tturnpaw Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Ok so im starting this to futher clarify things on a L series 5 lug swap. Im starting with an 86 GL sedan fwd auto and converting to awd manual 5 lug. So everything in the rear bolts up fine (i swapped complete crossmembers) except if you have a 2wd the holes for the rear diff crossmember brackets need to be drilled. Its obvious where they are you just need to finish drilling them. The other issue is there isnt threads to bolt to, so im welding my brackets in. As for the front, to bolt up legacy struts and top hats, all you need to do is drill the holes larger (29/64" bit) (i used 15/32, little sloppier but im welding in braces) basically one to two steps larger than a 7/16" bit. Even the brake lines bolt up. As you can see, i drilled out the spot welds on the braces because when the strut is settled ill weld them in for a factory look and just as strong. Ok, as for ball joints ive measured and test fitted legacy ball joints vs XT6 joints in the XT6 front lower control arm. Ive found them to be the exact same. and one of the legacy 89-94 ball joint in xt6 arm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caboobaroo Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Welcome to the 5-lug swap community. I did this same swap about 3 years ago on my RX, which was originally a FWD 3AT. Se my pics here Instead of welding the brackets, just drill up through the floor of the trunk and drop some 3" bolts downand bolt the brackets up. Thats what I did on mine. Next, like you found out, everything bolts up for the most part in the back end but you still need to come up with a carrier bearing mount inside the tranny tunnel. I made one from pieces of an old bedframe I had, made some brackets that bolted to the car in the stock location, then the carrier bearing bolted to it. I've gotta rework it but it was fine for the 20k miles I put on the car, and it was a hard 20k miles. Next, there's a much easier way to do the front struts. you can take the EA82 tophats and bolt them onto the EJ front struts. Problem with factory EJ tophats is the hat iself is physically larger and IIRC, won't fit into the main center hole without modifications as well. Might want to check to see if it'll fit before you get to hog wild with it. I'm currently running ebay coilover sleeves on KYB AGXs on the front that are for a '93-'01 Impreza with the EA82 tophats. Also got the XT6 lower control arms with SPC adjustable radius rods for caster adjustability. Then there comes the engine crossmember. 99% of the swaps I've done, I've had to drill out the hole in the crossmember since the XT6 uses a larger bolt to mount the control arm to the crossmember. I drill it out to a 1/2", then use the smaller EA82 bolt to bolt the control arm into the car. I put washers on the outside of the crossmember on the head and nut side, then get the control arm into place, tack weld the washers and voila I'm done. A couple people told me this is not good but if you look at the inside metal sleeve on the bushing for the control arm, you'll see it has teeth that dig into the crossmember. Since the control arm is not a loaded suspension component, there's lot as much stress on it. Again, I've done many swaps with this setup and never had one fail on me yet *knocks on wood*. When you get it put together finally, bring it down to me for an alignment. I have made specific specifications for this setup for my car. Unfortunatly, its my secret since it took me so long to get them where I was happy with it but my '87 RX handles just like my friend's '05 STi on Tein Flex coilovers. If you'd like some help, I can lend a hand a couple days during the week. I did a complete 5-lug conversion on Turbone's RX in a day with him. My suspension mod list is the following: Complete 5-lug conversion using XT6 rear hubs, brakes, front lower control arms and outer tie rod ends '96 Impreza front knuckles, brakes, and axles XT6 front and rear swaybars KYB AGXs in the front and ebay coilover sleeves all the way around '89 RX rear shocks '89 RX rear subframe and trailing arms XT6 steering rack SPC adjustable radius rods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PoorManzImpreza Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Russ, what spc part did you use for the radius/leading rod? Kaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tturnpaw Posted August 12, 2009 Author Share Posted August 12, 2009 Thanks for the extra info caboobaru. The legacy tophats fit tight but not only does that put the center load right where it should be, it helps align the struts for the holes. They seem to fit pretty well to me though. For the control arms im using xt6 bolts. Ill probably weld the bolts facing down for the rear diff. I like the extra piece of mind. I havent addressed the carrier bearing yet, but thanks for the heads up, ill keep that in mind. Ill be in touch, i still get to figure out wiring might just throw a painless harness in lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 when I did the AWD swap in my loyale. I didn't do any welding or cutting on the rear diff hanger bolts. just drilled and tapped. it's been 5 years now, and almost 50k miles. zero problems there. the legacy tophats work fine with the stock holes, just have to enlarge them a bit. EJ tophat in my XT6, took me about 2 minutes per side with a dremel to get them to fit: I know you're already down the road of modification, but for future reference....definitely overkill yep, I had to drill out the engine crossmember. I made some carrier bearing brackets. but 40k miles or so turned a perfectly good driveshaft into junk (bearing AND 2 u-joints shot). I have since converted to a one-piece, seems to have helped. my setup: XT6 rear hubs, rotors, backing plates and front control arms. EA82t rear caliper brackets '88 Nissan 200SX rear calipers (coupled with legacy handle and cables for rear ebrake) '92 FWD legacy front knuckles, axles and struts EA81 tie rod ends '02 2.5RS front brakes '04 Mazda Miata rear shocks Genuine Ground-Control coilover sleeves, 250lb/in in the front and 275 in the rear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caboobaroo Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Russ,what spc part did you use for the radius/leading rod? Kaz Unfrotunatly its been a couple years since I bought them and cannot remember the part number. I'll see what I can dig up and get back to you Kaz. The reasoning behind the engine crossmember and the control arm situation with how I did it, is because the end where the bushing is actually will rub on the crossmember where the control arm slides into. I realized this problem initially and have done all of my 5-lug conversion like this since then. EDIT for SPC parts number and item http://www.spcperformance.com/PROD_DIR/SPCPerf_PROD_SEARCH_DYN.cfm?cmd=Cam&cmd2=84300&cmd3= Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tturnpaw Posted August 13, 2009 Author Share Posted August 13, 2009 For the front control arms using xt6 bolts I ended up drilling the front holes to 31/64" (just under 1/2") and the backs to 1/2". That way the bolts would line up perfectly with no slop and enough clearance to clear everything during movement. As caboobaroo said, the inside bushing will actually lock on the inside of the crossmember so a little slop will be fine so long as the bolts are tight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 look! a picture of my crappy carrier bearing "brackets" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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