Dynapar

^ I would be very interested in seeing pictures of this bushing/extension you are planning to make.

They are VERY VERY snug. I cleaned up the extra dirt/rust on the struts with a wire wheel and I still needed to do MUCH persuading to get the whole thing together. I can now have the front wheels at full downflex and it wont come apart. Thats pretty good. I am still going to put the keeper bolts in, but it isnt a priority as of now. I took a pic today:

Well I think I got it out of 4wd. the light is still on, but I think that might be broken. I drove it up to a buddies shop, about 10 miles each way. When I hit 3rd gear for the first time it made a clunk and seemed much better. I was on some pavement and put it in 4wd and it would hop or try to hop. I tried putting it in 2wd after that and it didnt do it (ok it did it a tiny, tiny bit but that is probably due to higher RPMs to get the big tires to turn). I will have to see if I have any issues in the future. Hopefully this issue is gone for good. (so I can move onto other ones...)

I will give this a shot after I have checked my fluids again. Interesting. My friend did a 4" lift on his 88 Hatch and had similar issues with the gear lever, but not the 4wd selector. I guess there are alot of variables when it comes to doing a lift. Hopefully mine isnt going to require that level of fabrication. I was so happy to have it on the road for the spring, it would be terrible to have to take it apart again. I will do this right away tomorrow after work. I havent driven it in over 8 months (4wd/2wd worked back then) the only thing that is different is the front is lifted now. So I will check fluid levels and linkage clearances. and yes the tires are all the same make/size/inflation/wear level. I have not tried putting it on jackstands, I might have to give that a shot as well. Thanks for the input all. I will let you know if I make any progress.

Ok heres the deal. I have brat with a 4" lift. 3" blocks on the engine crossmember, and 2" blocks on the transmission crossmember and rear end. I finished the lift and started driving it (5 miles or so) yesterday. The 4wd selector will lock in to 4lo and 4 high. When I push down to go into 2wd it will not click or hit the notch. Also the 4WD light will not go off. Yesterday when I was driving I did not have it locked into 4hi and I thought that it was in 2 (even though the 4wd light was on) If i pushed down on it alittle from where it normally sat the light would go off. Anyway I figured out that it was still in 4hi after I did some turning and the tires would squeak or chirp. today I went out and tried to get it to pop out of 4hi, and was pushing down on the 4wd lever. if I push down on it all the way the transmission will shift and move. pulling up through the 4wd notches the tranny stays still. but pushing down it will move, due to the 4wd linkage pulling back on the transmission. Now the 4wd light stays on no matter how far I push the lever down. After talking to Chux, I tried driving it in revers to remove any binding. I drove for about 1/2 a block in reverse while putting slight pressure downwards on the 4wd lever. It did not work. I also tried articulating it to lift a wheel off and potentially remove binding that way. I got the front pasenger wheel off the ground and still no luck. Has anyone had issues like this before? Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix this issue? I am stumped... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Big update. There will be much more now that the brat is on the roads. Ok here is the brief of it, ok not really. In order to complete the lift, I needed to extend the struts. The traditional way of doing this is to put a large block on the top of the Strut, something like you can get from SJRLift, BYB, or AA. In theory it would be relatively easy to make a block like this, however by lowering the strut from the top it is supposed to mess up your alignment (wicked positive camber, more than usual) unless the piece is made with a certain bolt offset to correct it. I decided, with much input, to lengthen the bottom of the strut. I originally tried using some steel pipe, but that failed because it is impossible to get pipe with the right size OD. So with a a couple posts on the local boards I was set to have something custom made. Here is what I drew up. It doesnt look like much on paper, frankly I wasnt expecting anything near what I received. I would like to interject here that FastMatt from MNSubaru, is the bomb and this would not have been possible without his hard work and time he put into make these for me. So some time, and a big bar of cold rolled steel later..... I had strut extensions that could hold a 747. So here is a before and and after of the strut extensions. Here is a pic of what it looked like. notice the excessive positive camber. The front drivers side has it the worst. There is a bent trailing arm thinger that I believe is causing this. Probably next time I get the tire off I will try and "straighten" it. Here is a closer view of what it looks like. That is it for now, but much more has happened and there will be pics. Things such as extending the steering and intake modifications... Also testing ;-)

yeah its a storage condominium thinger. It is my parents and I have managed to somehow persuade them to let me work on the Brat there. :-) The tailgate is gone. Northursalia now owns it. I decided that I would be using the Brat entirely for offroading and that a tailgate would most likely get destroyed so I found a good home for it.

The torsion bar has splines on it similar to an axle stub, so to reclock it you have to slide the front stabilizer arm thing (cant recall the name right now) off and rotate it done 1 spline. This changes the angle of that arm piece pushing the rear knuckle down. Hope that helps. I am not too sure yet. For now I am going to run the ATs that are on there. In the future I will either go with ProComp A/Ts or Swamper TSLs. I will most likely decide based upon sizes available and price. If the TSLs are the same price or lower than the equivalent ProComps I will get TSLs. They have considerably better grip in mud, though wont last as long as the ProComps which isnt super important since I dont plan on putting over 3k miles a year on it. Collector plates FTW!

