Uberoo

Gloyale, invite him and maybe he will see the error of his ways when he sees how well subarus go offroad with how little money invested.I have a friend I might invite but his truck might be too wide so I will have him measure its width.

totally digging the pink transmission crossmember! I think I'm going to go and replace my return line with 5/16.My EJ might run better,and my POS ford fuel pump might be a bit quieter.

what air pressure were you running in your tires?

So I put the one completed strut in an tested it.Keep in mind the driver side is on a jackstand right now so its not a totally accurate test.I put a floor jack under the passenger side front and I am reasonably pleased with the initial results.I have the bump stop that was on the factory strut on there and its a tight fit so it doesn't move unless the suspension itself pushes on it.Anyway it looks like 3" of up travel and 4" of down travel from static.I would be able to get the full 8" of travel if I had softer springs.The factory springs are just a little too stiff and wont quite compress enough to get that extra inch to get full travel. oh well. here is a gratuitous poser shot measurement: keen observers may notice that i need a new paint job.Any ideas?

I wasn't in the subaru .It was in a 1999 VW jetta.I have however smashed my exhaust off my subaru back when it was a EA81 wagon with a 2" lift. That was offroad. I did however crush the oil pan on my old daily driver, a 93 FWD legacy.

whats with all the rigs with out skidplates?Ive busted an oil pan on the street so my offroader doesn't leave the driveway without one.

So I heard a rumor that the strut inserts for a late VW super beetle(74-80) could be used to improve the travel of the front EA suspension.I am dealing with EA82 front suspension,but I'd imagine the same technique could be used with EA81 suspension.My front struts were blown so I thought I would give it a try. Here is a side by side comparison of the struts as I got them. A FWD EA82 strut is on the left and the VW strut insert is on the right. I originally thought that I would remove the "strut" from the subaru strut assembly and insert the VW strut insert and Bob's your uncle.So I cut open the EA82 strut and found this. Much to my dismay I found that the VW strut insert was about 2 mm too large to fit into the Subaru strut housing.NOTE: after this point I don't have pics detailing every step of the way,so just bear with me.Once I get time to make the other side I will post up some pics detailing every step of the way. Anyway I cut off the strut mount and spring perch from the ea82 strut body.The VW strut insert is alittle bigger than 1.5" while the OD of the subaru strut is about 1.75.So I got some 1.75" exhaust tubing and cut it along the seam weld to make a sleeve to mount the perch and mount to. Then I drilled a 1/8" hole near the top of the VW strut insert to relieve the pressure from welding.The VW strut insert is made out of some thin metal, so extreme care will need to be taken when welding the sleeve to the strut insert.The best I could do was just a series of spot welds.This is the is the make or break it part of the whole operation.If you burn through and deform the wall of the strut-its ruined,If you burn/melt the seals its also ruined,If your welds don't seal you guessed it ruined.It is also worth noting that you want the valve of the strut to be as far away from where your welding.The valve is at the bottom of the strut rod.Luckily for me when the smoke cleared my welds were air tight, and I didn't destroy the seals. As for that 1/8" hole it is an excellent place to put a schrader valve to refill the strut.I wasn't able to get a spec for the amount of oil to use but the strut is to filled with 30 PSI of nitrogen. Here is the finished product.I added 10 oz of 15W motorcycle fork oil and 30 psi of nitrogen and its very firm. Once again I apologize for the lack of intermediate steps,give me a day or so and I will have those for you.These struts have 7.8" of travel compared to FWD EA82 struts that have 6.125",4wd EA82 strut are about 5.75" just for reference. This works because even in stock form the struts have the nitrogen in solution with the oil.If this was a high end strut that the nitrogen is separate from the oil it wouldn't work.

I really want to wheel up there.It will be a refreshing change of terrain. I miss out big time even when you guys just go on a day trip.Around here its just mud and trees,but the trails were made by fullsize trucks so nothing is tight or technical.Heck my rocker panels haven't even gotten crunched.The pinch weld on the passenger side is folded over a little bit but thats about it.So I will do everything in my power to get up there and wheel with you guys.

Gloyale I'm aiming to go there and I'm 2 hours further away.Baring random acts of god I'll be there.

