Gnubbs Blog

The other day when my battery died I decided it was a prime opportunity to replace my battery. I am planning to eventually move my battery to trunk, so I spent the scratch to buy an Optima Red Top. Since my car was sittting worthless in my garage, I didn’t want to wait and special order the reversed pole (35-910) which is a direct drop in. Instead I just went out and bought the 75/35 red top, knowing that I would have to replace my starter cable when I installed it.

Most of the guides that I have read suggest simply leaving the old cable in place, unused, and zip tying the new 30″ cable to the old cable. Doing this, the install would have taken about 15 minutes. However, I don’t think that is the right way to do it. So, I decided to remove the old cable and correctly route and strain relieve the new cable. In the end this led to the install taking about 1.5 hours. But I feel that it was done right.

You will need an optima 75/35 Optima Red Top Battery and a 30-32″ starter to battery cable. The battery was about $120, the cable about $5. Plus a 12mm wrench, 10mm wrench, a very stubby flat head screw driver, electrical tape and some zip ties.

Remember — working with car batteries is dangerous. Don’t do this if you are stupid.

1. Disconnect the negative battery cable.
2. Disconnect the positive battery cable.
3. Remove the battery hold down, and battery.
4. Install the new battery (do not make the electrical connections)
5. Disconnect the 2 wires from the positive battery terminal (one to the fuse box, one to starter)
6. Remove the two bolts holding the windshield washer resevoir and lift it up some. You will see there is an electrical connection on the underside of it. Disconnect this connection, but leave the actual tube that the fluid is pumped through. Move the resevoir up and out of the way.
   
7. Now, looking to the driver backside of the engine, under the intercooler, you can see the starter. It is identifiable by the large black 90 degree boot on the positive battery cable running to it.
8. Reach back, pull the boot off the positive starter connection, and remove the nut holding that cable on (12mm I think). Be careful because there is a washer on there.
9. Follow that cable back up towards the battery. You will see that the ground for the starter is taped to this cable, and it is connected to a hanger off the strut tower.
10. You have two choices here. You can leave everything as is, and just tape the new battery to starter cable to the old one. That is fast and easy. I think wrong, but fast and easy.
11. If you choose to do this the right way, you now need to seperate the positive and ground starter cables, disconnect the positive from the hanger (there is a tab that you can press in from underneath with a very stubby screwdriver), and remove the entire positive cable from the car.
12. Now, starting at the starter side, move all of the strain relief and the hanger from the old cable to the new cable. Tape it all up well, and you should have a nice replacement cable. Test fit it and make sure that when it is connected to the hanger there is enough cable for when the engines moves around.
13. Now, reconnect the new cable to the starter and to the battery terminal (still off battery). Reconnect it to the hanger, and zip tie the ground wire back to the new starter wire.
14. Connect the wire to the fuse box to the positive battery terminal, and then connect the terminal to the, errr, positive terminal on the battery. (Hope that makes some sense…)
15. Double check all of your wiring.
16. Reconnect the ground terminal on the battery.
17. Start your car and you are done.

This morning when I opened my garage I immediately saw that I was going to have a problem.  The rear passenger door on the WRX was not closed all the way, so the dome light was going to have been on all night.  Crap.

I get in and turn the key.  Nothing.  My stock battery new puts out an amazing 356 CCA, and it was already having a very hard time starting my car when it was cold.  I figured this was a good opportunity to replace it since letting them fully drain is never good for a battery.

I call Stephanie who had just left for work and she comes and picks me up.  At lunch today I went out and bought an Optima Red Top 75/35 battery and a new battery to starter cable.  The Optima terminals are not in exactly the same place as stock, so I have to replace that cable to use the battery.  So, not quite a drop in but hopefully it won’t be too bad.

The reason I went for the Optima is I am planning to move my battery to the trunk to free up some space in the engine bay.  Not tonight, but sometime in the not too distant future.

gnubbs

This is my first post about my trip to Israel, and I will have more to come including photos. I wanted to start with flying out of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv though. Ben Gurion is the major airport in Israel, so faces some very severe threats of terrorist attack. However, there has not been a significant terrorist attack there in 30 years. The reason is the security.

In 2001, I flew just a couple of weeks after September 11 and the security had absolutely nothing on the day to day security at Ben Gurion.

When you exit the highway and approach the airport, you first have to go through what is basically a military checkpoint. Tire spikes across the roads and personell with automatic weopons. The guard opened the back door of my cab, looked me over, and asked me a series of questions I would be well versed in by the time I made it to my gate that night. “What nationality are you?” “Where are flying?” “What were you doing in Israel?” “Where did you stay?” the list goes on. Finally, he seems satisfied and waves me through.

I am dropped off at the terminal, and I proceed towards the entrance of the airport. I am stopped by another guard and asked a similar series of questions. They direct me inside where I go to a security check line and am stopped by the next guard. I tell her that I am there on business and that my company has pre-registered me with security. She asks me more questions, checks my travel documents, checks my passport, and then tells me to stay where I am at. She takes my passport and travel documents and goes off someplace. After about 5-10 minutes, she comes back puts different colored stickers on my documents and bags, and tells me to proceed to the baggage scanning.

