jdmleggy97

Thanks brother! Not sure what you mean on the axle? Are you wondering if there was an off the shelf axle I would prefer instead?

Saturday the 12th Nabbed a clean set of calipers and rotors from the wrecker here. Pads are totally worn down to nothing. Seems the women who owned the car before didn’t care much about it. Trashed it and drove it until she could get something else. Sad... her loss my gain. Anyway.... got them bolted up. And bled. The 3rd gens have the best brake hose setups imo. I was going to go with a 2nd gen caliper and Hose but realized the length would cause problems with how the L’s lines are plumbed. I needed a short line and these work great only had to make a few Bends with the metal lines and eventually I will weld on the hose holder brackets and I’ll have a perfect setup...for me anyway .... Crazy. The back brakes are larger than the fronts at this point lol First Drive coming soon!

Hey brother! I'm pretty sure I nabbed it off a Volvo 850. Just had to think of 80"s cars that were square and had similar dimensions and its pretty darn close. Its missing the tow hook cover (ill find or get one eventually) and the fog holes are not very symmetrical but I'm planning on locating some nice 80's style lighting (cibie/marchal) with some cool retro covers, I think it will look pretty BA once its all said and done. The lip being plastic is a downside but I also grabbed a older Chevy S10 lip (looked terrible on the car) that I can cut up and use for sides etc. I figure with the right epoxy and enough time I can make a decent product that looks good from at least 5 feet away lol. I'm currently located in the PNW, I was planning on doing another set of these arms for anyone interested in the future I just have to wait until a loyale or which ever shows up in the yard. The hard part of test fitting and fabbing is done so its really just cutting and welding on the next ones.

This is a good visual if you were kinda lost. This was pre-rewelding and smoothing x2. I wanted them to look as good as possible and be structurally sound. Top plate on arm shown (left) is shorter than the bottom plate on opposite side of similar design.

I was actually. I Usually over do things because I always worry. But the 1/4 plate is welded on to the arm on the top, bottom, front and back. I also made 1/8" plates for the top and bottom of the 1/4" plate that are welded to that and run up the top and bottom of the arm up until the strut mount area. And finally I capped the inside of the arm with 1/16th" sheet metal. All welded together smoothed and welded again and smoothed. Not to mention the 4 bolts holding the hub bearing to the arm go through the actual arm itself. These arms are not very beefy in the first place imo. The welding looks like its done or was done by hand, its way to sloppy for a machine. So honestly I doubt structural integrity has been compromised, I would be more concerned with the increase in in-sprung weight I've added in metal

Yeah what he said lol! Don't do what I'm doing. Total Pita

*side note* Ive also got some pretty intresting front lip ideas. Rx/RS lips are hard to come by from the looks. I think this will work juuusssttt fine with a little fab work.

Correct Sir! The track width is a little wider.. as I had no choice with the factory axle lengths but nothing crazy here’s a few pics of the suspension loaded and with the RS wheel attached.

A few days have past... I finished up the welding and grinding and smoothing on the left side arm and cleaned up the right side even more. So on to the test drive! I have to grab some calipers and rotors from the wrecking yard before it’s ready to roll. Stay tuned!

Oooo I had a feeling that’s where you were going. The 4th and 3rd gen outer spline count are the same. But axle outers are still different. They may work (as your using them). But I wouldn’t trust it(but that’s me). Even then abs ring isn’t the same lol. The R180’s and axles are nice. As the 160’s do break with abuse, off-roading/high power but if your throwing that much money at a L series. Why not either hunt down 6sp spec b rear axles or call up DSS and have some made or something. Personally I’ve never broken a r160 or a rear axle even at the track I have snapped front ones though and grenaded numerous transmissions When I was doing the 6sp swap in my 4th gen someone in the forums was selling adapter hubs to run r180 Sti axles in 4th gen Hubs I think but I never got into it because I have a 160 on my setup. The car isn’t making big numbers , it is tuned but there’s almost no way I’m breaking a stock 160 and axles and with my setup. It would be more cool guy points but eh.

