Gloyale Posted July 4, 2008 Share Posted July 4, 2008 So after months of working out designs, sourcing steel, and procrastination, we finally finished building our Legacy lift kit. Here's what we did: Outback Front struts and springs Outback Rear Struts w/Stock 90 Legacy springs(have to for 90+91 unless you get tops from a 92-94) 3 inch strut top lifts at all four corners. 3 inch blocks between front and rear Crossmembers 3 inch blocks under A-arm mounts in front 1 1/2 inch blocks under rear of trans crossmember 95-99 Outback trailing arm mounts. 93 Legacy rear control arms, eliminated rear swaybar for more flex.(custom control arms and swaybar a maybe in future) Grand Total: 5 1/2 inches of body lift total(2 1/2 at diffs) before adding bigger tires where we hope to gain another 1 1/2. Here are a few pics of the finished car. Some issues: *collar* around the snout of the rear diff rubbed on the driveshaft at it's new angle(we did not space down the carrier bearing). Solution was to stack a few washers to space the collar out a bit. Radiator hoses are stretched but working for now. New ones will be needed. Dogbone needs lengthened Changed angle on the trans caused the shifter linkage at rear of tranny to be bumping the crossmember. Again a few spacers(3/8ths in.) between the trans and member. Helped drive line angle and shifter function too. We are unhappy with the rear wheels being pulled forward. One option would be to space down the original legacy trailing arm bracket the full 3 inches (or an 1 3/4 witht eh outback bracket). But that would leave the bracket hanging in a bad spot for getting hit on rocks and stumps. So we are going to lengthen a set of trailing arms, so the mount can stay up high. Here's the first one. MOre pics of the details of the lift will be posted after I sort the photos and do a mini write-up. That will be posted in the off-road section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 Damn:rolleyes: Nothing:confused: Maybe I should have posted it without pics so everyone would ask for them. LOL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nkx Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 looks cool, but needs some muddin tires! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted July 5, 2008 Author Share Posted July 5, 2008 looks cool, but needs some muddin tires! Oh, for sure. These were taken literally minutes after lowering it off the stands. We figured leave the small road tires(225/60/14) on for Before and After pics so it would be a real comparision. Also wanted to be able to shake it down with a few road test drives before going even further up in the air;) 235/65/60 for the road and some 29 x 9.5 x 15 mudders (or 14 if we can find em) are coming soon. Probably after the trailing arm extension. Once we have the tires we'll be using, and the rear end *resettled* it'll be time for the zzz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bucky92 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 :slobber: There is just something about a lifted wagon:slobber::slobber: Looking great!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostinthe202 Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Looks great! I look forward to reading the write up. How does the angle of the drive shafts look, are the u-joints taking to much now? Neat idea for lengthening the trailing arms. Good work! Will- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted July 5, 2008 Share Posted July 5, 2008 Awesome! that looks great. i'm only going with 2", hope i'm not terribly disappointed after seeing this. less than half of what you got here sounds awfully small. not sure why - but i never saw the thread until now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 Awesome! that looks great. i'm only going with 2", hope i'm not terribly disappointed after seeing this. less than half of what you got here sounds awfully small. not sure why - but i never saw the thread until now? Just outback struts??? If you did 2 inch blocks and outback struts you'll look nice and tall. That's the key, we only did 3 inch blocks, but with the outback struts it totals 5-1/2. It's worth noting that if you were going much taller with thte blocks than this, you WOULD have to deal with a few more problems with driveline angles. And structure of the blocks mounting into the unibody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted July 6, 2008 Share Posted July 6, 2008 Just outback struts???sorry, that's in my XT6. 2" seems meager now after looking at your legacy but i guess it's better than nothing. actually i can inflate the air struts for another 1.5-2" so i guess technically i can end up with a bit more than 2" with the lift and air ride together - similar to what you're doing with the outback struts + blocks. keep up the good work, that should be a great ride. you don't expect too much stress on any of the driveline? any wear items say over 50k-100k miles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted July 6, 2008 Author Share Posted July 6, 2008 When we first put it all toghether, the center driveline was a tad off. It's a compromise, to ge the right angle on the trans, we end up with the shifters solid big solid mount knocking on the crossmember. Shim it off the crossmember and we run out of threads on the studs formed into the trans mounts. We may end up having to shim the carrier bearing 1/4 to 1/2 inch. Another option would be to shim the points where the trans mount bolts TO the trans, we can easily extend those bolts. And yet another would be to simply modify the mount for the shifter stay. It is a big bulky circular piece that could be allot smaller, And I could change the angles of the shifter to be better at the same time. There is alot of refining to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HillbillyLes Posted July 7, 2008 Share Posted July 7, 2008 Looks nice...be interesting to see how the entire setup is put together once all the bugs are worked out. Been MIA for a while but what wheels are those? HbL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted July 7, 2008 Author Share Posted July 7, 2008 Looks nice...be interesting to see how the entire setup is put together once all the bugs are worked out. Been MIA for a while but what wheels are those? HbL They are American Racing 14 inch with 225/60 tires. Basically stock size, but they are VERY nice rims that came on the car when we bought it for $650:grin: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 So I finally got some pics of the height before and after. Here is before And the after: Oh yeah and the donor engine car we just picked up for a new engine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aircraft engineer Posted July 8, 2008 Share Posted July 8, 2008 watch it on your extensions of the trailing arms. they will affect the rear alignment if not identical distance from the attach pivot to the axle mounting hub. you don't want to go down the road catty-wampus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloyale Posted July 8, 2008 Author Share Posted July 8, 2008 watch it on your extensions of the trailing arms. they will affect the rear alignment if not identical distance from the attach pivot to the axle mounting hub. you don't want to go down the road catty-wampus The first one I made just with a tape and eyeball. Now that it is welded, I am going to make a jig with fixed points that it bolts into. Then sleeve and weld the second bolted into said jig so they will have to be identical. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooner Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 So how did this project turn out? And how was that silver turbo legacy used? It looks pretty nice in that picture! Just curious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmdew Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 Did you have CNC files for the mount blocks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.