Ratty2Austin

"Waterwagon IV" 1990 legacy L wagon 5spd 4.11 awd (stock, for now ) EJ22 (stock) 3" SJR lift 98 OB rear struts, 98 forester front struts LT215/75 R15 BFG A/T tires on new generic fit steel wheels Shop-vac snorkel LED interior lighting upgrades (and more electronic goodies coming very soon!) (roofrack/bumper/other upgrades are in the works!)

Hmm- here is a thought, and this would be valid if the following is true- if, you parked on a slope, used "park" without setting the brake, and there was ice under at least one side of the car- (or even one tire on either side front and rear) then the car could have "rolled" by differential action- your front and rear diffs can still operate freely, because the parking mode on the transmission would only "lock" the center shaft in place- so if both wheels on one side of the car were on a slippery surface, they could slide, allowing the whole car to move- this would mean also, there is nothing wrong with the car at all, and the only way to prevent that from happening, is to use the parking brake! (locks the wheels at the wheels, not the transmission)

While driving around Ballard, I have spotted "Waterwagon 2" still driving around!! Although, it has been changed since I last built it up- someone removed the snorkel, my cool paint job, and the awesome bumper I made for it.. oh well, good to see it still driving around though! (waterwagon 1 and 3 have both been dissasembled by their most recent owners) another shot...

using BFG-A/T, 215/75 R15- which I think is about a 27.5" tire.... and no trimming! It rubs a tiny tiny bit on big bumps/leans and when steering is full lock- although, I think one of my fender liners is not where its supposed to be since we moved it when installing the snorkel... more rub testing will be later- when I take it offroad a bit. but otherwise, on road it seems fine!

I did a bunch of work for someone, (replacing clutch in a 99 OBS) and will be doing more work on her car in the future... she asked if she could pay me with a credit card, (since she used all her cash up for the car and parts needed) I said I could not take cards myself, but she could buy me something I needed for my wagon Muhahahaha!! now I need a skid plate... but, for the most part- I am ready to 'wheel!! with that said, I have a set of 14" steels with usable but worn tires (185/70 R14) that i will part with for ... $20 if you come pick them up (shoreline/edmonds area)

I agree. I ALWAYS use my parking brake. ALWAYS! flat ground, winter, summer. ALWAYS. guess what? it has never seized/malfunctioned. also, my car has never rolled away on even steep inclines. this is why cars are designed with them... speaking of using "park" in autos on inclines.. Subaru actually had a recall on some of them back in the mid 90s? (cant remember which years or models) but anyway, the park pin would fail, (on cars who's drivers did not set the parking brake) and the car would roll away at full speed (gravity) and crash... not good. Just pull the brake lever up when you park, its safer, and better for the car. you have NO excuse not to use it. NONE! sorry if I sound like an rump roast about it, but after working at a dealer for a long time and seeing the cars where they never set the brake- those are the cars that have brake seizing problems.. never on the one's that use it. even in salty areas.... hope you get it all figured out!

Yeah, it is risky.. and convienient. I am torn to which way I want to go with my current wagon.. My friend's wagon is now coverless too.. and we are both going the offroad approach... So far, I have not had issues with going coverless- and I agree, a full covering skid plate would help a lot! I have been pondering the idea of making a cover that would be easy to remove, and go on the outside of all the belts- including the alternator/PS belts- so, an engine cover basically.. like a frontal splash guard, but one that could be easily removed for cleaning and inspection, but not a hassle like the stock ones, where you have to pull the front pully off, and a dozen or more typically rusty hard to reach shoulder bolts! Heh, good to know.. snow= not good with naked engine! brrrrrr lol

