Hello! 

I own a 88 gl wagon. I use it for wheeling. What is the simplest way to lift it? I would like 4". Would prefer a way that I don't have to deal with steering linkage...if at all possible! Be kind I'm new lol. Ty!!

Welcome! Take a look here for 1 option. I have had the SJR EA81 4" lift on my wagon for years and I really like it. Scott makes EA82 lift kits too.

 

http://www.sjrlift.com/

Edited November 10, 20187 yr by Crazyeights

To be honest there’s really no way to do it without changing or modifying the steering linkage. 

You could do strut lift but kiss the longevity of yourCVs good bye!

Cheers

Bennie

If you can weld its easy to do a 4" lift but if you cant weld then stick to the 2" lift and a sawsall  with all the other limitations of this platform you wont get alot more performance by going any bigger and at 2" you wont need to mod the steering ether any more than 2" the axle shafts hit at full extention so you have to drop the engine crossmember and mod the steering to get the axles to clear

^ that 2 inch lift would be a strut only lift. Which means you won’t have any down travel left in your suspension as you max out the cv shafts. 

Cheers 

Bennie

No it still rides in the same position on the strut as it did before the lift your not changing the waight of the rig and the spring dosent change so there is no reason it would max out your suspention  a spring lift dose maxes out the suspention not a strut lift the 2" lift is the most comin lift around for subarus if you did want to do a spring lift u can use ford tempo springs i have a 12000lb winch on the front of my rig i used the progressive springs from the ford tempo they work great they will give you a very stiff ride if you dont have extra waight on the front end the controle arms have plenty of room to droop out its the cv axles that limit your lift not the suspention it self the big problem with the strut only lift is your axles do were faster not a big deal on a wheeler but it sucks for a daily driver

The rear of the rig you can use honda springs for a 2" lift but that will again put you at the top of your traval unless you add more waight alot of people go that route it hadles realy good too you can also use the fwd rear ea82 struts for a 2" lift in the rear and it wont change the spring rate or were the car rides on the struts so you would keep your 50/50 bias of the stock strut as it was made for the rig i am using nissan 300zx front struts with stock springs on the rear of my rig they retain the 6" of traval but uses a larger diamiter rod so it dosent bend as easaly as the stock strut shafts do and its made for a vary heavy turboed rig so the damping is better than stock also i beat mine till the body failed then i redesigned it and then life happend and i wasent anywere i could work in it or run it but thats gona change soon as im finnaly gona move in to my house and finnaly have all my stuff in one place and be able to work on my rigs and test them and break them and rebuild them again and again

I just finished an SJR 4" lift on my 92 Loyale and it's a fairly painless process (just takes time). As others have said, you do have to sort the steering out by cutting and welding an extension onto the knuckle. I've heard that you can swap the knuckle for a forester knuckle, but I don't know the truth in that. 

Sjr has been building lifts for a long time im sure he can hook you up with a kit that includes the extended steering link thats realy the way to go your not going to find a better lift outhere but your gona pay for that bolt in kit he did the engineering and testing for you if you choose to try building it for your self its not hard but anything over 2" is gona need more than just the strut spacers and thats were the engineering comes in you can do alot of damage with a poor lift kit so do your homework the 2" lift is easy and simple and wont kill your rig if your off alittle remeber you get lift from the tires too so a 2" lift with 27" tires will net you 4" over all