Brumby WRX project

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:09 am

Hi team,

I have started putting posts up arond the place and thought that i should probably log up my progress.

The Car;

1992 Aniversary Brumby

The donor;

1996? impreza WRX Half cut from Ichiban motors in Moorebank Sydney

So i am definetly no where near as good as the majority of people on this forum and this is my first serious conversion despite being a member of the BYB forover 10 years. I will try and cover all aspects of the conversion to make it easier for others. However like everyone says, there is more than one way to skin cat, and thus do a conversion on a brumby, so my way definetly wont be the only way. So here we go;

Started off by stripping everything out of the engine bay. I took particular care to label all the wiring loom connections with a bit of masking tape and a label and ended up with a long loom hanging over the car. After i got rid of everything from the front of the car (engine, gearbox, lights, grille,etc) i spent hours scrubbing the enginebay to get rid of over 15 years of muck. Here is the result;

Chassis rail modifications (doesnt need to be cut this much but does make it easy to fit, only need to cut where the cam covers woud touch the rail); the photo is obviously after cutting and rewelding. I used a mig welder and the panel out of a bonnet (which is the same thickness as the rail) and then used body filler to round out the corners and then surface primer and then 4 final coats to make it look factory.

brumbyrunner · Post by **brumbyrunner** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:13 am

Good to see another conversion. Is it a streeter or off-roader?

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:23 am

Gearbox crossmember;

I didnt actually build this, but was fortunate enough to pick it up off a previous attempted project.

this bolts straight up to where the brumby crossmember bolts.

It will attach onto half of the imprezza gearbox crossmember (use the imprezza crossmember that runs length ways with the vehicle,not across) make sure you use the rubber mount to attach the fabricated crossmember with the imprezza crossmember.

and matt black to look factory

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:34 am

Engine crossmember;

Again i managed to pick this one up, so i didnt build it. It is a standard MY engine crossmember with the engine mount holes filed out about 5mm, and a scolop put in the crossmember to allow for the uppipe to the turbo.

aussie_guy00000 · Post by **aussie_guy00000** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:21 am

Talking about mounting an EJ20 motor to a brumby crossmember, I noticed something recently when working on my brumby (here). The engine mounting points on the MY crossmember have a slightly raised section (circled in pics below), and because the engine mounts on the EJ engine are slight further apart, they sit up on these raised sections. It's not very obvious when you drop the engine in, and the only reason I noticed it, is I had my engine hanging on the engine crane and was test fitting the cross member to the engine while I was installing a cut out for the turbo up pipe. This made it very easy to see, although I didn't take any photos (typical). I think if left that way, it would cause the engine mount to fail prematurely, so I'm going to fix it by installing a shim betwen the mount and crossmember, or my flattening the relevant sections on the cross member

subybrumby · Post by **subybrumby** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 10:48 am

Good job on the chassis cut. All success with the project, I'll be following this with interest. I am running an EA82T in a 3" lifted brumby, but if anything happens to this motor, out she goes and in with an EJ, not too sure which yet. Good luck.

Thumpage44 · Post by **Thumpage44** » Fri Mar 06, 2009 5:55 pm

Everything looks fantastic mate, very interesting to read! I like how you take great care in labelling everything.

brute · Post by **brute** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 1:11 pm

The info you have given is really good, im doing the same but a few steps behind you. I have my 94 WRX half cut stripped out, brumby engine and gearbox out and now ready to commence on the chassi / cross member work.

Mines a 89 Silver Targa Top Brumby, road use, SE QLD. Im working on mine on the odd weekend and the odd bit before / after work and hoping to get it running within about 4 weeks, what sort of time frame are you working on?

Keep the info coming.

ustility · Post by **ustility** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 2:48 pm

fantastic work. Really great to see the photos of actual progress. It is a real help to those that are on the same track, or planing to do the conversion. It always helps to have a visual of what is actually done, not just a brief note of how to do it.
Againg nice work, very clean looking.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:59 pm

So,

clutch installation;

seeing as the wrx uses a hydraulic clutch it requires a 'push' action as opposed to the brumby's cable clutch 'pull' motion. So with a bit of light square tube i rigged up the following. It was relatively simple but did require about 4 hours back and forth just gettin all the measurements correct.

The hole through the firewall needs to be widend, i used a round file and kept filing till the master cylinder fitted through. the fluid line i havent figured out yet becasue the impreazza one doesnt work.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 9:12 pm

Accelerator cable;

The brumby accelerator cable obviously doesn't work, and the impreazza one is slightly different. The imprezza has a weird triangular plastic piece that mounts in the firewall to attach it and keep it in place. Unfortunately the brumby hole through the fire wall is a little smaller than the wrx cable firewall piece. I filed the funky triangular plastic bit down till it fitted tightly in the pre-exsiting hole. To secure it in place I cut a groove in the triangular piece so as when it went through the firewall it could be held in place by a brake clip. See pictures.

brute · Post by **brute** » Wed Apr 08, 2009 1:51 pm

I just fitted mine today, drilled the existing hole larger from the inside and then filed it so it would take the larger end of the plug thingy so that it sits flush in against the engine side of the fire wall (like the WRX one does originally).

