lifting a 98 Legacy

Dougie · Post by **Dougie** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:48 am

Hi all, Hopefully someone on here can give me advise on this, Ive tried asking this on the legacy forum here, but they all into slamming there cars to the ground and laughed when i said i wanted to raise mine.

My car is a 98 Legacy 2.0 lx estate awd with drum brakes on the rear, I was wanting to raise it for light offroading, towing and carrying heavy loads,

The rear shocks are knackered so i thought i would fit outback struts and spring which i could get from a breakers yard at a reasonibly price, but they dont fit, I just can't seem to get the bottom arm down far enough to get the lower two bolts in, the struts seem to be to long, is this because the outback is has rear discs and mine has drums or are i doing something wrong when fitting them,
Is there any way these will fit or can anyone suggest anything, as spares for my model seem to be very few and far between over here, ie i would need to import shocks from a supplier in japan??

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:36 am

Subi Wan Kenobi will beable to help you out with a lift kit. Keep the outback gear you have as some of it will come in handy after the lift goes in, I don't know all the nitty gritties about it but someone will beable to set you straight.

Anything's possible with lifting subi's

Cheers

Bennie

Dougie · Post by **Dougie** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:40 am

El_Freddo wrote:Subi Wan Kenobi will beable to help you out with a lift kit. Keep the outback gear you have as some of it will come in handy after the lift goes in, I don't know all the nitty gritties about it but someone will beable to set you straight.

Anything's possible with lifting subi's

Cheers

Bennie

cheers

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:51 am

Rear drums? U sure it doesn't also have rear discs? I thought all EJ based cars had rear discs but drums inbuilt just for the handbrake. Either way I don't think the type of brakes would have any effect on difficulty of fitting struts.

I'm pretty sure that you also need the rear arms from an outback to bring the rear wheels back slightly to help prevent scrubbing on the guards. Although you should still be able to fit the struts without these. Are you using spring compressors when fitting?

vincentvega · Post by **vincentvega** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 10:07 am

plenty of EJs had drums. just not a lot of them in this country.

When fitting taller struts you usually need to have someone pull doiwn on the hub while you line up the bolt holes.

trick is - get the bottom one in first, then tilt the hub away from you to get the top in

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 9:46 pm

Another trick is - the rear cross member/diff cradle has to be dropped by 1" by using blocks there (Subaru had 1" or 25mm thick blocks under the cross member/diff cradle and you will need longer bolts) whereabouts outback has which liberty/legacy doesn't have, once its done then you'll be able to fit the struts in. I don't know about the drum's issue because I haven't worked on drums here, my Ej22 is discs all around.

My liberty wagon has outback struts installed and using liberty standard coils (not outback's as they're the same)
Cheers
AP

daza · Post by **daza** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:07 am

There's no difference in the strut mountings from drum to disk on AWD Impreza's.
Daza.

Dougie · Post by **Dougie** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:24 am

Hiya, My car definetly has drums on the rear, as alot of 2.0 lx's have over here, just not alot of them around.,
When the strut is bolted at the top on the inner arch, the bottom of the strut wont even go on top of the rear arm, with a bar pushing it down with a big bloke standing on the bar. its still about 2" too long.
Sound like the spacer blocks maybe the answer, just need to manufacture the blocks and source longer bolts i think.
No one seems to sell lifting block kits over here, I may conact the man on here and enquire the costs of sending the kit over for me.
Cheers for all the advise so far, and if there is any threads on lift kit fitting on here that anyone could direct me to that would be cool

also can anyone tell about fitting outback front struts/springs, will i have the same probs???

AlpineRaven · Post by **AlpineRaven** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:28 am

Dougie wrote:Hiya, My car definetly has drums on the rear, as alot of 2.0 lx's have over here, just not alot of them around.,
When the strut is bolted at the top on the inner arch, the bottom of the strut wont even go on top of the rear arm, with a bar pushing it down with a big bloke standing on the bar. its still about 2" too long.
Sound like the spacer blocks maybe the answer, just need to manufacture the blocks and source longer bolts i think.
No one seems to sell lifting block kits over here, I may conact the man on here and enquire the costs of sending the kit over for me.
Cheers for all the advise so far, and if there is any threads on lift kit fitting on here that anyone could direct me to that would be cool also can anyone tell about fitting outback front struts/springs, will i have the same probs???

You could make your own blocks? Rear is easy but the fronts would be a bit tricky because you would need longer link for the steering.
On the rear you also need outback trailing arms mounts. Easy to get if there is outback there..
Cheers
AP

Dougie · Post by **Dougie** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:47 am

AlpineRaven wrote:You could make your own blocks? Rear is easy but the fronts would be a bit tricky because you would need longer link for the steering.
On the rear you also need outback trailing arms mounts. Easy to get if there is outback there..
Cheers
AP

Is the trailing arm mounts directly behind the hubs?? do you know why you need these??

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lifting a 98 Legacy

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