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Well I have hit my first dilemna in my Brumby build. I had planned to mount the complete Liberty suspension and crossmembers under the Brumby which I have heard of being done before. The rear end is easy and requires miniaml work but the front end is a tad more difficult.

Basically the bolt holes for the front crossmember line up with the outside edge of the chassis rail - if they were 10mm either side it would be fine but right on the edge - bugga !!

But that isn't my main dilemna - the worse part is the rear mounting for the lower control arms is right smack bang where the chassis rail is at the bottom of the firewall - fark fark fark - as the Australian Ravenb would say !!

Now it is possible to cut the chassis rail and make mounts up for the LCA and I'm sure you could make it as strongor even stronger than standard, but my engineer would have a coronary to see the chassis modified like that.

So there are 3 solutions :

1. Scrap the idea and just use the Brumby gear and uprate the brakes. Makes things easy but isn't what I want.

2. Lower the crossmember so that the LCA mount is underneath the chassis rail rather than in it. This will raise the car and make it look like a 4WD and is definitely not what I want.

3. Use the Brumby crossmember and Liberty everything else. This will bring the LCA mount inside the chassis rail and make it an easy job. Other benefits are that the strut towers won't need to be moved further out and will make the car really low. Which is exactly what I want. But this will mean that my front track will be Brumbyish but my rear track will be Liberty sized and will require flaring the guards by about 40mm which may look silly without flared front guards. The rear end can be shortened easily enough by cutting the control arms. However this will mean I need shorter axles front and rear.

So what I want to know is where can I get custom axles made up to fit ?

Or is there any chance that I can use Brumby axles with Liberty CV's etc ?

I have a choice of 2 gearboxes and diffs - a standard Gen 2 Liberty 5 speed and R160 and a V5 STi RA DCCD box and 1.5way plated LSD - will either of these make it easier to source a compatible axle ?

Well after a couple more hours under the car (well actually on the side of the car cos its on a rotisserie ) I have worked out the best way of doing this.

I am definitely going to use the Brumby crossmember and I am going to shorten the rear end to match. The benefits of doing it his way are that I don't have to modify the chassis and I don't need to flare the guards.

But it does mean I definitely need custom axles. Been quoted $480 from GUS engineering in Qld - anybody know anywhere else I can get them done ?

You can use liberty DOJ's a brumby race and brumby axles but which Liberty DOJ it is I don't know.

are you going 4 stud or 5 stud ? there in lies the question

as for customising the shafts NFI sorry

TOONGA

TOONGA wrote:You can use liberty DOJ's a brumby race and brumby axles but which Liberty DOJ it is I don't know.

are you going 4 stud or 5 stud ? there in lies the question

as for customising the shafts NFI sorry

TOONGA

Using Liberty hubs and Liberty box - so if I can put Libery DOJ's on both ends of a Brumby shaft that would be awesome.

Any body know the difference in length between a Brumby and a Liberty shaft ?

we talking back or front here Im a little confused now sorry

TOONGA

i have these threads bookmarked in regards to CVs.

http://www.ausubaru.com.au/showthread.php?t=14553

http://www.ausubaru.com.au/showthread.php?t=18466

I have MY & L efi & lib gen1 auto shafts if you need any measurements etc.

My plan for EJ 22 auto into brumby with L front control arms is: 98 wrx hubs & outer with L efi shaft and cup. i test fitted the L cup on the auto and it fits perfectly.

TOONGA wrote:we talking back or front here Im a little confused now sorry

TOONGA

Both

I've done some measuring and the Liberty shafts need to be about 60mm shorter - so that means custom made since the Brumby shafts are nowhere near that much shorter.

pretty sure driveshaft places would cut n shut...

i plan to do a similar conversion (already in the works)

ej rear with brackets made up for the front mounts.
ea engine crossmember, ej everything else... but then extend the ej control arms by around 60mm to bring them back out to ej specs...

some would say not strong enough etc but hey they all said that with my 2 previous custom control arms and radius rod mods and never had an issue...

plan is to extend them on the outer side of where they split so the mounts stay inside the rails...

cheers

P.S. what do you have planed for fuel tank???

What Gearbox you running and what are the control arm lengths? IE how long do the shafts need to be?

I will measure some shafts up tomorrow morning downstairs, but i am sure the differences between the shafts are as below.
Brumby - L Series 50mm ish
Brumby - Liberty 75mm ish

So you should be able to run a Brumby Shaft. Have a look here and match up what you need spline wise anyway.
http://www.driveline.com.au/sites/defau ... alogue.pdf

We need Gee here - Bratgeebah as he's looked at shaft length, spline counts for the inner and outer CV joints to be able to make a compatible set of shafts for a conversion of what ever it was at the time.

If you're keeping the front track width the same as stock I would imagine that you use the inner Liberty DOJ and outer Liberty unit as well, mount both on a brumby shaft for it to drop right in.

The rear I would imagine to be the same but you might be able to get away with only doing this to the outer CV (Liberty) with the inner remaining as brumby spec so long as the rear diff has male output stubs.

Trick to all of this is the spline count on the ball cage of the liberty outer CV matching the spline count (and diametre) of the brumby's shaft outer spline. Then the same with the inner spline count on the brumby's shaft matching the spline count and diametre of the Liberty DOJ's cage.

Pull one of each shaft apart and you'll see what I'm talking about. Essentially you're swapping the just the shaft in the middle of the liberty drive shaft assembly with that of a brumby's to create a brumby length EJ drive shaft...

Clear as mud?

Cheers

Bennie

Thanks for the replies but have changed track - its going to be all Liberty/WRX underneath so need for anything custom any more.

niterida wrote:Thanks for the replies but have changed track - its going to be all Liberty/WRX underneath so need for anything custom any more.

so it's the original plan or are you effectively welding in the entire liberty floor pan into the brumby body??

Interesting...

Cheers

Bennie

All will be revealed in my build thread - just gotta wait a couple of months........

awww months.... tease...
lol

2coupedup wrote:awww months.... tease...
lol

+1

... has it been "months" yet???

2coupedup wrote:... has it been "months" yet???

It's been half a month... Good enough for me!

Show us the progress/tease!!

Cheers

Bennie