From what i noticed by putting it in the way you have done it (leaving a gap on the engine bay side) the accelerator cable has tension on it engaging the throttle. Additionally I removed the locking nut that secures the cable in place on the accelerator to give it a few extra mm, it now sits against the sleeve of the cable with two nuts on the other side holding it in place.

Also if you havent fitted the engine yet and you are planning to use the front top engine mount (under the spare wheel plate) suggest that you remove the bolt thats in it at the moment as it needs to be on the other side to make any use for fixing it to a custom made mount. Had to remove mine with engine sitting in there and it was a horrible job, its welded into the sleeve or something, sits in there really tight.

Bronze · Post by **Bronze** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 11:07 pm

Another interesting read. Keep up the pictures and posts please.

Although I'm not into the HP game I do like to see the time and effort that go into a new breed of Brumby.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 4:29 pm

Steering Column;

This is a bit trickier than i anticipated and still not sure if it will work using the imprezza instrument cluster in the brumby dash, but that will come later hopefully. for anyone attempting this one, you will need a good angle grinder, welder (preferably high voltage mig) and to do a lot of measuring.

The brumby and imprezza columns are identical lengths;

however the imrezza mounting bracket is different to the brumby thus the need for modification. I used a relatively thick piece of galvanised steel and cut the flat mounting face off the imprezzas and welded on the gal plate. i then cut the section out of the middle of the plate so it could go over the steering wheel and drilled the new mounting holes. I found this to be difficult to get exactly right so i filed out the holes lengthways to give me a bit of adjustment on fiting. The end product;

The imprezzas mounting bracket is attached to the steering column via a little attachment that i cut off and re-welded in the right spot a bit higher up the column. I did have to go back and cut and re-weld because it was slightly to low down the column. It is important that the large part of the column actually run through the firewall so as you can fit the grommet to stabilise the steering column in the firewall. As you can see in the photo i have cut it from the original imprezza mounting and moved it to suit the brumby structure;

till next time!

Point · Post by **Point** » Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:15 pm

i just made a simple bracket, but i think the lib column tilt adjust is different

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:25 am

have you used the lib surround over the column or brumby?

That was a good idea with the plate, will obviously lower the steering wheel a bit but with the hieght adjustment you are hardly going to notice. Probably would have done wha tyou had done had i the brain power!

cheers

Point · Post by **Point** » Tue Apr 21, 2009 9:44 am

I haven't got as far as the trim pieces, but I was going to use the Lib surround. The column can't go any higher, as I've already had to grind a bit to make room for the springs you can see on the top.

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Sun Apr 26, 2009 7:03 pm

Gear Linkages;

This has proved to be a little time consuming and i dont think im past the worst of it yet. This job definetly requires an angle grinder and a mig welder, and a bit of fabricating experience.

Firstly i had to remove the rubber mount at the rear of the gearbox tunnel (photo taken in imprezza.

Fairly striaght forward looking bracket.

The piece obviously needs to fit in the corresponding spot in the brumby gearbox tunnel. Unfortunately there isnt the same face to mount against.

Hence the need to modify a new bracket for the brumby. This job took a few hours of toing and froing and eventually it came up all good and mounted fairly flat to the tunnel.

Next was the rest of the gear linkages!

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:31 pm

gear linages #2;

Well this job was fairl straight forward until i tried to modify the upper linkage. The linkages need to be shortened to get through the gearbox tunnel to the cabin. I measured it up and had to cut 8.5cm off both the upper and lower linkage. In retrospect i probably could have only taken 7 cm off.

upper linkage;

and now welded

lower linkage

and what i though twould work as the welded modified lower linkage;]

Unfortunately it wasnt that easy and in retrospect i probably should have used a thick piece of wire and used it as a template to cut and re weld the linkage in the correct direction. I still havent finished this as i am pretty sure that when i put the propeller shaft in that it will knock against it.

Here is the not quite finished but at least sitting in the right spot after a lot of tooing and frooing between the weld room and the garage.

stay tuned!

The final finished gear linkage (remember this is a 2 inch dropped engine so hence the large degree of lift in the linkage);

SUBIIE · Post by **SUBIIE** » Mon Apr 27, 2009 4:37 pm

Rear Diff;

This looks fairly straight forward, as the two have the same template but the internals need to be swapped over. I choose to have Wayne Horsefall in Ulladulla NSW to swap the internals over. I was happy with the getting a mechanic.