Nars GSL-SE the 'White Comet'

[Whizbang]

Yup my gslse and rally car are fc subframed. Threads are in this section. Actually my rx2 is also

[scarsofcarma]

Argh... I can't make the gauge cluster lights work. I've even removed the cluster itself and applied power to it and still nothing. I guess I just have to admit its bad and get another one because I disassembled it and couldn't see anything wrong with it.

[scarsofcarma]

I was having real trouble with the gauge-cluster illumination lights. My car didn't have a dimmer switch, so I was going to just rewire it without one. But after doing so I kept blowing fuses trying to run a parallel circuit so I had to cut into the gauge-harness and route a new isolated circuit to feed power to the gauge lights.

And I thought attaching the speedo cable in the FC was hard. FB's are worse! lol



Since I won't be using the spot for the dimmer switch, I've decided to run toggle switches there for foglights and auxiliary driving lights. Luckily for me, FC toggle-light switches fit perfectly. Always cool to find a use for another FC part in my collection.



I bet your undertray doesn't look this clean

[RedR1]

One thing I was considering was using an FC cluster. i've seen a few FB's running around with them, and they looked pretty flush. Have you seen that? If not, I can dig them up and post a few pictures. Just an idea

[scarsofcarma]

Originally Posted by RedR1

One thing I was considering was using an FC cluster. i've seen a few FB's running around with them, and they looked pretty flush. Have you seen that? If not, I can dig them up and post a few pictures. Just an idea

No I haven't seen that, by all means. I wouldn't mind the 9k tach and the 160mph speedo

[RedR1]

Originally Posted by scarsofcarma

No I haven't seen that, by all means. I wouldn't mind the 9k tach and the 160mph speedo

This one is from Gunny's car:

[GySgtFrank]

Originally Posted by RedR1

This one is from Gunny's car:

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6046/7...537fc206_c.jpg

I did mine because I used the FC harnesses when I did the engine/trans/fuel system swap. I figured it was probably easier and more reliable to just plug in the stock cluster. The extra gauges were a nice benny.

I don't know how others have done this swap, but mine took a fair amount of fabrication to pull off. Nothing extreme, but a bit of a pain nonetheless. I had to use angle pieces off the support beam in the dash to make mounts for the FC cluster mounts. I had to trim and glue the facing from the FC bezel to the SA surround to pull it off.

I was wishing that I had used the S5 cluster after I finished it, much better looking cluster IMO. The cluster is a right pain in the a** to get in and out now though, not that it wasn't before.

[scarsofcarma]

I'm getting a constant on-throttle or in neutral but not while car is rolling vibration. It's gotta be the transmission so car is going under the knife again. Gonna swap in an S4 FC Turbo II transmission and likely Kia Sportage gears.

[scarsofcarma]

Here's the transmission options. On the left is the GSL-SE, in the middle is the non-turbo FC and on the right is the S4 FC Turbo TII.




Now I've been reading up about swapping FC transmissions into an FB. They all seem to say that you can swap the rear tail section from an GSL-SE transmission unto an FC transmission to make it sit properly.

Well after visualizing and measuring them up against each other I can tell you this is not required. The FC transmission tail-section and shifter location is exactly the same as the GSL-SE transmission. Only difference is the gear ratio's.



You can see that the shifter location on the TII transmission is about an Inch further back then that of the non-turbo FC or FB transmissions. There is an option to shorten the shifter housing on the TII transmission to make it fit as demonstrated by this video... (note: in the video he's talking about modifying it to fit into RX2's and RX3's that use the older SA style transmission which is much shorter. For use in an FB, A TII shifter housing only has to shorted by 1 inch.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=b_kUr5ZcaH8

Bolting the tail-section of the FB tranny unto a TII transmission is not an option as you can see here from the bolt pattern on the casing.





Not to mention the difference in the output shafts. Turbo's have a thicker one with 23 splines... non turbo's have a thinner one with 22 splines. It would be possible to make a custom driveshaft to match the turbo output shaft with a non turbo driveshaft.

However, modifying the TII shifter housing and making a custom driveshaft isn't something I feel like doing right now. Down the road if I'm making enough power to warrant the need for a TII transmission I will. But for now, a non turbo FC transmission will suffice.

[scarsofcarma]

And this is likely the cause of my horrible vibration... a bad transmission crossmember mount. You can see the rubber has totally detached from its mount.

[scarsofcarma]

So I installed the FC transmission with a good transmission mount and it shifts great (thanks to Redline) but there was still a vibration issue. So I decided to re-lash the rear end but when I removed the driveshaft again I saw this...



So time for a new driveshaft. The rear end does have a little play in it also so I will be adjusting that as well. (Until I find 4.78 gears sometime soon I hope.)

[GySgtFrank]

In case you didn't know. The stock 83 and up driveshafts do not have replaceable universal joints. I ended up buying a new driveshaft from MazdaTrix that does have replaceable U-joints because my old one did not fit the new 85 GSL-SE rear flange. It ran about $300.

[Whizbang]

Be mindful if you do the fc subframe and using the stock engine mounts. Your going to have stuff move a little

[scarsofcarma]

I found something good to read

[scarsofcarma]

So I installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge (in addition to the stock electronic gauge) and an oil temperature gauge. These are old school gauges pretty period correct for this car actually. And they were brand new in box, work great