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Bent stuff on lifted EA82


singletrack
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So yesterday I bent a few lift blocks:

bent1.jpg

Both sides are equally bent, but the rest of the x-member bolts/blocks are still ok. The round bumper sucked up most of the hit, although that long 19mm bolt is prolly bent too.

 

You can pretty much watch it happen in this video. As far as I can tell, this foward most rear lift block is pretty much useless, can I remove the block/steel plate and just run a bolt through the round bumper part? Hopefully the body threads aren't too hosed....

 

Also, it seems I might be able to cut the round part down 1/2" or so [for clearance], and stick a slightly shorter bolt in there. I dunno exactly how the bumper works, but it seems that the inner steel cylinder [inside the bumper] is connected to the rest of the bumper via ribs running the length of the piece, if I cut it down, the cyclinder should still "float" [be attached] in the bumber ok, right? Anyone else tried this?

 

Anyway, removing the foward block is my biggest concern. I notice the EA81's, while similar, don't have this sort of thing ahead of the crossmember. Which makes me think i can pull it.

 

Here's another pic, the stuff I wanna remove is red, the place I wanna cut is blue.

bent2.jpg

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wow that was impressive.

 

as for your question I would try to straighten it as best as possible and reinforce that point. if your going to wheel your roo thaty hard you may want to consider some full belly skid plates.

 

no actual experience fixing that type of damage on a roo here sorry.

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my bet is that both the bolts and blocks are fine, and what you did was totally screw the unibody where the captive nuts are held.
Well, sure. But only at the front block is the body tweaked. The rubber bumper mount it OK, the bolt looks to be bent if anything. That bolt is like 6" off the body at its head, so it got tweaked somewhere along the length of it. No big deal.

 

The two front-rear (or is that rear-front?) blocks are a liability. Can I remove them?

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I would say no.
Ok, what about this. The only thing I see that block/plate doing is preventing the the top [edit: bottom] of the rubber bumper from flexing. So I was think I could get a machine shop to make a a nice piece of heavish gauge steel in a sorta z-bend, that would still support the bumper while actually sliding over rocks instead of digging into them. It'd prolly be easier to get such a piece to mate to my now-mangled body. (It's rusty anyway)

 

I'm thinking like this:

bent3.jpg

 

Also, how bout cutting the round part down a bit? If it doesn't compromise the bumper, it would make mounting a piece of "z" steel alot easier,also improve clearance. Don't wanna start hitting the driveshaft though...

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My first time out with the Hatch Patrol I bent those same blocks. After bending and straightening them a handful of times, I decided to try and fix it. I got together with a fabricator friend (same guy who made my bumper) and we came up with this solution:

DCP_0279.sized.jpg

 

This is the best picture I have of it at the moment, i'll get soem more if needed.

 

This piece started life as a pice of aluminium channel. The open space between the sides was a touch larger than the width of that block. First think we did was drill the 3 holes that are in the bottom plate, as this piece was goign to replace it. Once we got those drilled and it bolted in, we took measurements on where to cut the sides and to bend it. We then cut the sides off (as seen above) and bent it accordingly so that we had a nice flap to bolt to the floor. We then drilled 2 holes in this flap for the bolts to go through the floor. On the inside we used a small rectangel of aluminium to act as a washer plate for these bolts.

 

I now affectionaly call these my Custom Side Skids.

 

At this same time we thru-bolted a lot of the major suspension components using threaded rod, and large washers made out of aluminium (really 4"x4" square/round pieces) for the inside of the body.

 

There were 4 major spots we thru-bolted. On the front trailing arm plates we did the block that also supports the tranny crossmember. In the back we did the major one through the round thing with the rubber bushings.

 

Let me know if you need pictures of any of this, I will do my best to get them!

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What Subarutex had done was exactly the same thought I had about 'fixing' that issue. I don't play around on rocks and such hard surfaces so I havent bent mine yet. I did notice right away while putting them in that would be an issue. Putting in those little skids there should really help. Make sure they are tough enough to withstand you slaming them into rock! :grin:

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Any tips on straightening the body?

Assuming you are meaning straightening those blocks, I'll explain how I did it the 4 times before I decided to make the skids.

 

Remove the 2 bolts going through the block. Remove the block. Take the stock bolt (use the stock one, so you don't have to take off the lower plate, the less you remove the faster it goes), and thread it into the nut. It was my findings that what bent was the capture nut of these bolting locations and a tiny bit of material around it. So by threading a bolt into the nut (without the block) you are able to bend the capture nut back into place. I just did it by hand. There should have been enough play in the third major bolt that it did not bend, just the front two. So reassembly should be relatively easy. Slide block into place and reinsert longer hardware. At this step it may be beneficial to loosen the third bolt a tiny bit to give slack to the lower plate to help line up the front block.

 

Hope that helps!

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Assuming you are meaning straightening those blocks, I'll explain how I did it the 4 times before I decided to make the skids.
It helps, thanks. This is pretty much what I was thinking, although my version used alot more hammer :).

 

So, now I'm thinking one good heavy piece of steel like 4" or 5" wide drilled to replace the plate, then bending just ahead of the flimsy block down to the body. Maybe some countersunk harware so it'll slide...

 

So you just bolted yers to the foot well of the back seat? And then some more steel (or Al) under the nuts/heads to re-enforce?

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