I place the bag I am checking onto a large X-ray machine, it is scanned, and I am sent over to have the bag had searched. The gentleman searching my bag asks me questions, and searches the bag while looking at the images from the X-ray machine. He is satisfied with everything, and I am finally sent to check into my flight.

Now I am just left with border control and being personally searched before going into the gate area.

All of this sounds like a hassle. If an american airport tried to do this level of searching it would be a nightmare. But it wasn’t a hassle. The difference was the personelle. They were polite and professional, but also deadly serious. There weren’t stupid rules like having to take off my shoes to go through the metal detector, or not being able to carry a lighter. They have highly trained guards who are looking for things that don’t look right, not stupid rules and poorly trained employees.

Would this have been different if I were muslim or from an arab country? I would have to imagine that it would have been. From my perspective though, I was able to get onto an airplane in what is basically a war zone without any concern for my safety.

gnubbs

My wife has asked that I give her a list of things that she can buy me when looking to get me random gifts. I thought that it would be appropriate to put it out here just in case any of my friends are also in the giving mood.

Climbing Gear

Wild Country Technical Friends (any size 1 – 6) $55 each (catch me when I fall)

Camp Tri-Cams (any size 0.5-1.5) $16 each (catch me when I fall)

Petzl Rescue Pulley (up to 3) $40 each (for glacier travel)

Bluewater 60m 10.2mm Eliminator Rope $135

Black Diamond Neutrino Carabiner (any number) $7.95 each

Black Diamond Positron Carabiner (any number) $7.95 each

Car Stuff

Valentine One Radar Detector $399

Perrin Front Endlinks $140

Perrin Front Sway Bar $139

Perrin Rear Endlinks $125

Perrin Rear Sway Bar $179

STI Carbon Fiber Side Markers $105

Pink WRX Front Badge $35

Perrin Radiator Shroud $60 (keeps my car cool)

Other Stuff

The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs $68.78

Button Down Shirts (Oxfords, stripes, solids, whatever.) I like J.Crew, Polo, and Kenneth Cole. Colorful, but not flamboyant.

Nikon D50 or D70s Digital Camera

Nikon F5 Film Camera (you can find these used for about $500)

A nice film/slide scanner

I am back from the Holy Land. I worked very, very hard but was also able to get in a bit of sight seeing. All in all, Israel is a very nice country to visit. Security is very tight every where, so be ready to be searched every time you turn a corner. The flip side is that I felt safe the entire time that I was there. I wasn’t able to go to Bethleham because of the security situation in that part of the west bank. I will have photos to post tomorrow or Tuesday, so I will wite more later.

steve

On Saturday morning I am boarding a flight in Denver, and sunday afternoon I will be stepping off a plane into the right history and chaos of Israel. I have to go fix some of our systems at a hospital in Jerusalem. Crazy. I didn’t find out I was going until Monday so this is all a bit last minute.

I am not going into that at the moment though. I have decided that I don’t want to carry my huge laptop on this trip. But, I still need some entertainment and internet access. So, tonight I hit up EB Games and Target and came away with:

My intial impression is that this is a very cool toy, and should be good for countless hours of entertainment. Or at the very least enough to get me through the 20 hours of flights in each direction. I am really surprised at how good the graphics and screen are, and how easy to use the web browser is. The test entry that it uses is actually pretty good — similar to the phone entry systems except it adds in things like “.com” or “index.html” as single items.

Fun stuff. Will have to tell you how well it works when I get back.

On monday night I drove down to south Denver to buy front and rear PDM Racing strut tower braces from a fellow AWDpirate. He is switching from a WRX to a Mini Cooper. So, he offered to sell me both braces for $100. This is a smoking deal. However, when I get down there we discover that since he took the braces off his car, that one of the end plates on the back brace got bent.

So, after a bit of renegotiation I walk away with a good front tower brace for $50, and a damaged rear brace for $10. I am not too happy, but the guy seemed genuinely surprised so I am pretty sure that he didn’t know about this until I got there. It happens. Last night I get out some C-Clamps and a sturdy board and see if I can get the end piece flat again. This takes about 30 minutes but in the end I have the part basically perfectly flat. There is a chance that this fatigued the metal and it will break some day, but I am pretty confident that it won’t.

After installing both braces last night I had time to go out and test drive the car a bit. The car felt noticably stiffer under hard cornering. Before putting them on, under hard cornering it felt a bit like my tires side walls were folding under pressure. (I don’t know if that was what was happening, but that is the best way I can describe it.) After the install, I no longer get that feeling. Is this all placebo? Maybe, but I am pretty sure it is not.

