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Super swampers just dont fit an impreza


sayn3ver
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Ok so i spent the last 3 days trying to get my super swamper ssr's to fit.

 

I have a 95 impreza coupe that i just installed forester struts and springs on. They just rub on the rears no matter what. I have the 27inchx9.5 SSRs's on a 15inch stock subaru steelie. I knew some washers were needed (1/4inch quote Zapar). I bought extra and refuse to add anymore washers due to the lack of stud length available for the lug nuts. I went to put on and the swampers rub on the perch. Fine. Got my diegrinder out with a course pad on it. I shave down the large lugs that stick out on the inside. Thye now kinda fit, but still rub on the top of the spring perch now(instead of on the side). I lightly shave the path that the spring perch made on the tread of the tire down a bit to see if that helps. Sorta, but it still rubs. I really dont want to take my brand new tires and get them shaved. Its like throwing money out the window.

 

It seems like i am having so many more issues than anticipated. grrrr. And i still have a clunking in the rear.:mad:

Any ideas?

 

Also, does anyone know where i could find longer wheel studs. Worst comes to worse i'll buy longer studs and just washer the hell out of my hubs...my wheel bearings wont last that long but i wont be using the swampers for daily driving.

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should have gone 14" wheels, not 15", they have a slightly smaller dia i believe.

you could always cut & re-weld the preches... be sure not to boil the oil in the struts though.

None ever said making an impreza offroad worthy would be easy ;)

But i'm tellin' yah.. if you're going to go hard core, you're going to need someone who can weld.. .and who you trust to hack your car apart :D

when i finally get the bmw together & running again, i think i'm going to bring the spring perches up an inch or so. Find someone who's really good w/ a Tig welder, and it'll be beautiful. It's easy w/ a Mig too, but alot easier to boil the oil. :rolleyes:

the clunking in the rear: get some large washers for the struts

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went with 15inch wheels cause thats what i had on hand...

 

I dont weld. it sucks. My brother's friend's dad welds, but not very good, and def do not trust him for a job like that.

 

 

I am looking into longer wheel studs. Seems like the easiest solution. If i could bring the wheel out just a bit more, there the tire starts to taper down, it would clear.

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not necassarily.i got some wheel spacers for my chev for 20 bucks.granted that was two, but 40 bucks all around aint bad either .it was at a smaller store that had used and new.i am sure if you search you could find some on the cheap.how bad do you want it?

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you could always cut & re-weld the preches... be sure not to boil the oil in the struts though.

 

you cant or more importantly shouldnt weld struts.

 

reason #1 - you WILL boil the oil.

reason #2 - said oil MIGHT burst the strut body spraying said welders face with boiling hot oil causing 3rd degree burns and much high pitched screaming.:):eek::(:dead:

reason #3 - strut bodies have printed on them - "DO NOT HEAT". maybe this should have been reason #1

reason #4 - i have tried welding struts. :grin: i ruined a brand new PAP strut in the lift R&D stage. worked fantastic when i got it home from PAP, didnt work at all after welding. cooked the oil. hence the conclusion.

 

all in all. spend the money on a lift. or make one.

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I would think a TIG would boil the oil more readily than a MIG because as it is slower, a lot more heat gets transferred to the piece. its benefit is the really good puddle control you have.

I have heard of drilling a hole in a strut to drain all the oil out and tap it for a screw. actually that is to put thicker oil in the strut as cheap rump roast's sports struts. NOT advisable unless the strut has for sure lost its gas charge.

 

or you could go with strut inserts. not sure who makes them for ea cars but there has to be an application that would fit, and maybe gain you an inch or 2 of travel.

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Ok so i spent the last 3 days trying to get my super swamper ssr's to fit.

