themixtoo

I'll have to check it out, I think I have the ones out of my '83 N/A Brat somewhere around here:brow: .......Gary

You are correct, first 4WD 'Rus were introduced in late '74 as a '75 model in the USA. The Brat was introduced in '76 at the time of the change from stage 1 type to stage 2 as a '77 model. There is such a thing as a Stage 1 1976 'Ru and a Stage 2 1976 'Ru. Stage 1 has the body lines of the '75 and earlier models and Stage 2 has the body lines of '77 thru '79 (Brat thru '81)..... Gary

They are just a little special, they have an adjustment screw/nut on the lower spring housing to allow for manual heigth change of about 1"...... Gary

Thanks again, I'll snap a pix of this assy mounted in the Brat. By the way, is there a way to reduce the pixles or something without losing the quality of the pictures? I know it's a dumb question but I'm still not to good at this digital stuff yet. Gary

OK, OK. I got all excited when I finished the LH upper strut mount and forgot to snap a pic before I bolted the strut to it and installed it. So I just unbolted it from the Brat but I took the pic with the Impreza strut still bolted to it because those new shiny nuts are OEM and their self locking. JUST TRIED COPY/PASTE AGAIN. CHECK YOUR E-MAIL I'M GETTING P$$$$$D OFFFF AGAIN:banghead: GARY

Man this upper strut mount is pretty tricky it's taken me two weeks to get it just right. Last bit of welding should be done today. At least now the RH strut mount should only take half as long to fabricate.. PIX COMM'IN...

2003 BAJA, wife uses 87 octane all the time. When I tow something I use 92. Have not had a pinging or loss of power problem yet (40k on odo) Gary in Cleveland, Ohio

SOOOOO...Body shop 'buddy' looks at crossmember and says 'Bent too bad, can't be fixed, go to JY and get another' This is just the kind of stuff that ticks me off. DON'T TELL ME IT CAN'T BE FIXED. I JUST LUV A CHALLENGE! Well, it's almost fixed as of today, just a little more tweeting. I thought about heating it up and bending it back but decided that would weaken the peice too much, so I cut the welds , bent it back cold and had it welded back in the correct position. I think that will be stronger (and cheaper than a JY crossmember). Next project is to design a top strut mount bracket that will bolt to the Brat and align the upper Impreza strut mount in the correct position (which should be about 2 inches wider than the existing mounts). I took the LH strut off my '98 Impreza yesterday and made a template out of metal and wood that bolts between the engine crossmember and the upper strut mount. Now I have an accurate pattern to transfer to the Brat, PIX COMING SOON.........

OK, Left front suspension finished, but now I noticed the right side front A arm mount on the crossmember is bent about 3/4". So I pulled the engine/trans AGAIN and one of my buddies has a body shop and he thinks he can straighten this for me......This is taking longer than I expected. LOL:rolleyes: Gary

SO, SOMEBODY MOVE THIS THREAD:grin:

'98 2.5RS had the EJ25 Phase 1 (DOHC) and then in '99 changed to the EJ25 Phase 2 (SOHC), this last version is probably in your Outback because it's in my wife's '03 BAJA Gary

I agree, when I bought my '98 25RS w/5speed no one told me it did not have a hill-holder. I found out the hard way (not really, but) very first hill on the way home I allmost rolled back into a semi. I've had 3 Brat's over the years (not counting my Turbo clone) and all had sticks w/hillholders so I knew what to expect. I didn't hit the semi but it was close . Gary **Oh yea, and I'm old enough to have ridden in an old Studebaker from the 1950's that had this device in it (they used a different name for it but it was the same princeble). Anyone see that new commercial for the GM SUV with the sliding rear roof panel? Studebaker did that one first in the '50s also.