These are hub assemblies from a 03 legacy, (3rd gen) the 4th gen axles are different( outers only) even though the wheel bearing design is almost the same.. well mounting points anyways. But the stock inner stub axles from the 3rd and 4th gen will mate up to damn near any “normal” ej style diff vlsd, open, suretrac etc. I have a 03 legacy GT vlsd in my 95 impreza right now on stock 95 axles lol. Diff options at this point are almost limitless. There was more than enough area to make sure the plate I’m welding on is flat. It’s honestly very straight forward. Just tedious.

Thanks Brother! no I don't have oil feeders..... yet ive seen a few mods done to them and if I went that route id prob do something a bit more refined. But considering all aspects it shouldn't be hard to do at all!

If your thinking what I'm thinking. (just the subs sticking out of the diff) It seems like it would be possible but you would almost have to disassemble the diff to make them work even if they do work as the side caps (bearing caps) are a little different. I was wondering the same thing as I'm doing my 5 lug conversion and I may try it eventually, or just stop being cheap and go AWD which would be super easy for me as far as the rear diff goes. this is 100% correct the inner cup size and axle is smaller on most ej cars (except 1st gen legacys with sub diffs). So the GL axle wont fit in a ej cup(bearing is too big) and vise versa( bearing too small for GL cup). Some fenangling can to be done to make them work but that's on you.

Yesterday! Nabbed the right side parts from the wrecking yard on Wednesday. Now Back to work! Took off the dust shield and started the mock up process, a little trimming and fitting here and there. Tacked it on and currently test fitting on the car. Everything seems to work great, did a powered free spin with the 4WD engaged and the hubs worked flawlessly. I have to do some trimming on this arm near the axle boot like the other(last pic). I love working with metal as you can always add more if you take off too much but I don't like to just hack away at everything, see how it works and tweak it here and there is the best way to go. I should have the arm fully welded and braced this weekend and once I figure out a way to get poly bushings for these ( anyone know??????) off to the local powder coaters they go.

Here’s the 95 impreza. Lifted on a kit built by yours truly on 30 x9.50’s eg33 5sp ej dual range and rear lsd just a fun toy of mine.

You can actually see the impreza in the one image in the back ground. You can also google mudpreza Heres a few of the 95 TT legacy

Thanks brother! For her age and this area I think she’s a find. No unfortunately it came with crappy steel wheels. Kinda what provoked me into the 5 lug conversion in the first place. Im planning at least a NA 2.2 maybe 2.5. Haven’t really decided on swapping the driveline to newer stuff or not. But I may end up going that route. A turbo setup would be easy but with all the other cars I have I might just leave it NA for now. Still have my: ej20R powered 95 legacy GT spec b clone 6sp 05 legacy GT lifted eg33 95 impreza “mudpreza” and a 04 G35 track this car is more of a just a “why not” project in a way ya know. I would have hated seeing it scrapped or sitting in a junk yard.

On to number 2. Due to work this is where I last left off with this. I have my parts already cut and ready to be welded on. Now to find the time! I will update this as much as I can for anyone interested in the progress on this old thing.

Axles are a combo for now, if I decide to go full ej driveline I would use stock 3rd gen legacy rear axles through and through. The axles are longer of course as the legacy track with is wider than the loyale but considering the 1/4 mounting plate it comes out pretty close. With the RS wheels on they are basically flush with the rear fenders, and ive tested the axle rotation at ride height ( as I know the distance closes) using the jack as you've seen in photos to load the suspension.

Thanks Brother!

Fast forward to now! I smoothed out some of the welding, not to degrade the integrity of course and went home for the other arm to start all over again. I finally got matching and correct length hardware this time! (granted only 2 of 4 can be seen in this photo)

Seeing as the test fits went well I moved onto actually welding the plate onto the arm and bracing and capping the arm for a more professional look and function.