 

I have a 95 impreza coupe that i just installed forester struts and springs on. They just rub on the rears no matter what. I have the 27inchx9.5 SSRs's on a 15inch stock subaru steelie. I knew some washers were needed (1/4inch quote Zapar). I bought extra and refuse to add anymore washers due to the lack of stud length available for the lug nuts. I went to put on and the swampers rub on the perch. Fine. Got my diegrinder out with a course pad on it. I shave down the large lugs that stick out on the inside. Thye now kinda fit, but still rub on the top of the spring perch now(instead of on the side). I lightly shave the path that the spring perch made on the tread of the tire down a bit to see if that helps. Sorta, but it still rubs. I really dont want to take my brand new tires and get them shaved. Its like throwing money out the window.

 

It seems like i am having so many more issues than anticipated. grrrr. And i still have a clunking in the rear.:mad:

Any ideas?

 

Also, does anyone know where i could find longer wheel studs. Worst comes to worse i'll buy longer studs and just washer the hell out of my hubs...my wheel bearings wont last that long but i wont be using the swampers for daily driving.

 

OK. First, I used Outback Struts. They seem to clear tires differently.

 

Second. I used the 14 inch wheels, which may or may not have a different offset.

 

Third. The set up in the rear of a coupe may be different than a wagon. (The brat, hatchback, and wagon ea81s all have different shock mounts in the rear, although they use the same shock)

 

Fourth. I only mounted the swampers onto my imp for a short time, and only did it for shnits and giggles.

 

I would suggest hunting down a different set of wheels with a little more back spacing. Maybe some forester wheels. Theyt may cost you 35 bucks each or something, but I would stay away from big wheel spacers. (just me)

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Yeah, back in the day when I had a '69 dodge dart i was going to build up, i sheared off most of the lugs on the driver's side before i figured out they were reverse thread (ahh, mopar).. But you can get longer lugs and the parts store and just pound/press them in to replace stock ones from the drum, you can also get spacers there for not too much $$ ( i was going to do this as well for the dart).. It just sounds like you've got bad geometry for what you're trying to do, with what you've got...

 

I'd look into a 14 inch rim also but it might just be that the forester struts don't allow a much bigger tire (as already mentioned)... ALTHOUGH, Austin's Imp (Ratty2Austin) is sitting on some big meat (from pix i recall)...

 

The IMPS seem to be a bit more trouble to mount bigger meat on, when doing the forester lift... Are you looking into a different trailing arm to get the wheel to center in the wheel well also?

 

Sorry to hear your cutting woes too :eek:

 

I'm still confused about your clunking too.. The thing that comes to my mind is that the upper perch is not seated correctly so that your spring is not mounted right and is sticking out where it shouldn't... ergo, it's not mounted linear to the shock shaft ( the shaft will not be in the center of the spring, just look at the lower perch, and rotat the upper perch such thqat the stut hole is closest to the perch edge matching the lower perch)...

I don't have anuy clinking after installing the washers on the shock stud... of corse I did the legacy springs (shorter than forester) as well and did not mount things in stages, but took off the strut (mounted w/o extra washers) changed the springs and remounted adding the washers...

 

Umm, I agree with Andy about 14" rims vs. 15s for the 27" swampers..

When I test fit 14's they fit nicely, but when looking at www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html and other similar tire conversion charts, i found that 27x8.5 14s were a different overall diameter than 27x8.5 15s.....

so maybe the smaller rim on the 27ish" rim would work better...

 

I have a sset of 14" steelies from my legacy laying around if you're interested, cheap...

 

Good luck

-mark-

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Umm, I agree with Andy about 14" rims vs. 15s for the 27" swampers..

When I test fit 14's they fit nicely, but when looking at www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html and other similar tire conversion charts, i found that 27x8.5 14s were a different overall diameter than 27x8.5 15s.....

so maybe the smaller rim on the 27ish" rim would work better...

 

-mark-

 

 

Maybe, but Interco's website lists them both at 27.5" overall diameter. I guess if the 15's are a bit narrower than the 14's, they might balloon a little more - but I doubt they're narrower.

 

I second the notion that the Forester struts have a different perch height than the outbacks.