more pics! slightly blurry... darn phone camera! lol

So, aside from all the arguing here, I just finshed lifting not one, not 2, but 3 1990 legacys.. in the past 2 months. SO, I will chime in with what I know. Also, I helped SJR make his prototype EJ lift kit, and thus, I also know about all the camber, offset, rear trailing arm offset, AND outback/forester/legacy strut height and top hat issues. First of all, if you take a 1990 legacy (i own one myself) and plop in some 97-99 outback struts ONLY without spacers added- you will gain about 1.5 to 2" of height.. it wont eat all axles, keep in mind, that it depends on the condition of your axles already in your car, and what brand they are- I have noticed that different brands of axles (OEM vrs aftermarket) have slightly different lenght tolerances and will either work fine, or click till they break... If you add spacers that don't correct for the offset drop (because the strut top mounts are not parallel to the ground) it will stretch the axles out further and also create massive camber issues... this is why the properly made lift kits have funny angles in the strut dropping blocks. the reason you should only do a strut swap witout spacers is because of the camber/axle length issue- if you want to add any more space beyond what the outback/forester struts give you, you should consider using a full lift kit that will space the crossmembers and other suspension mounts downward too- it helps keep your car drivable for a longer time without breaking. it also is not really too hard to install. here are the 3 wagons I lifted in this past month- the white one was also an automatic- I converted it over to an ea82 5spd dual range with the adaptor kit- the parts price adds up, but its actually not to hard to get it all working... a 5mt legacy trans would be bolt in... this wagon is the one I lifted with the "prototype" SJR lift kit- and fixed a problem with the rear lift blocks that mount to the front part of the leading link on the suspension- we drilled a second set of holes, so that the arm could be moved back, since the legacy pivot blocks are shorter than an outback's blocks- without the holes or the outback pivot blocks, the larger tires would rub on the forward part of the fender/body.. this corrected the issue and centered the tire in the wheel well. So, that makes 4 lifted legacys for me, (also, 3 lifted EA81 wagons, and one strut-lift impreza wagon) I think I might know what I am taking about and have some experience with this. hope I this helped, and lemmy know if you have any more questions about getting the legacy lifted without destroying axles.

Today, we got the snorkel installed! Plugs into the stock airbox resonator (inside the fender) with only some minor cutting... Both wagons...

Ahh yes, I have looked at those before- a friend of mine who had a lifted legacy used them- his take on them, was that they were pretty soft, and would wear pretty easily.. so they got great traction, but shorter lifespan... I think they are also a little more delicate, and I want some pretty puncture resistant sidewalls... if my job works out like I hope it will (pending interview results, I find out in a week!!!) then I should be able to afford the good tires

Well, I got the lift installed late last night- had to do some minor adjusting thismorning, but otherwise, its in!! I put in a couple washers between the trans crossmember and the trans mount, to bring the rear of the transmission up a little bit- without it, the shift linkage was binding up and not letting me use 2nd, 4th, and barely reverse... but now it seems to work fine. Some of the parts in process.. steering shaft welding (with a cheap welder and welding "blind" (insufficient welding mask, had to weld some small bits with eyes shut!) Rear strut comparison- outback strut + lift block vrs stock L strut.. that's a lotta lift! looks funny on the stock tires, but I need to wait till I can afford to get the good ones...

Yeah, the LED lights are made by me too- pretty simple, for the dome light I am using a 3W LED chip (mounted to a little heat sink, it is required) and a power resistor- 11 ohms total- which gives me the right voltage drop/current to bring the LED to almost max power- (LED uses 4v @ 700mA approx) as for the voltage regulator- there are just 2x "7805" voltage regulators, powering each USB port (with common ground, but independant 5v out) which are rated at 1A each- the little variable resistors (blue squares in photo of circuit board) are used to create a voltage divider, which connect to the data pins on the USB plug- the 2 middle contacts- with voltage outputs set at 2v and 2.8v, which apparently is what "tells" an iPhone (or other apple usb iProduct) to charge at 1amp... Here is my little chicken scratch final of my regulator circuit- the pins on the right side of the schematic are for the USB connections- left side is 12v in... the capacitors are not given a size, because that is up to you to decide, pick a size that fits, between 1µF and 100µF... if you have a noisey alternator, use more/larger! The tires Troy has on his green wagon, are 215/75 R15 (about 27" diameter) and I might go with the same tire, that way we could share spares if needed on long trips- they also seem to work well with our driving style (the BFG A/T works well in snow/ice/most general offroad, and lasts a long time on highway)

another peek from today's progress... yeah, I could have gone with the prebuilt USB charger, but where would the fun in that be? I can say I actually built mine! (and if it fails, I can troubleshoot and repair it at the component level pretty easily)

The USB ports were actually a cord assembly that would normally be used in a PC case- it has a wire coming off the back that would normally plug into a motherboard (used to install front side USB on a pc case) I made a little regulator and adaptor so that it would fit all nicely in the dash and work like a charger would, but not using the lighter socket... here is a pic of the regulator box and wiring, before installed- all home made by me! (well, I drew up a circuit, adjusted it for the perfect voltage, and wired it up to work how I wanted, and then soldered it all together and packed it into a little box!) Today we made more progress on Troy's wagon- which means mine is up soon, and will have the same height! More pics soon! (and, more importantly, Waterwagon IV's lift install!)

