Work progresses!

The interior paint fairy came and puked over the inside of the car!


I found it much easier to spray from outside the car, just reaching in to spray things. It worked out much better. I started with a paint brush to get the areas where I didn't think I could reach with the spray gun. That worked very well.

I also started the fairly fun task of doing the brake system. This is going to be a dual master setup with a balance bar, so I needed to start by modifying the pedal box.

First up, cut a giant hole in the pedal itself to receive the sleeve that the bearing will ride in. Note: if you are doing this on a sierra or XR and end up modifying it like mine (there are bolt on kits you can get which save time...) then do yourself the favor of making sure that the sleeve is a good 1/4-3/8" (5mm for our metric folks should do it) further back than where I put it. mine is JUST far enough back that it will work, but I'd sure like more thread engagement.


Pedal needed to be squished in a vice so that the sleeve would fit width wise:


weldy weld:


I used a sponge and a bolt with some sandpaper to ream out the inside of the bush a bit to get the bearing to fit. I also ground down the weld where it went past the bushing. The clevis almost touches the side of the bushing when it's installed properly:


This was a bit of guesswork to get to this picture.

Here is how I did it:
1. Cut some 3mm plate
2. Decide where you want the first master. I looked at the firewall, which showed that for the existing mounting of the pedal box, I had only an inch until I would run out of space to the right of the pedal box... so I went a 1/2" in on the plate, and that's where I wanted the edge of the biggest hole. Based on your balance bar kit, you then space the centers of the two masters apart how far they tell you. Mine was 2 1/2" spacing.
2. Scribe up the hole locations for the masters that I had which is: 1 1/2" center hole, bolt holes on 2 1/4" centers at 9mm or so (I'm using m8 bolts once all is said and done.)
3. Drill everything. 1 1/2" centers are tight for the wilwood masters I have. They should really be 1 9/16 or 1 5/8 so that they more easily clear the boots that are on the masters. I can get them in, but to get them out you just have to pull the boot off of the master (really easy to do). I may open them up with a die grinder before I am done.
4. Re-assemble the pedal box, then use the back mounts (you can see where they were on the left side) to rest the plate on it. You can then Visually line up the balance bar sleeve with the gap between where the masters will be. I trimmed one mounting location to allow me to put in a master to check to see where I wanted the plate in the vertical. I opted to have the master cylinder rod at an angle with no braking, and then straighten, rather than have it straight when not braking. Don't know if it matters.
5. Once I was happy. I tack welded it to the mount and checked again. everything looked good.
6. I then re-enforced from the top of the plate to the top of the pedal box with 2mm plate
7. I then cut away the right hand mount in approx. the line that the master would follow
8. I tack welded some re-enforcement and then welded the whole thing up.



Here's everything trial assembled. Note the carriage bolts that will be changed out for welded in 8mm bolts once I pick some up.



Next up: cutting a rectangular hole in the firewall.

Nice!!! It almost looks like you listened to some good advice from JVAB!

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

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fiasco
Nice!!! It almost looks like you listened to some good advice from JVAB!

Why? Is this what I am supposed to be doing?

Offer that up to the firewall ASAP to check the pedal postion..
'Memeber I said when we did those cars way back we found we needed to extend by appron 22-25mm the pushrod length to get the pedal higher

And whatchoo talking cut a hole in da firewall, mang?
ADD a 1/8 plate on the engine compartment side, then drill holes thru and bolt that contraption THRU (zap the bolt heads so you secure whole shebang from outside, not inside laying on back reaching up.
Oh and fill that hole in the firewall..a hole-saw drop out is fine. Zap then sand down (leaving the pilot hole for a center point for referencing things..)

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2014 10:05AM by john vanlandingham.

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john vanlandingham
Offer that up to the firewall ASAP to check the pedal postion..
'Memeber I said when we did those cars way back we found we needed to extend by appron 22-25mm the pushrod length to get the pedal higher

Pedal position is 100% the same as stock. The pushrods are juuuuusssst long enough to allow it to be fully extended on the stock front pedal stop.