Well....welding practice is not going as well as I had hoped. Burned my ankle, my head, my arm, my hand and my A$$ but I did get a few good SPOT welds to take:grin:. I think 'practice' will take place on something less critical than the front suspension and I'm going to 'bite the bullet' and pay someone to finish welding this stuff. I really don't care if a rocker panel falls off because of my poor welding, but not any suspension stuff....Better to be safe than sorry. Gary

I'm still working on the mods for the Impreza front suspension to BOLT to the Brat. Tried to do the welding myself but it looked a little unsafe. I was able to weld in the front left inner fender (where the Impreza fusebox and battery fit) but since this is my first time welding my spot welds look ok but I just couldn't lay down a 'good' bead yet. I'm going to pay someone to weld the suspension brackets as I don't care if a rocker panel or something falls off, but not the lower control arm. Rather be safe than sorry;). Gary

I think it was 1982 only but maybe '83 too and it was only on the Gen 2 Brats and station wagons. Gary

I hope everybody else can see it because I can't open it up and yes thanks, I'll edit a couple more pix and send them your way:) ...Gary ***Oh yea, borrowed a mig welder from a friend, wired a seperate circuit off my breaker box in the garage over the weekend. Now I just got to get up the nerve to 'practice' welding on these suspension mounts. I guess there's a first time for everything:rolleyes: Up to this point in time I've always paid someone to do my welding for me, but now that my wife is not working (job out-sourced to India after 31 years) I've got to watch the 'budget' now:-\

OK, Thanks....I'll e-mail you. Gary

I took the trans tunnel and everything with all e-brake stuff, center console, heater controls, dash, computers, steering column, fuel tank, fuel lines, all of it. The only mod I think I'll have to do is shorten the the rear main driveshaft:cool:

I got the entire car ('95 Impreza Outback wagon) for $350 (that's 10% of what the insurance co. totaled the car for) and I don't want to piece XT6 parts, Brat parts and Impreza parts together. When I'm finished I want to be able to BOLT ON STI suspension components, not have to modify each peice as I go along. I don't just want 5-lug suspension, I want to be able to use STI wheels, brakes, struts, axles, etc. By the way how can you even compare a Brat control arm to an Impreza one? Oh yea and I want them tires stickin' out those wheel wells too.

Just today's update....I'm hav'in a real problem modifing the strut rod bracket to accept the rear pivot bushing on the Impreza lower 'A' arm because this bushing lines up exactly under the old frame rail and I don't want to modify that part of the original Brat. PIX COMING........GaryBRAT 3.MOD5.bmp BRAT 3.MOD4.bmp BRAT 3.MOD3.bmp BRAT 3.MOD2.bmp

I'm in the process of putting the complete Impreza suspension on my '83 Brat. So far I'm still working on the front and here's what I found out. You need the Impreza crossmember with the power steering rack in it. The lower 'A' arms will bolt to it at the front and you will have to fab the rear pivot mount.To get the rear pivot mount to clear the frame rail you will need to do at least a 2" lift (I'm doing a custom 3" lift). The upper strut mount will have to be modified (haven't got to that yet) and this set-up will increase your tread width about 2". I'm not sure about the axles but, I'm using the Impreza engine/trans also so they fit right in. The standard Impreza disc brake set-up is much more heavy duty than our original Brat stuff (even the Turbo Brat brakes look puuny next to the Impreza stuff) and last but not least with this new stuff you don't have to pull the frickin' axle just to change a rotor anymore. Just my .02 Gary

EJ22 and auto trans bolted in (well engine and cradle bolted in) talk about close fit, .25" clearence on the valve covers on each side frame rail and that's with moving the cradle (crossmember) foreward about .75" from the factory EA81 mounting points. This relocation of the Impreza crossmember only moves the front axles forward about .25" so hopefully the front wheels will still stay centered in the fender wheel opening and if not I think it will be easier to trim the front arc of the wheel opening than the rear. MORE PIX COMING SOONBRAT 3.MOD.bmp BRAT 3.MOD6.bmp

I thought about it but, I took the whole drivetrain out of my daughter's 'totaled' Impreza Outback and if I put a stick in this thing it's just one more thing for my better half to complain about. In 30+ years of marriage we haven't had many dissagreements but the fact that the only two new cars I've bought both have manual trans in them and I tried to teach her to drive the first one ('74 V8 Gremlin that I still have) but she just couldn't get it so I'd rather not tick her off with this deal. Plus this Brat allready had an automatic in it and I am getting just a little tired of this clutch pedal thing anyway. Gary

This thing is TOO much .