Maybe I should be honest and say that I didn't actually lift it, but the struts were totally shot (none of the 4 could even support their own weight), so I followed AndyJo's lead and put Forester struts on it.

 

I haven't measured the ground clearance yet, but It seems to sit about 4 inches higher than it did when it was just sitting on the springs alone.

 

It rides pretty danged nice now! Even without an alignment (which it already needed) it's much more fun to drive and feels like it sticks to the road. Can't wait until I get new tires too!

 

before:

 

 

So what was the total cost of the switchover?

I paid $260 for the KYB GR-2s (including shipping) and $50 to my friend's kid for helping. Actually, he did most of the work and couldn't be disuaded.

 

I also paid $70 for new boots, but they shipped the wrong ones and I didn't realize it until I was already in the middle of it, so I reused the old ones.

Did you re-use your old springs? It looks like it's sagging a little in the rear.

When I first did my swap, the stock springs could barely fill the gap in the rear. I put them back together without the spring compressor. Adding OB springs to the OB struts really lifted the rear and made it firm.

I did reuse the springs, but I think the percieved sag is just an optical illusion in the photos. They were a *************** and a half to get on there!

 

In another 90,000 miles I'll redo everything.

Whoops! Forgot to add in the alignment and the two rear brake lines that needed to be replaced. Add another $200, so the total is $510.

 

I also looked at those rear springs again and found that the rear does sit lower. It's not too bad, so I'm not going to worry about it.

those wheel wells look empty :-p

but yeah, either forester, or OB springs should even things out

i just put forester struts in my 95 legacy. the front does appear to sit higher than the rear. but then again i still have to change out the other side inthe rear! when the car is on a jack i can stick my head inside the wheelwell.

4 inches? Are you sure? Maybe that's just a bad angle but it looks like 1 inch. Why is the front so high?

It looks like a 1 to 1.5 inch lift in rear and a 2 to 3 in front.

It will look better once some bigger wheels are on. My 1999 legacy brighton looked like that before i got it on 17' but it still needs a one inch drop in front.

Yes im a city suby fan.

i just put forester struts in my 95 legacy. the front does appear to sit higher than the rear. but then again i still have to change out the other side inthe rear! when the car is on a jack i can stick my head inside the wheelwell.

I just finished OB struts in the 97 Legato raising it about 1.5 inch all around.

 

I aligned it back to the painted marks I made but it pulled just very slightly to the right, and driving the car it seemed a bit jumpy toward the right on braking and bumps.

 

I looked at it and thought that the new lower angle of the control arm increased the positive camber, so I adjusted the camber 1 mark inwards on the top bolt of the right side and it felt a lot better and tracked straight. That adjustment is going to be relative for each car, but I expect these are pretty consistent and tight manufacturing tolerances.

 

The tires are pretty old but evenly worn, so I'm going to wait until I get new tires to have a measured shop alignment done.

 

I wonder if toe-in is affected much by the same alteration of the control arm angle. It doesn't appear so, or perhaps a tiny bit.