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zap....wouldn't he want less backspacing, and more offset? to get the tires out away from the strut...

 

also, I happen to remember that the latest tires on Austin's imp were the same as mine... 215/75r15, calculate to 27.7". He's using Forester 15" steelies, maybe the offset/backspacing is different than whatever you might be using.

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zap....wouldn't he want less backspacing, and more offset? to get the tires out away from the strut...

 

also, I happen to remember that the latest tires on Austin's imp were the same as mine... 215/75r15, calculate to 27.7". He's using Forester 15" steelies, maybe the offset/backspacing is different than whatever you might be using.

 

he'd want a lower offset to move the wheels out away from the spring perch as the mounting hub/wheel contact surface would be closer to the center of the wheel on a lower offset. maybe a +45 or +40 would help.

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Uh, well... i had 15inch wheels. I bought 15inch tires. There is no "go get a 14inch wheel"

 

Second, everyone says that the forester and outback struts are the same part number, yadda yadda yadda. Apparently not.

 

No pic required. they simply rub the perch. After the tire trimming, they dont rub the side of the strut/perch anymore(atleast i dont think) but now rub where the tread of the tire passes under the perch.

 

Interco lists the tires as having the same diameter. One would assume they are the same. Apparently not.

 

My rear struts might be installed correctly. who knows. I followed the how-to on scoobymods and they show you how to line up the front struts + top hats correctly. On the rear...i marked the tops and rubber surrounds and relative location on the old struts and tried to line everything up. The bottom spring perch is different that the impreza, so the spring sat in a diferent location therefore i tried to make the top look stock(the tophat was evenly covering the rubber upper spring mount on the stock setup, i tried to match it on the forester setup). I added one washer on each side. I will have to add more.

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Who said Outback & Forester Struts are the same part number? They need to be slapped! (at least according to the KYB listing i have) :rolleyes:

you could try to modify the bottom half of the strut where the camber bolts go in, i you put some more plate in there.. and then re-drilled some holes further down, that could push the hub a little further away from the perch...

Just guessing.. but that might have a slightly less chance of boiling the oil than doing the perches.

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you could try to modify the bottom half of the strut where the camber bolts go in, i you put some more plate in there.. and then re-drilled some holes further down, that could push the hub a little further away from the perch...

Just guessing.. but that might have a slightly less chance of boiling the oil than doing the perches.

 

This is exactly what I would be looking into.

 

Ideally you would fab something up that could bolt on and raise the strut straight up on the spindle.

 

I would be making brackets and slotting holes etc. way before trying to weld onto a strut.

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See, this is the info i was looking for when i first set out on this journey.

 

This thread was in response to the billion questions i had in another thread.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52126&highlight=sayn3ver

 

Thus, i shouda went with the outbacks like gut instinct told me too.

 

Edit*****

 

Just placed an order for 1996 rear legacy outback struts. Should be here tomorow or friday. I'm biting the bullet because i will spend close to that in wheel spacers and studs and it doesnt guarentee it fitting. All i need is anothe 1/8-1/4 inch of clearence between the tire and the strut.

 

Looks like i will be doing that this weekend. Thanks for everyones help, especially to moutnainbiker for posting probably the most informative pic. Lets just hope the forester springs work on the outback struts.

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See, this is the info i was looking for when i first set out on this journey.

 

This thread was in response to the billion questions i had in another thread.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=52126&highlight=sayn3ver

 

Thus, i shouda went with the outbacks like gut instinct told me too.

Actually, in the 4th post of that other thread, way back on February 1st, I told you what you needed to know! Then I said it again in post 12, 17 and 21. After that, I gave up! :horse::banghead:

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sorry mountainbiker. You were right.

 

And i apologize to anyone else. I've been a bit frustrated between this and all the rain we have been getting here in new jersey(because i havent had a chance to seal up my fenders becausei worked the last couple of days).

 

we should compile a new fact for anyone else who may attempt this.:drunk:

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