bratman18

The rear LSD I built for my BRAT was just an 8mm bolt inside the diff stub. Had to have a skinny long 8mm socket to fit down in. And I used a ratchet and kept whacking it with a hammer and eventually after breaking a couple sockets, it cam loose.

Yes, but as said above, they can also mount to aftermarket cross bars

Just bought one and a friend has one. They are very rugged and durable. Especially for the price! Once it's secured, you can grab a hold of it and shake the whole vehicle.

Yeah I am running WRX struts and STi springs on mine and it's about that llow. Put some Forester struts back under it, along with Forester springs, or Forester specific lowering springs and you'll be all set. Do not put WRX springs on Forester struts or visa versa, that will just blow the struts.

My XT rear diff was rusted bad too, and those came out, so hopefully yours will too. Yeah the Legacy should be different. But even if the bottle isn't up high, you should still be able to squeeze it and have it shoot right in!

No pump needed. Just remove the lower plug to drain, and then the upper plug to fill. You just use the squirt bottle that the gear oil comes in. Just squeeze it until the diff is full, and put the plug back in.

What are you using? Get a big breaker bar, and maybe even a piece of pipe on the end of that and use your weight. Other than that, an impact gun is the way to go.

As I have said before.....it's junk, you might as well sell it to me!

I want that motor! Damn

Honestly not sure how you're fitting 28 tall tires on a 98 Forester. The rear spring perch on the strut is too low and doesn't allow for anything bigger than a 215 60 16. I had to change mine out to the 03-08 style to clear the 215 70 16 (27.5"). Spacers are fine as long as they are torqued down properly. Make sure the mating surfaces are clean. People will argue all day about them, but they are used all the time on Subarus without any issue. But a better offset wheel would achieve the same effect. And trailing arm spacers are a good idea, but I am running a 2" lift on my 98 without them and they are fine.

What year Forester do you have? And what wheels are you running?

They have never opened from the inside? They did when I owned it. I even had a car seat back there and quite often opened them to put my daughter in and out. Weird! Well at least they are all good now!

^that's not entirely true. If you were using the entire long block, yes, but just the block, everything will bolt up fine. It has been done numerous times. And just because the motor has a 4 bolt bellhousing, and the tranny is 8, doesn't mean it won't bolt up properly. Again, it's been done many times. The 2.2t is a stronger motor than the 2.0t in many ways.

Looks really nice. And looks that all that would be needed to be done is remove a few bolts for the actual skid plate and remove the aluminum plate for oil changes

1998 Subaru Forester S 2" custom lift SG rear struts 215 70 16 tires JDM front grille

Love this project! I have a box here that isn't quite closed up yet due to not enough tape! But it'll be headed your way soon!!

After lifting, you should toe the front tires out just a hair. The tires point in more after getting lifted, and this causes it to try to climb itself in acceleration.

I love your car. This is pretty much what I want to build some day

Sweet! Yeah I have always been a Polaris fan. Let me know the next time you come up to go riding. I live right on the lake, so I have trails everywhere. Had a ton of fun today, put a lot of miles on, and did some exploring as well.

Mine's on the left

Forester strut assemblies, and Outback aren't very different. Forester springs may give you a little, but no where near an inch. There is some info about lifting Subarus in the offroad FAQ section. If you want to lift it, then you can add strut spacers, and bigger tires. If you want even bigger, you can use spacers for the entire driveline, but it's quite a bit more work. Also All the EJ trailing arms are the same, it's the brackets that are different, and Forester and Outback have the same brackets, so no change there. If you do spacers, you may want to add spacers to those as well.

I'll tell you in person so as to not cause any issues here!

I had the same issue on my Forester. With the big hood scoop on it it popped up all the time. I did adjust the latch a bit, but I still find that I have give it a decent slam to get it to stay shut.