I recently purchased my second Subaru Legacy L AWD. It's a 1990 and I bought it from an older lady who bought it brand new and it's in excellent shape and only has 97K miles, it's an automatic and runs like a top. I'm looking to lift it a couple inches and from what I've read the easiest/best solution is to put struts from an outback or forester on it with no other modifications needed. I have plans to buy new struts/mounts/springs and doing this over the summer since I mainly drive it in the winter. Any help/suggestions/instructions/pictures/ideas greatly appreciated. Just not quite sure what years are compatible with my 90. Also if anyone knows where the best place to purchase all of this is let me know with some links of what I might need if possible. Thanks

See the sticky thread at the top o this forum about how to lift your impreza.  All of those options will apply to your legacy.

Any 1990-1999 Legacy outback or 97- 04 or 08 or something forester will be a direct fit. You can ignore the rear tophat swap or hole to drill mentioned for the impreza lift. Yours is an exact match.

 

Also, the trailing arm brackets from the outback are rather necessary for impreza lifts but more optional for legacy.

 

With that setup you can clear a 27-28 inch tire. I used 215-75-15 tires on my forester lifted impreza.

His rear top hats will need to be changed. It's not a direct swap. 90-94 had a different rear stud patter than 95-99 legacy/outback or 98-08 forester or 02-07 inpreza. So he would need to drill new holes, or swap his top hats onto the outback or forester struts.

I found these on eBay here's the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/FCS-Complete-Loaded-Struts-Coil-Assembly-FRONT-REAR-04-05-SUBARU-FORESTER-/191494755059?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2c95fa12f3&vxp=mtr Do you guys think these would work

Yeah those should work, but you'll still have to either swap your rear top hats over onto those, or drill new holes for the top hat studs where they bolt up through the car.

His rear top hats will need to be changed. It's not a direct swap. 90-94 had a different rear stud patter than 95-99 legacy/outback or 98-08 forester or 02-07 inpreza. So he would need to drill new holes, or swap his top hats onto the outback or forester struts.

 

 

I drilled mine out in the back so I could keep the outback top hat and push the springs out away from the inner wall.

Drilling those holes won't weaken the support back there? If anybody had a picture it would be swell just to get a rough idea. I'm just trying to cover all bases before I start. 

No it won't weaken it. There's some info in this link that will be the same for your early legacy.

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/118004-the-unofficial-how-to-lift-your-impreza-thread/

Didn't know the first gen were different. Good to know.

 

And yeah. I drilled my Impreza for it's lift and bounced it all over the mountains, forged through rivers, towed big loads for it with no issue. Drill away.

Does anyone know if a shift lever assembly form a different model, like a Impreza or a newer legacy would work. I'm having some trouble finding all the stuff for my 93 legacy.