Caboobaroo

I did this with my '78 Brat for 3 months. You need to only remove one axle and break it apart at the CV joint so you still have the stub that runs through the bearing and hub to keep the wheel on.

LOL about time you get yoar caboose over here. Oh and now its MY turn to get a project done...... First Rob, then Ryan and now....... me?

Bill I believe all the gen 1s had that front valence panel on them. both my '78 Brat and my '79 wagon (with quad rounds) had the same valence panel as the single rounds. Nice score Poop, wish I could have found that. I miss my gen 1 Brat in a bad way.

I should bring my RX down there so we can finish it before we do anymore of your projects:lol: Besides, I need to finish one since you got like 4 more in the wings that I'm gonna help you do:banana:

And it made it there still lookin pretty:banana:

Tex, just wanted you guys to know I had a great time despite what happened with the g/f's purse. She got a call Monday that the Skamania county police found it 6 miles from where we were at. Most of it was there but the important stuff was so that was awesome.

This is true. Now I need to get Carrie to drive the XT6 down there next year and bring my RX.

LOL all the pics that Johnny took with your cam Mykey, I'm wasted in:lol: I look it too in them lololol USMB drunk represent!

Man another 5-lug swap thread????? I'm finally getting tired of posting up info every couple months. First off, getting a crossbreed kit would be awesome, IF we lived in Australia. Not dissin on the aussie guys but they have the kit down there for a reason. They can't get parts at all unless they get shipped from the US or so. Now, search. I've posted up numerous times, info on the 5-lug conversion. i've done many, done it many different ways and know of many other things to do, such as brembos, suspension and whatnot.

Well I just had the fun weekend of swapping the suspension on my XT6. I stuck with the XT6 front knuckles since I didn't have the Impreza stuff to go into the car. So I put the Impreza struts on the XT6 knuckles and I wouldn't wish this upon my worst enemy. I got coilover sleeves off of ebay and had a set of KYB GR2s for an Impreza, spent about 2 1/2 hours a side and it was a real pain. The XT6 knuckle is about 1/16th of an inch wider then the strut. Doesn't sound like a lot but makes a lot of work to get it to fit. Had to grind down the knuckle a bit for it to barely slide onto the knuckle and after a lot of hammering, I was able to finally get it over the knuckle and bolted up. If you plan on using XT6 front parts, DON'T! Just go get the Impreza parts for the front and make it easier on yourself. Granted, you'll still need the XT6 control arms but thats all you'd need. I'm going to end up using the Impreza parts on the front end eventually but I had to do something now since both front struts were totally blown and made the ride very uncomfortable.

I just have the correct tool to do this. Cost me like $160 or so on the Snap-On truck and comes with 8 different adapters to do random cars (like Ford Tarus, Mazda 3, etc.)

Yeah I've been on the phone for a total of 4 hours with people at the bank and all that has come of it has been a "Sorry, we're not going to do anything..." Not QUITE in that matter of words but thats whats its come down to. So now I get to pay that off, close my account and go bank somewhere else that'll at least put up a fight for me..... Its happened to me before at another bank a few years ago and they got me almost all of my money back which was good, since it was the gas money for my moving truck when I moved to Washington. Oh Brian, don't foget my grille y0!

I gotta wait to register there unfortunatly. Was informed by my bank today my account was hax0rd by online villians:mad: so as of right now, my WCSS fundage is lost until I get my paycheck from this week and next week. And low and behold, my bank is trying to tell me since I didn't catch it in time, then I gotta pay back most of what was lost ~$600 to get myself back to zero:dead: I'll still be there though. I'll be meeting up with people in Portland since I'll be heading north from Corvallis, OR.

Wow, you're actually doing something instead of fixing my computer or napping:-p Now will it be ready for the show in a couple weeks?

They don't have a neutral switch in them IIRC. Both wires should be for the reverse lights but lemme grab my FSM... *runs over to the bookshelf* Looks like I was right. Should be a GW and a G for the wire colors. The 6-wire plug is for the RX tranny (since it has a switch for the low light, diff lock and reverse lights) and the single range tranny has a 4 wire plug (diff lock and reverse).

Ta dum! Courteous of Skip from a couple years ago. So since I saved it, does that mean I get a millions dollars now?

Pssst hey Rob.... Its still got an EA82T in it:grin:

Yeah I've done a couple EA81 4wd conversions and my RX was almost in the same boat. I had to fab up a carrier bearing mount for it and figure out a way to put the mustache bar mounts onto the body since the welded nuts on the 2wd aren't there. And I also did a gastank swap on my old RX too. Talk about a blast, especially when I dropped the donor tank from the parts car only to find it had a half a tank of worthless gas and it was heavy as a mofo:rolleyes:

I do have to say that the 4wd converison on my RX was almost easier then a 4wd on an EA81. Like I said... ALMOST:-\

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=

Everywhere where there's metal showing will basically be a low spot compared to the areas where there's still paint. You don't really feel anything but you will see it once you paint it. It'll look very wavy and I know how much of a stickler you are about it being basically perfect. I know what you're shooting for which is why I said something:lol: Oh and while you're in there, might as well remove the factory horns since they're no longer plugged in are they? Maybe I should get a couple cans of rubber undercoating and do the fenderwells while we've got it apart, aye?

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

Isn't that a trailer queen? I'll agree with Tex. I can look into fabricating some longer endlinks for them since I got parts to use for mock up purposes. I'm wondering if ones twice the length of the factory ones would suffice for a 4" lift.....

*Joins the vultures circling the dying carcass of the wounded Subaru*

Nice islands on that hood. You do know you'll see them all after you paint it right? Thats why I wanted to strip it down to metal and them spray it:horse: