JacksonRally

All of this will require a full set of custom axles. Pricey but I shouldnt break another axle again!

I am trying to keep true to the original suspension design of the GL. Honestly I've been very tempted to take the easy way out and go to straight axles, but Im not about the easy route. I will retain the strut setup in front and swing arm in rear. The locking hubs are for the rear. I also have an r200 coming. Originally I was going to get an arb fir the r200 but won't need to with the locking hubs. So I will either weld the diff again or get a spool. Im not trying to do anything crazy, just want to use heavy duty parts. Lots more to come! Plus those Toyota 4pots calipers are huge

Collection of parts for phase 2 of suspension begins

While it was mostly a road trip yesterday i still touched the dirt for a minute.

No tank pressure hooked up or vent solenoid.

Thanks, the desert is fun but the rocks get annoying after awhile. Im on the hunt for an 01 fuel tank and charcoal canister. I'm thinking about putting the whole sending unit in the 87 tank. Right now i have a walbro 255lph fuel pump. When hooked up to a Subaru scanner its saying its running rich. Maybe too much pump for the pressure regulator? If i do in tank pump it will just be stock pump.

O yeah it seems to be cylinders 2 and 4

So i went on quite the mission yesterday, within a stones throw of the Mexican border to pickup some parts for the next phase of suspension work. I am consistently having a misfire problem only immediately after topping off the tank. Hours later when i refueled for the trip home i did not top off and no misfire!? Anyone have any idea what could be going on? Within about 10 miles of driving/misfiring, using a little fuel it will stop and run normal. Weird.

Thanks brotha man!

Finally all of my hard work has paid off. A few weekends ago we set out to the Mohave desert for the High Desert Trails Rally and to do some wheelin! After a year and a half of blood, sweat and tears we hopped into the ol GL and hit the road. The plan was to head out the night before the rally and camp, rally stuff on saturday and wheelin on sunday. This would be the first time camping from the car. I loaded up everything friday morning but waited til departure to try to actually drive the car fully loaded. When I say loaded I mean packed roof rack, packed cargo area and packed back seats. When we finally pulled away I noticed the car bottom out right away in the rear and this was with gas light on and no fuel in the aux can. O crap! At this point we were running late, luckily my buddy who we were meeting up with was having driveline problems in his Land Rover and turned back to get his truck. So this bought us some time. We decided to run into town real quick to pick up the Eibach springs I had ordered and grabbed those to install at the camp. So we hit the road for a 200 mile drive bottomed in the rear, loaded down like the Beverly Hillbillies, a/c cranking and stereo turned up. Everything worked pretty well but I was starting to have a little sputtering accelerating from a stop. O well it wasnt horrible , just put it on the list to check out when we get home. All in all we put in quite a few miles and many hours wheelin across the desert with out any real issues. Here are some photos. My brother has more photos, Ill have to get him to post those. Also forgot to note his Forester was flawless all weekend aside from the blower motor for the a/c melting down.

I need to get the photos from my buddy who climbed that same rock in a modified Land Rover. Ill think you'll like the comparison.

Haha looks like my brother (subyspawn) has so spy photos Axles are just fine. The ones i have in there right now are dual plunging from an 86. At their worst angle i can grab the half shaft and move it in and out of the cvs. So no bind. I have some updates and a trip report that i need to get to. Been busy since we got back. Ill get to it.

Got around to mounting the winch control box just behind passenger side headlight. Had to make some longer leads to get it over there but i think its better out of the elements and under the hood.

Here is a photo taken from drivers side in front of tire. Where I'm pointing to used to be bulged out about a half inch. Without beating this in the spring perch on the strut would hit. So to use the struts with factory tabs you will not be able to set the strut in enough to get within camber specs. Whoops, forgot photo

Ill see if I can take a photo of where it would have hit right now if I did not beat the sheetmetal.

