flight_of_pain

I would go so far as to say the "rump roast in the air," or "stinkbug" stance is the defining factor in the ea81 lineup Isaac

Asking questions (without searching) that have been asked a million times tends to get you the short end of the stick around here With that said, Wa. has a large amount of subaru enthusiasts, and most are more than happy to share their knowledge with you and in most cases lend a hand. Some EA81 wagons had spring helpers in the front spring perch that would get you a little more lift but they are typically rusted solid when I see them these days. You could go with 2in strut top blocks in the front without subframe blocks and get away with it (albeit with horrid camber), but more than 2in is going to require you to run subframe blocks as well. 4-6in lifts seem to be a real sweet spot for the ea81 chassis. If you have the mechanical knowledge you can build one yourself, but you will need to have the car in a half assembled state for a while while you build it. If you're not mechanically inclined, there are several companies that make various height lift kits for reasonable prices. Isaac

In my honest opinion if you cant read here, look at the pictures, look at your car, and figure out how/what to make, then you have no business risking other peoples lives by building an improperly set up lift and driving it around. With that said, an ea81 requires 14 points on the chassis/suspension to be spaced apart, and linkages lengthened. Isaac

No way I did the online math, I can take 17 Canadians in a fist fight... or was that midgets... or 5 year olds. I really don't remember Now french canadians... I figure you can double the number then.

If you plan to lift it at all, you could build the lift to interface between the stock body and the EJ suspension. This would be a piece of cake. I am swapping ej suspension into an ea81, and I can tell you, it isn't a small task. Ea's are a torsion bar rear suspension, and the mounts are quite far forward, the section of EA frame where an EJ rear subframe needs to mount will need more support. The top of the wheel well is also not designed to carry the full upward load of the vehicle so you will need added bracing there. My opinion on these things is "quit looking at it and get welding" http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=115882 Isaac

In the last four weeks I have had my impacted wisdom teeth extracted, my son brought me home some horrible plague from his school, and my wife had our second child . Needless to say, I haven't got a lot done on the sube, the 25in record November snowfall didn't help either. I made some clearance in the tranny tunnel for the larger (and significantly higher) rx tranny. The subaru gearbox hangs everything below the input shaft line, while the rx box is pretty much in line. I fabbed up a motor mount/cradle for the front. I lowered the Subaru front subframe ~2in to get the motor lower in the chassis. This also has the side effect of improving the camber curve, and giving an extra 1-2 degrees of neg camber if I need it. In the spring i will be swapping in the matching legacy front suspension, but that parts car is under several feet of snow now. Isaac

I run a straightened coat hanger in from the bottom to break it all up (usually only the 1st 6in or so is clogged) then open the sunroof and you can see the tops of them. I run a piece of insulated copper wire (romex) down from the top and have a helper flush it with water at the same time.

That is the sunroof drain, there is one on both sides, clean them out while you are at it

It is standard thread so yes, lefty loosy. Get a good cold chisel and a 3lb sledge. use the chisel and hammer to turn the nut by chiseling against one of the faces. I use this trick all the time to get flywheel nuts off of rotary engines.

They are a bit small for the 1.8 they came on stock, much less a 2.5.

pull the hoses off from the engine bay side of the firewall, use a garden hose to check for flow through the heater core.

That would look good next to the late 40s Vernon mill I picked up last year. Nothing says love like a manual oiler lol.

Typically the motors will have an allen key slot or other means to manually turn the armature assembly in the motor. Get that panel off and take a look.

pull the switch assembly apart and clean all the contacts. Some people have good luck hosing them out with contact cleaner without actually taking the switch assy apart. Then work the switches for a while to clean them.

Does it pull when braking? How are the brake pads on that side, similar pad wear to the other side? As far as alignments go: I can take my legacy in every six months and it will be out of whack.

What type of wear? Incorrect toe will cause the rears to eat themselves in a hurry.

You mean everyone doesn't work in their dirt driveway? ps: This is how I do all my projects, I am the master of the budget build now. pss: where is this contest you speak of?

That is going to have to come out. Its a shame really, car had AC/PS/Cruise. Nice empty bay. New and old, greeting each other in passing. Isaac

Any of you guys are more than welcome to come check it out, I am usually juggling about 10 projects at any one time, so there is never a dull moment around here. My dad said he saw you at school Brian, we had a pretty good laugh about it.

On nasioc there is a huge suspension compatibility list, take a look there.

You guys didn't think I would leave you hanging did you?

The wife is 7mo pregnant, and the kid has had a sinus infection so this update has taken a bit longer than usual. A lot of progress has been made, and I think I will let the pics do the talking

the difference between full droop and static ride height in my DD legacy is 3in, so I use that as my height adjustment. with 3 inches of compression the tire is even with the fender lip. This thing weighs ridiculously less than a legacy, so there wont be a full 3 inches of compression to reach static ride height. When it finally hits the road I will be running very stiff springs/coilover perches so the suspension travel will be minimal anyway. Isaac

Made some progress today I originally planned to butt the strut top plates against the underside outer corner of the rear deck, because that is where I designed the strut top plates to index from, and then brace accordingly. Since this car is going to spend most of its life really low, and sideways, I decided to cut out part of the rear deck in order to gain an extra inch of vertical rise. Once I had the struts in I threw a set of stock 15in legacy wheels on it to double check the fit, and my math. Makes the stock 13in xt wheel on the front look pretty small With a slight fender pull the legacy wheels will be the cats meow Isaac

That piece of 1/4 plate is spreading the load In that pic it is only tacked in place, but now it is completely welded along the entire seam. The inside and outside are getting gussets as well. like this once the rest of the gussets are added: Good idea on the fender washer though, I have a sedan that has molested mustache bar holes that I think I just might do that to