Steering & Aircon
June 28, 2008 – 11:02 pmI made a little progress last night and today, no pics tonight but I will have some up tomorrow.
As part of the upgrade I swapped the Legacy steering rack for a faster-ratio 2004 STi rack. The new rack should make it easier to muscle the car around the autox course and improve steering feel over the 11 year old stocker! However, the STi rack has a different spline count on the input shaft meaning that it won’t mate to the Legacy column without modifications.
Initially I considered swapping the column out, but the differences between the WRX and Legacy columns are great enough that it wasn’t really a viable proposition. It’s also not legal for the Street Modified Autox class, so that option was out.
The other option was to modify the linkage between the column and rack to make a linkage with the correct splines on each end (Legacy column & WRX/STi rack).
I had heard that this linkage is not able to be disassembled and that the only way to make the adapter was to cut the ends off a WRX and a Legacy linkage then weld them together. While this works, it isn’t the neatest solution. The heat from welding will also cook the grease out of the joints and greatly shorten their life.
So, I took a closer look at the joints to see if I might be able to disassemble them. After a little head-scratching I figured it out, and was able to swap the ends and create the linkage I needed. Once I upload the photos I will make a more detailed post on how to perform the swap.
The other big project has been the HVAC wiring, as this is one of the major Legacy systems which I am retaining. I was able to simplify and reconfigure the original harness from the Legacy and got down to 5 connections which needed to be spliced into the WRX harness. The donor car had automatic climate control so there are several wires which I’m not using (hvac control unit power, temp & sunload sensor, etc), but hopefully I can put that part of the wiring behind me now.
With a little luck I’ll be able to put in a full day tomorrow, I’m planning to get the exhaust manifolds, up-pipe, flywheel & clutch bolted up and drop the long-block into the car…