baccaruda

Hm, I'll get ahold of him.

You might be right, Matt. There isn't room "inside" the GL crossmember to move it forward without lowering it, though. Brian, if I take the sway bar out, I'd have to put it someplace else. I don't think you'd like what I have in mind for that

Thanks for taking the time to write this. I bought a headlight polishing kit from the auto parts store; it is 1000, 1500, 2000, and 2500 grit sandpaper with some permatex "plastic restoration" polish. The headlights I'm working on ('01 OBW) have a lot of very small chips in them as well as being yellowed, from a lot of highway miles. I was thinking to either get some coarser grit like 800 for them, or get a polishing wheel for my Dremel tool and be very careful. I think I'd rather use 400g instead of the Dremel, though. I wasn't sure about how coarse was too coarse. Anyway, the instructions in my "kit" say to sand one direction at a time, up/down or left/right and not to sand in circles. I wanted your opinion on this as I didn't see it addressed in your write-up... cheers!

I have an extra pair of XT6 control arms that I could maybe hand over to you at WCSS? or Evan's Creek.

They have a way of coming up for sale so don't lose hope. You're in the second-best spot in the world to get one, too (Australia probably being the first). You can download How To Keep Your Subaru Alive from my webspace: http://www.worldwidecm.com/HTKYSA.pdf (I didn't scan it or create the .pdf, I just tossed it online)

I remember watching my Barracuda get trailered away when I sold it. Man that sucked. Pfft. It STILL sucks, who I am I kidding!

My car's control arms (XT6) has the receivers about an inch inboard compared to the sway bar itself. Not really great for the bushings... I've been thinking about getting the control arms lengthened 1" to help get the camber neutral or a tad negative; that would also shove the endlink receiver out 1" too. Might just get the receivers moved though as I'm not sure if lengthening the control arms would affect the handling adversely. I was thinking to grab a bunch of endlink receiver parts from the junkyard and make a few sets in a few different lengths to see what works best.

You're a peach, Mick. I'll take some more pics soon...

You have to run it with the center differential locked.

It has a 1.5" lift and King springs; imported and installed by the original owner, from whom I bought it as a fixer-upper. I replaced the dead transmission, broken starter, retapped the 4 main bolts for the transmission crossmember/lift kit blocks, did the front brakes, repaired one of the fog lights, bought the deflector to cover most of the rock chips on the front of the hood, yanked the front sway bar, put some kickass wheels and tires (last winter's snow tires! LT215/75R15 Toyos) on it, cleaned most of the interior, and I'm making a skid plate (thanks Brian!) and polishing the headlights.

You forgot to mention slaughtering and eating that wild feral pizza that charged in and tried to suffocate us. Sucker must'a been at least 5' wide

Ken, I can take it, it just means I get to dish it out later and it only took me 2 years to get my Subaru lifted/5lugged/EJ'd because I did it all at once while moving 4 times (don't try this at home kids!)... it just feels like 5 because I never "do anything" with it or post pics. I'll give it a shot without the sway bar and I'll see about modifying the way it mounts if/when (probably "when!") I put it back on. Might cook up some end links with rod ends and some threaded rod so I can adjust their length.

Looking good! I used two separate bolts+nuts instead of the single long pivot bolt for the alternator.. You may not be able to remove the long pivot bolt without pulling the radiator, due to the engine sitting lower.

Please refer to rule #.. uh, all of them 'cept #15 doesn't really fit here.

Rick, that's a great point. I have 20mm XT6 sway bars on the front and the rear but I added the lift kit, larger tires, and WRX springs all at once. I'll take it out this weekend and see what the difference is, or if I even notice one. If I *do* notice a difference I will then look into local options for getting it tempered. Thanks!

I could try that for a week - Spokane's roads are certainly full of bumps and potholes. My intention when building the car was to have it handle tighter, though. I'm curious as well about the tempering of the sway bar - I might decide to heat and bend the appropriate parts to clock the endlink receivers a little further forward. If I did this, would I be correct in thinking that I'd need to retemper the whole thing?

It's an XT6 bar... I might grab a standard one to see how it fits, I guess. I could disconnect the endlinks too. I've got ideas to play with moving the bar down and maybe forward a tad. It would have to be lowered to be moved forward because of how it's routed under the crossmember and next to the power steering lines. Poser? haha. How about "exhibition?" Yeah, it's a street beast. I'll wheel it hardcore when I retire it from street duty but that's a few years off. B-grade service road is actually about what I have in mind for it while it's the only car I have.

The sway bar's staying on. I want a tight handling high-clearance rig and I do al my articulating with my words instead of my car . thanks though.

My '86 has a 4" lift kit and WRX front springs on Legacy GR2s. I recently realized that a clunk in the front end was the sway bar hitting its bracket on the control arm because the springs effectively make the strut assemblies longer than "just +4"" I am working on a mod to drop the sway bar mounts on the crossmember which would pull the outboard ends of the sway bar away from the control arms.. but then it might drop below the cover plate. I'm interested in whether anyone else has tackled this problem?

I'll probably leave earrrrrrrrly Saturday morning... and I have a can of HOT pink spray paint (from my STI Axle Stubs joke) that I'll bring for Austin!

try a non-chain store that sells clutches for cars AND semi-trucks. Pacific in Spokane was helpful for me.

That's a pretty sweet Brat. I had a turbo EA81 coupe and be warned, parts are getting scarce. There is plenty of info here if you decide to plunge into a driveline swap. Good luck!

Hey 91Sub, take a second and fill in the location info in your profile. FYI Spaldings isn't a u-pull yard and they have only one or two of the oldies. They DO own Pull N Save across the street however, which has tons of oldies on a rotating basis. I've dealt with the CTS albeit on a turbo car and my car's problem was not the sensor but the engine harness' connector to the sensor. I had to rebuild the harness' connector and it fixed the problem. The ECU can't tell that difference if it's a simple connection problem. The CTS is exposed to coolant, obviously, and can grow corrosion in weird spots.

You should also look into the rear e-brake idea... someone made it fit with Nissan parts, I think.. happy searching!

i'm interested in the temperature difference. could be that your motor and/or trans mounts are soft and become more so when the engine warms them up.. they might be letting something rub somewhere.