I saw some videos of naches and most areas looked like a 2wd car would make it through,In the dry atleast. So I vote EC.

both naches and evan's creek are roughly 6 hours from me,so whatever is more challenging/fun. Just make a weekend of it.

that skidplate is hammered.

dur dee dee

its a sealed cartridge because it allows the strut to be pressurized with nitrogen to reduce the oil cavitating . I said that once I was done it was gonna be filled with the correct amount and weight of oil and then pressurized with nitrogen.So assuming I didn't melt or other wise mess up the strut valving when I was welding it WILL behave exactly like stock.

Why is the strut ruined?My welds are sealed and dont leak and I didn't deform the inner wall of the tube at all so the rod still slides smoothly along its entire travel.Once I am done welding I will fill it back up with oil and add a schrader valve to replace the air that was lost .Im My mind once it is full of the correct amount of oil and air pressure again it should work just like a normal strut.I welded as far away as possible from the valve so everything should be fine. After all a strut really is no different from a shock fork on on a motorcycle or bike..

Here is what I have so far. A stock FWD EA82 strut on the left and the VW strut insert on the right notice how much more travel the VW insert has. I cut open the stock EA82 strut. Originally I wanted to simply stuff the VW strut insert into the EA82 strut and call it a day,but that wont work.The VW strut is 2 mm larger in diameter than the inside of the EA82 strut.So since that wouldn't work I decided that I was going to weld the mounts from the ea82 strut onto the VW strut insert.The OD of the VW strut is 1.649" and the OD the subaru strut is 1.75 so I needed a spacer.So I got some 1 .75" exhaust tubing to use as a spacer.The VW strut won't quite fit into the exhaust tubing so I cut the exhaust tubing along the weld to open it up,and then welded the spacer to the insert.Then I cut off the subaru strut mount as well as the spring perch and welded them to the "Strut".I set the spring perch an inch higher than stock to gain a little bit of height.Here is what I have so far. I am going to weld a sleeve over the middle of the VW strut insert to give it some strength as well as finish welding everything on the strut. On the other side I will just weld the exhaust tubing sleeve over the entire strut insert to save myself some steps.I will also take pics of the various steps along the way.

nice,looked very fun.

So I picked up some late super beetle struts and they wont fit into the existing strut body.They are roughly 2mm too big or .09".So I guess I have to weld on the mounts from the ea82 strut.To anybody following this there is a 70% chance that you will need to add oil to the strut when your done.If your welds don't seal the strut is ruined.I am most of the way through making the first strut, a right side, and already ive gotten three pin-hole leaks that ive had to fix.Right now I have a 1/8" hole near the top of the strut that I drilled just to drain out the oil so I can weld everything up without oil spraying in my face.Also try to keep the valve as far away as possible from where your welding,IE if welding at the top the rod should be pushed all the way in. So far I haven't had any problems with stuff wanting to explode on me.When I first started I was tack welding the tab that mounts the strut to the hub and it sprung a leak and sprayed oil through a pin-hole leak in the weld and coated my truck with oil...

This thread is making me feel like my hatch is inadequate with its 31"s...But on the other hand I seemed to have cured most of my breakage issues,not really sure if i want to go bigger.totally jealous of the ground clearance.

I haven't noticed a problem with my suspension setup, so what does the duel shock actually fix?

EA82 struts have more travel than EA81. FWD struts have the most travel of any of the EA81 or EA82 struts.Just have to change the tophats.

ditch it and dont look back.My subaru is lifted 8" on some 31" tires without a sway bar,it sorta handles like a worn out truck except I can still rally the piss out of it.A little more lean in the corners but its nothing bad.On an IFS rig any little bit of suspension flex helps.I will say this though, with an open diff and the sway bar installed I got stuck on a bump/dip about the size of a curb.With the sway bar gone both tires can do what they are supposed to.

your still running EA81 suspension?Ea82 suspension is way moar better.

that is fortunate because I have an 8" lift.I just need do some some experimenting with my old struts...

Monroe doesn't list anything for EA81's so bear with me. FWD EA82 14.5" compressed,20.625 extended, 6.125" of travel 4WD EA82 12.875" compressed,18.625 extended,5.75" of travel 71-73 super beetle 14.5" compressed,20.625 extended,6.125" of travel 74-80 super beetle 14.25" compressed,22.125" extended,7.875" of travel From that list it would seem that FWD EA82 struts have more travel than 4wd struts.Although I don't trust the numbers because a stock OEM tokico FWD EA82 strut is just under 16" compressed,is 22 .125" extended and has 6.125" of travel.