^^^^Yeah what he said. There was not enough room to keep the factory tabs on the strut or it would work as a kit. I already had to massage the sheetmetal a bit to make it work. . Now a front STI strut might work because overall it is shorter and can possibly land above the adapter, then i could adapt down to the knuckle.

Did some revalving to the rear shocks. Got some intel from Fox And made a nice mess I think I still need to do at least another round but I'll know more when i finally hit some trails.

Thanks! But i do not have any intentions on making this a kit.

Just better rebound dampening will keep the top mounts from ripping out. Or a limit strap.

Not sure on overall length. But it doesn't really matter. It has more travel and that's what I'm after. Length is built in to the strut to attach it to the knuckle at my desired ride height.

Bushings will be my next updgrade in all of the suspension pivots. I kinda need to do it asap but I need to take a break from working on the GL and get back to the grindstone.

Kanurys, I forgot to mention I used the stock GL springs. I do think they are showing their age and sagging a touch (the real alot!) But the front holds the ride height I want. And when flexing on a rock with the car pretty much empty they almost completely compress. This tells me a stiffer rate is not needed. When fully loaded I should be fully compressed. I am going to get new springs, rear first but keep the same rate. There are a lot of people buying the King lift springs for their Foresters and Imprezas but the increased rate does not allow fully compression based on vehicle weight. Plus when you remove the front sway bar to allow more independent movement it can and will tear out the strut from the top mount. I have seen this and it is not pretty. The factory or KYB replacement struts do not have the proper rebound dampening to control the energy of the increased spring rate. So when you lift a wheel it shoots the suspension down and tears out the top mount. With the sway bar connected it helps absorb the energy but some people remove them (everyone I know) and stuff hits the fan.

Yes the strut is a factory Subaru strut. It is off of the rear of an 04 STI. Sometime you can aquire them for free, Ive also seen a complete set go for up to $450. Typically the 04's are more sought after because they will bolt directly onto an Impreza. These are what I have on my 06. 05-07 STI struts are the same in the rear but the front have a different bolt pattern (width and spread) where it bolts to the knuckle. Doesnt really matter if you remove the tabs like I did. As of right now I do not have camber adjustment. I can very easily. I have eccentric washers that we run on the rally car that I can use for any adjusting. As far as cutting out the strut tower, I dont think there is a need. You can get the camber into spec without cutting into the car. It is very tight but possible. Plus the upper mounting point relates to where you want your tire/suspension to fully compress. I can now stuff the front tire right up to the fender lip. I dont have any need for more up travel. The trick with a longer strut is you maintain you ride height, have the same amount of down travel but your gains will be from ride height to full compression. In stead of having a huge strut lift block in the way you can now use that space to gain up travel. Most of us are at the cv and tie rod limits at droop but gains can be had in bump travel. To get everything lined up you must first start by having the vehicle level front to back and side to side. I use a digital level. From there know where you want your desired ride height and know your shock/strut travel. Since I am running stock length control arms and cv axles those are a given. Now the only thing to figure out is what camber setting you want. Since the new strut is inset from the knuckle it made space in there really tight. I put the jack under the control arm and get it to the ride height and put the level on the brake rotor to measure camber, set camber where I want and tack in some steel, push, pull, tug, cycle suspension, steer both ways and make sure everything clears. Happy with the results I remove all of the tacked in plates and make the new stuff and transfer all work to the other side. That is pretty much it....in a nut shell. Note: When putting a level on the brake rotor (vertical) to measure camber you must make sure the level is level horizontal and that the rotor is steered perfectly straight.

I finally took a 30 mile drive with the changes and all I can say is WOW! I am now driving a completely different car. It is so smooth, firm, no more steering wheel shake, 100% night and day difference. Also it can now finally put the power down. It no longer wants to spin the right front on hard acelleration. Nor does it feel like the drivetrain is going to bail out. The old front struts were very blown and offered no control over wheelspin. Amazing, I love it! Today I need to firm up the rear shocks, so in to town I go for some shims.