The center diff locking spool and the new oil pump gear mated up well. On the other side, there was about an 1/8″ gap with gear in the tail housing.

Debated on what tool would best to cut the tail housing and ended up using a reciprocating saw with a thicker 9″ blade. The tail housing  is an awkward shape so I bolted it to a universal square to hold it in place. It worked well and gave a straight cut.

Next up is plugging the holes. Not covered in the guide is a race, a plastic piece, and a metal dowel that had to be removed.

Tail housing back on and ready to go back into the chassis. I wish I had a pretty plate like the 5-speeds.

Received the center diff locking kit from possum bourne motorsports. It is a FWD or RWD or 4WD kit. It is so simple that its ingenious.

I’ll use the FWD component and slide that over the pinion shaft gear. Then slide the center diff locking spool over that and the driven shaft. Don’t need the RWD component obviously.

(Looking straight down on the center diff locking spool)

It did come with a new oil pump gear to match up with the center diff locking spool.

The length of the center locking spool looks correct to butt up against the transfer drive gear in the tail housing.

This is all just a cursory review. We’ll see how this all goes together over the next few days.

Got my driver’s seat lowered and tilted back. I dropped the butt all the way down and tilted back about 20 degrees. Also, had to slide the seat way back almost up against the firewall. I’m 5’7″ and was surprised how tight it is to make the clearance requirements. I still have the sliders, but it seems rather pointless since I am already back up against the firewall.

Tilting back allowed me to clear that front crossbar.

Got a lot of work done on mounting seats, figuring out the harnesses, and mounting the ktuned shifter.

If you try to center your seat to use the FFR eye bolt brackets, it does not line up with the steering column. So I cut out the inside eye bolt bracket. I also cut out the front eye bolt bracket since it doesn’t work with my sparco seat and blocks the slider. I relocated the inside eye bolt bracket further inside and placed some plates under the seat for the eye bolts.

After doing all of this and feeling proud of myself, I discover the FFR harness bar will not work for me. It is not wide enough (to the inside). And it is probably too high. So I cut them out. I’ll need to use the square tubing for the shoulder harnesses.

Next, I’ll need to figure out how to notch the firewall for the harnesses.

Also cut the tunnel frame since it really isn’t needed for the 818R. I don’t plan on using any of the tunnel aluminum. The tunnel frame is just long enough mount and locate the ktuned shifter.

The plan is to weld 2″ x 20″ x 3/16″ plates to the cross members to allow bolting the seats to the chassis.

Test fitting reveals some issues. This bracket for the front harness eye bolt blocks the slider. It isn’t needed so it will get cut. Maximum forward seat travel is limited by this front cross bar. I think that is okay for my short legs.

I’ll also need to cleco the rear firewall to check clearance there.

Today I was able to reinforce some of the suspension brackets on the chassis.    

Next up is fabricating a platform for the seat brackets and harnesses.

And fab supports for the new k-tuned shifter.

Today’s goal was to get the steering column, pedal assy, and shifter mounted temporarily so that I can come up with a plan to mount the race seats and harnesses.

I really didn’t like how the FFR shifter assy is mounted. It’s not a very precise procedure. There should be a better way.

Doing some research, I stumbled upon the VCP shifter. Not only does it provide better mounting, but the shifter is billet aluminum (vs the plastic FFR shifter). Going to place the order in the morning.

Also, pre-drilled the Odyssey battery mount.

I actually ordered this awhile back, but again I am playing a little catch up with this blog. Rather than reworking the stock wiring harness, I ordered a really nice harness from iWire. I ordered their race harness which comes with a nice panel with master cutoff switch and push button start. I specified the set up to be used with the new AIM MXL2. Delivery of the harness is March or April. So this might be the long pole in the tent for the build.

iWire Harness:

AIM MXL2:

Placed an order for the Team Dynamics Pro Race 1.2 wheels. 17×8 +40 front and 17×9 +40 rear.  6 weeks for delivery. +1 for C.Plavan from the factory five 818 forums for researching these.

C.Plavan’s ride with the wheels:

Everyone has been asking about progress on the build, so it is time to blog it. This post is a little bit of catch up since I took delivery in late November.

December was spent parting out the old 2004 STI track car. It has been a fun 10 years on the track with it, but now it’s time to move on to something new.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr5IqBldpQg

There isn’t much left of it now.

The motor is in and I am currently working on converting the DCCD to 2WD.

Ran into an issue with the FFR 2WD adapter not working with this differential. Contacted FFR for help.

Factory Five 818 Forum Thread