If I had spent $300 - $400 dollars on these new, I don’t think they would have been worth the money at this point. (Although from what I understand they are much more noticable with stiffer sway bars and springs.) But, for $60 and 2 hours of my time, they were certainly worth it.

gnubbs

Installing a front strut tower brace on a WRX is amazingly easy. I think that it took me a total of about 10 minutes. Self explanatory, and probably not worth the write up but I took the pictures so here goes.

Tools needed:

• 12mm Socket
• 12mm wrench (if you have a deep well 12mm socket, this is not needed)
• 10mm wrench (this might not be needed, depends on where you relocate the horn)

1. Remove the nuts holding the horn onto the passenger strut tower (2 x 12mm, need a deep well if you want to use a socket)

   

2. Disconnect the wiring going to horn and remove the horn and the bracket.
3. Remove the nuts on the top of the strut tower on each side (3 x 12mm per side)

   

4. Install the strut tower brace.

   

5. Tighten down the nuts on the top of the strut tower (3 x 12mm per side)
6. Remove the horn from the large bracket that mounted it to the strut tower. (1 x 12mm bolt)
7. Find someplace to mount the horn. In my case I choose a bolt used to mount the cruise control, which is attached to the strut tower down by the turbo.  Hard to see in the picture.

   

8. Mount the horn and reconnect the horn wiring.
9. Done.

Okay. I haven’t found any instructions for doing this that aren’t for a forester or WRX wagon. Sure, it is easy but I think that a lot of people would like to see what is involved going into this. These are specific to a 2003 WRX Wagon and a PDM rear strut tower brace. I would guess that it would work pretty well with other years and certainly other strut tower braces.

This took me about 1 - 1.5 hours, and I would call it an easy install.

Tools Needed:

• 12mm Socket
• 14mm Socket
• 3″ socket extension (wobble is helpful)
• 6″ socket extension (wobble is helpful)
• Phillips screwdriver (not totally needed)

Steps:

1. Remove end pieces from Strut Tower Brace, so you are left with the center rod and both end pieces.
2. Remove bottom of rear seat. There are 2 x 12mm nuts.

   

3. Remove top of rear seat. There are 4 x 12mm nuts that run along the bottom and are normally hidden by the bottom of the seat. You also have to lift it up and over a hook to be able to pull it out.

   

4. You can either remove the trim that goes up along the back edge of the door (1x phillips at top, 1x phillips at bottom), or you can simply pop the top free so you can slide out the seat belt.

   

5. Repeat on other side.
6. Remove the seat belt mechanism (1 x 14mm bolt, and a little tab stuck into a hole in the body) and pull out of the way.

   

7. Remove the nuts at the top of the strut tower (3 x 12 mm, this is where wobble extensions can help).



8. Install the top of the strut tower brace, reinstall the nuts (3 x 12mm), but do not tighten.

   

9. Repeat on other side
10. Pop the trunk, looking into it, you should now see the connecting points for the cross base.
11. Install the cross brace, tighten the connections.

    

12. In the car tighten down the end caps.
13. Put the back sears of your car together and you are all set.

    

On thursday or friday of last week I took a look at the trading board on AWDPirates.net and found a couple of good deals on parts for my car.  First up was a guy looking to sell front and rear strut tower bars.  I get in touch with him and am buying them from him for $100.  Assuming they are in reasonable condition a good deal.  I am meeting up with him either tonight or tomorrow night.  These parts new would be at least $250-300.  He said they are from PDM Racing, so I am guessing that they are actually the Whiteline ones.

I also saw a post from a guy who was looking to trade his titanium STi shift knob for a stock WRX one.  Since I have a stock on sitting unused in my garage I worked out a deal to trade my knob and a twelve pack of heinekins for his shift knob.  These things are pretty expensive, so he must really hate it.  While working out where to meet, he asks if I was going to the AWD Pirates swap meet in denver on Saturday.  We decide that is a good place to meet up and swap.

Me and JT roll down there at about 11am saturday morning.  I quickly ID carlos and we swap shift knobs.  Nice.  JT and I then spend a while poking around and checking out the other kids rides.  Man, I can’t imagine being 18 and having a $30k car like all the high schoolers with STis.  Lots of nice cars, and people who know a shit load about WRXs.  I check out some nice mods, see how much nicer STI seats are than WRX, and chat about what people have done to thier cars.  It is nice to see what some of the nice gauges look like (they look so much nicer than the Autometer ones, they might be worth the money).  Not to mention hearing a funny story about a kid shooting nitros early, back firing, and blowing every non-metal hose off of his 2.5rs engine (other wise the engine was fine).

As far as the actual swap meet side of things, there just weren’t many people there with stuff to sell.  I do end up buying a brand new oil catch can off a kid for $50, but that was the only thing I was even remotely interested in.

It was nice to see that most of the kids who showed up were not ricers (except the kid with nitrous and the two cars with carbon fiber hoods).  A couple of the guys were mechanics and a lot of other kids either dragged or autoX thier cars.  Overall an entertaining way to spend a saturday morning.

gnubbs