With the engine out of my '84 GL right now, I was casually thinking about installing a very small lift on it.

 

Ive always thought it needed to be leveled, as it has the traditional stink-bug stance.

 

Small as in 1.5", as I have some fresh 1.5 heavy gauge square tubing sitting in the corner of the shop, just begging to be used.

 

Question though, as I have never lifted one of these subarus.

The body and struts will be lifted 1.5 inches.

 

With such a small lift, do you need to extend the steering and the shift linkage?

 

Thanks for any help.

If that was me, I would leave it all stock and alone. Maybe buy a set of new front struts, they are probably weak due to age, it will drive and handle much better with just new struts.

I wish i would have left my Brat alone. at the time i thought it would be cool but time has been over with on the lift.

 

you will have many things to have to change otherwise, including radiator hoses, gas lines, EXHAUST, heater hoses etc, once you start messing with stuff, the exhaust will need reangled etc, AC compressor lines will be maxed t stretch, it is just not quite like a lot of the people on here say.. I am not sure on the steering extension, maybe even will need to change clutch cable routing, brake lines, etc.

Edited December 25, 201015 yr by bheinen74

really? the early EA stuff is that hard to lift?

 

on the XT6 a 2" lift is just a matter of installing top strut extenders and 4WD XT6's already sit really high. i had no issues with doing that to mine. so maybe just think about doing a strut lift like that?

you will have to extend the steering linkage. there should be enough wiggle room for the shifter, or you may have to cut out the hole to allow room for 5th and reverse, or make an angled shifter shaft.

 

you should be able to get enough stretch out of hoses and wires, and the brake lines can bend enough if you take them off their mounts and relocate them with the flex room.

 

the exhaust will be fine. the idea is if you space everything evenly from the body, all of the suspension retains the same geometry relative to itself.

 

You may hav to modify the pitch stop bar, or at least adjust it, depending on how much lift. you might not have to with only 1.5 iches

Thanks for clearing that up. It didnt look like much would have to be modified.

 

Ill look at it again and see if I want to go for it.

you could replace the little rubber steering joint with a double u-joint from an ea82 steering linkage and probably get away with it, if you build your lift in coordination with this extra length. Otherwise, you could saw the shaft and lengthen it with a pipe. It is neater to make modifications with factory parts instead of modded parts, as if one were to break, you can use another factory part. always mod the car to use a factory part, instead of modding a part to fit a factory location.

for a 1.5" just lift the strut tops and crank up the torsion bar in the back and be done with it.Axles will be stressed a bit more but its not to bad.1.5" is too small of a lift to go through the hassle of extending the steering,brake lines,shifter,radiator hoses,etc.

 

My 83 wagon is running a 2" strut top lift and cranked up torsion bar.

for a 1.5" just lift the strut tops and crank up the torsion bar in the back and be done with it.Axles will be stressed a bit more but its not to bad.1.5" is too small of a lift to go through the hassle of extending the steering,brake lines,shifter,radiator hoses,etc.

 

My 83 wagon is running a 2" strut top lift and cranked up torsion bar.

 

DO NOT DO THIS if you don't want headaches.

silly amount of work to do 1.5 inches though........

 

 

 

)it is just not quite like a lot of the people on here say.. bheinen74)

 

so, just because you lifted one rig , did a bunch of extra work, and continuously have ***************ed about how much it did not work out how you wnated it to.....this guy shouldna go down that road?once again your opinion has been referenced with absolutely nothing to do with this thread.

 

Idasho, if you want to make a run over to this side of the line in the next week, i can give you a run down of what you need to do in person....

cheers, b

My 2" strut top lift does everything I need/want it to do.