Well, slowly but surely, this project will come together! so far I have a few mods done, and a few more on the way soon! first few were electrical upgrades- like a 2x 1A USB charge port built into the dash... Another one, is the LED interior lights- the main dome light is a 3W led chip- "cool white" .... the cargo area also got LED upgrades, but not as bright- but I have more LED items on the way for the whole car... My friend Troy and I both got SJR lift kits, (he has a green 93 legacy) and we are lifting his car first, since he broke the transmission, so it needed to come apart anyway... but here is a pic of our painted lift kit parts, and my painted forester/outback strut combo... Troy's wagon, and Troy, getting things figured out for the snorkel kit too (both wagons are getting snorkels! this was a needed upgrade, considering Troy broke his transmission because he got mud water IN it, and then had to drive hundreds of miles home and forgot to check it.. he also hydrolocked the engine that day...) my wagon, is next in line... very soon, it will be lifted!!

Well, Waterwagon IV is still waiting for parts, which for me means I need some extra moola.. but, in the mean time I have been helping other's build their wagons up- just like mine- This is an example of what mine will look pretty close to when it's lifted- since I will be using the same size blocks, and the same size tires, and it's the same year.. here is the pic I took when we got the front lifted- the rear is still on jacks, and there is no engine ,but the front wheels are sitting on the ground!

Well, I plan to use the 3" blocks all around, and the outback/forester struts, (which add about 1.5" or so?) and then larger tires, (another 2 inches lift maybe more depending on tire size) which brings the car up that much further.. I will see how tall it gets when I am done. I want to make this a good travel car more than super-off road. I have been considering a rooftop tent unit, or maybe just a basket and some bins? still undecided on that part.. This of course all depends on my job (which hopefully will be starting soon) and how that all works out. It's the darn waiting game I tell ya!

Yeah, JDM.. not sure exactly what it came out of- but probably a EJ20 impreza... the importer I got it from only deals in JDM... the AUDM or LADM would have it too, but not sure where to get those. (I suppose if I wanted to do an epic road trip, I could drive to central America to get some, but they say its hard to find them in wrecking yards down that way...) I still have to make some sort of linkage, probably gonna use EA82/EA81 D/R stuff hacked together and bent to fit once it's all installed... the lift kit will make it all weird with the length anyway. Like I said, future installs- for now I am rounding up the bits n pieces!

The wagon? Or the transmission? The car came from craigslist... the trans, well that's a secret for now (I can say, it is JDM)

The build thread... it begins here! So this car I picked up in October for cheap, and then in December it was stolen from me while I was at a party... 3 weeks after that it was found, minimal damage, but the thieves stole all my tools out of the car (which was everything I owned ) Anyway, I have been picking up tools again slowly, and collecting some of the parts needed to do another beastly creation, just like wagons I have owned previous... This being the 4th one to stick with the "waterwagon" name... This time, I have a few other mods that will be hopefully a little bit of an improvement over previous waterwagons.. like this- need a closer look? Yes, that is what you think it is - I won't need an adapter plate. Anyway, right now I am waiting on work and money stuff, so no mods are in process now- its all planning and collecting of parts. But, hopefully by summertime many of the mods should be ready to install and test! stay tuned :cool:

I have had a hard time finding a recent pic of myself... but, came up with one that also has my dog, Spartacus! :cool:

Yeah, get a club/alarm for your car and don't leave tools in it.. I was one of the unlucky ones recently. I do the same thing (mobile mechanic) and I left all my stuff in my wagon's trunk, covered up with dirty doggie blankets and towels, but still someone figured it was something valueable and took my whole car! finally found it 3 weeks later not far from the spot, and it was stripped clean. 1990 subaru legacy, stock. It will be lifted eventually, and since I am broke and cheap, I did not have any theft coverage, so I am rebuilding my tool collection, very slowly now. welcome to the 'hood, see you around! I am over in the western edge of Ballard.

It has been found!!!! Not far from the location stolen, it has been completely cleaned out actually, so cleaned out, it even looks like they vacuumed it too? There was also a note found inside- (from one thief to another) stating that they could not wait around to watch the car, and that she had new plates for the car.. which (my plates are missing) which means they were in process of doing a plate swap with another stolen car or something along those lines- and it was cleaned, probably prep to sell it... I have a lead on who the thief is, where they live, and where my tools might be.. the police said they can't really help unless something else comes up that is a major thing. so if anyone wants to help me pursue this further, to try and catch them... come talk to me...

Still no sign of my car or tools... Keep your eyes out for it, especially between seattle-everett... (most likely zone of dumpage) reward if found, too btw...