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john vanlandingham
And whatchoo talking cut a hole in da firewall, mang?
ADD a 1/8 plate on the engine compartment side, then drill holes thru and bolt that contraption THRU (zap the bolt heads so you secure whole shebang from outside, not inside laying on back reaching up.
Oh and fill that hole in the firewall..a hole-saw drop out is fine. Zap then sand down (leaving the pilot hole for a center point for referencing things..)

My thought is this: Hole in firewall + welded bolts in the plate = allowing me to set up the masters and ballance bar OFF the car, put it in the car, bolt it up with nuts in the engine compartment and be 100% good to go. Servicing then would only require unbolting the nuts, removing the two brake lines and clutch line.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2014 11:58AM by MattWatson.

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MattWatson

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john vanlandingham
Offer that up to the firewall ASAP to check the pedal postion..
'Memeber I said when we did those cars way back we found we needed to extend by appron 22-25mm the pushrod length to get the pedal higher

Pedal position is 100% the same as stock. The pushrods are juuuuusssst long enough to allow it to be fully extended on the stock front pedal stop.

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john vanlandingham
And whatchoo talking cut a hole in da firewall, mang?
ADD a 1/8 plate on the engine compartment side, then drill holes thru and bolt that contraption THRU (zap the bolt heads so you secure whole shebang from outside, not inside laying on back reaching up.
Oh and fill that hole in the firewall..a hole-saw drop out is fine. Zap then sand down (leaving the pilot hole for a center point for referencing things..)

My thought is this: Hole in firewall + welded bolts in the plate = allowing me to set up the masters and ballance bar OFF the car, put it in the car, bolt it up with nuts in the engine compartment and be 100% good to go. Servicing then would only require unbolting the nuts, removing the two brake lines and clutch line.

BE CAREFUL. firewall is flexy. The push comes from the back (in) side. Simple me thinks I'd want the plate in the back (in) side overlapping the front flate..
I dunno...but think flex.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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fiasco
Nice!!! It almost looks like you listened to some good advice from JVAB!

John... having good advise about XRs? What!?!?!?!?!

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Thomas Kimsey

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fiasco
Nice!!! It almost looks like you listened to some good advice from JVAB!

John... having good advise about XRs? What!?!?!?!?!

couldn't be…I certainly didn't take his advice and use "fast gravel" (Finland) spring rates as the basis for "good enough" from what was in stock in the shed on my Lemons car. Also didn't boost the Supra diff idea and had my teammate break out the Bridgeport and MIG and rig that up in the car. Nor did we do the cheapest bang for buck upgrades for power in an intercooler an 3" exhaust.

Now with a fresh cooling system, we'll see how the Merkurian Falcon does at Halloween Hooptiefest this weekend. Hopefully better than last year...

---

Andrew Steere
Lyndeborough, NH
KB1PJY

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fiasco

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Thomas Kimsey

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fiasco
Nice!!! It almost looks like you listened to some good advice from JVAB!

John... having good advise about XRs? What!?!?!?!?!

couldn't be…I certainly didn't take his advice and use "fast gravel" (Finland) spring rates as the basis for "good enough" from what was in stock in the shed on my Lemons car. Also didn't boost the Supra diff idea and had my teammate break out the Bridgeport and MIG and rig that up in the car. Nor did we do the cheapest bang for buck upgrades for power in an intercooler an 3" exhaust.

Now with a fresh cooling system, we'll see how the Merkurian Falcon does at Halloween Hooptiefest this weekend. Hopefully better than last year...

Forgot that deal was going down this weekend. You get the supra diff breakaway torque increased? Good luck and let me know if you need any parts overnighted from Rochester.

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MattWatson

Did you happen to hear anything back on the windshield?

Got you 2 windshields ordered. Good price. Gotta make a pallet into a rack to send them...

Maybe somebody is going to big white from up thar and maybe I can find somebody going up from down here..

Should arrive in 5 working days.

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

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john vanlandingham

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MattWatson

Did you happen to hear anything back on the windshield?

Got you 2 windshields ordered. Good price. Gotta make a pallet into a rack to send them...

Maybe somebody is going to big white from up thar and maybe I can find somebody going up from down here..

Should arrive in 5 working days.

Awesome! Thanks!

That was the last thing that I was really worried about on this car and causing me a small amount of angst. Everyone I called said, yep, no problem. Then I would get a call back: "Oh yah... we can't get them" or Well the price increased to $500 ea.