Here are some more pics of the project. I want to give Chux another huge thanks for all of the help and parts he has contributed to this project. Grinding down the back of the front hub plates, in prep to weld the lug studs in. The back done. 12" of ground clearance to the rear diff. A look into the future... what it should look like after the front lift is done. Front tires on. Looks pretty sweet to me. Definitely need to finish the lift now. Hmm... this could be an issue. Gonna have to do some fender trimming. So now the 6 lug conversion is done, and with Chux's help we corrected some of the rear alignment issues. Just need to finish the lift and get the front bumper put together. Then it will pretty much only be cosmetic stuff. FYI: a great write up on the 6 lug conversion can be found here: http://offroadingsubarus.com/6stud_conversion.html

Update: Worked on the brat all of saturday. The rear end is now lifted. This means that the lift is now 50% done, not almost 50% like it used to be ;-) This is a picture of the old top strut bracket in the new strut. if you look closely one side is has been ground down to allow for easier insertion. Here we have mlgez and fishbiker15 working on getting the torsion bar out so that it can be re-clocked. The drivers side has now been finished and we are working on the passenger side. mlgez is using the mill to make a bolt the right size. This is the torsion bar on the passenger side. Both of the splined ends were kinda of rusty but the middle was in prime shape as you can see. Full downflex on the drivers side. Had to drill out the outer bushing retainer bolt (do I need this if my bushing has become one with the housing?) so this is a temporary measure so that I could move it. dundundun..... Check out the awesome positive camber on the rear wheels. My fix for the exhaust leak at the heads... Jacked up the front so that it sits level. front wheels are about 3" off the ground. lined up in ascending order according to production date. maybe....?

I now have the rear end lifted. Thanks for the pictures. I figured it out. I was actually able to leave the brake lines in the same location and now at full downflex there is still alittle bit of slack in the soft line. so it should be perfect. I am uploading pictures right now. I will be posting them up soon.

I will have to do this. I removed the roll pin in favor of the compression fitting fix which was posted on here previously. That was the reason that I could not get the brat into reverse at all. so I nixxed that idea and just dropped in a larger bolt instead. There is still plenty of play but atleast I can hit all of the gears now. This tapping the hole plan sounds very solid. One thing I noticed between when I removed the compression fitting fix and just dropping in a bolt is that the stub which sticks out of the tranny is made of what seems to be a very soft metal. I noticed that the hole in mine has started to oval. I have a question about lifting the brat. I am doing 2" blocks in the rear and re-clocking the torsion bar 1 notch this should give me an effective 4" lift. What length brake line extensions do I need? Also what type of fittings on the line? Female/Female? Can I get these from the local auto parts store?

I was kicking around the idea of fabbing up a 4EAT skid plate a while ago. I decided to wait until I get my swap done since the design will need to change to accomodate the down pipe. From what I remember I think that you should be able to mount it off of the tranny x-member and the front control arm mounting points. I was thinking of tucking the front of the plate up behind my primitive racing skid plate to prevent it from catching an edge on something.

I am not sure about the tail lights. This brat has been NA all fo its life the Turbo decals were a mistake at the dealership from what I understand. The oil pressure sending unit isnt hooked up, I still need to fix that...

yeah it still has a gas leak which has me baffled. I need to figure that out. I did manage to stop it from leaking gear lube out of the tranny which is good. Big update time. I got around to starting the lift kit over my spring break. I am using 2" blocks on the rear diff carrier and mustache bar to lower them so that they are at a kinder axle angle. I will be reclocking the torsion bar to get the actual lift. This is where I am stuck right now the 2 bolts i need to remove are not cooperating. anyway I made up all of the 3" blocks that i will be using to drop the tranny and engine crossmembers. So the only remaining parts that I will need are some break line extensions for the rear, the front strut extensions and the steering extension. The rear diff had become one with the DOJ cups on the axles so I had to replace the stub. With Chux's help I was able to get a EA82 DOJ cup to replace the broken one. the EA82 cup will allow for great travel and flexibility before it well explodes... Pictures! Milling out the front lift blocks: Completed lift blocks: The broken stub on the rear diff: The rest of the stub: The old EA81 cup I broke: Replacement parts from Chux. note the deep offset inverse torx socket...: I needed to replace the factory captive nuts with new hardware: 2" longer: Diff carrier drop w/ bolts and blocks on it: New rear shocks. Rough Country shocks for a 2.5" lifted TJ jeep next to the stock brat shocks. both are fully extended.: Diff reinstalled: Mustache bar and shocks installed: Thats it for now. Hopefully I will have some more soon.