85 brat swap project starts very soon

[85 RIBRATARU]

So I have an 85 brat in real nice shape Im going to take the harness, motor, fuel lines, and tank from a 96 impreza and the digital dash from an 84 gl10. So I've been reading alot of stuff on here about swaps and I have many concerns, but I'm wondering if I can take the brakes from the impreza and put them on the brat? Or do I need yet another donor from that?

[1982gl4]

You can put the brakes on but it is a lot of work. You will have to change the hubs as well, which in the front involves welding xt6 control arm mounts onto your existing sub frame or changing the taper on your existing control arms for the ball joints on a five lug hub. For the rear your best bet is to switch over to xt6 rear hubs and brakes which can be very hard to find, and pricy. I have seen people put a rear subframe out of an impreza in a brat, but it's a lot of fab work, including making there own strut towers. So long story short you can, but it would probably be more beneficial just to find rear discs for the four lug you have now.

[Turbone]

What he said ^^^

You have a lot of work to do all that, suspension/brakes the hardest part.

 

Your worst idea is swapping in a 84 digidash.

They rarely work long or correctly in the cars they were designed for, let alone from a swap.

[85 RIBRATARU]

Thanks for the info guys! So I can get my hands on a complete front and rear end of a 95 gt legacy. Will that fit or bolt on, and do you know if non turbo gl10 cars had disc brakes?

[1982gl4]

It will fit, but with a LOT of modification. Like a solid month of fab work there's a brat on here using the sub fames out of an impreza. They have a different track so the fenders will have to be widened.

 

Here is a thread you should look at if you are considering doing the whole subframe swap. In my opinion, it's probably more trouble than it's worth.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=96298

 

As for the brakes they did come on the GL-10's and turbos. I'm not sure if the came on all of them. But I haven't been around very many of those cars as they all rusted out up here practically before I was born. Someone on here will know for sure.

[85 RIBRATARU]

So I'm not sure what that means ? Does the 95 gt legacy front and rear end work for a brat?

[1982gl4]

If by fit you mean a bolt in modification. No. If you want to do a tone of fab work and make mounting points, rear strut towers, and add some sort of fender flairs to keep the wheels from sticking way out. then it's doable. But it is NOT a bolt in modification. It may need a custom drive shaft built as well, and the fuel tank will have to be moved/replaced. It's a ton of work. I have talked with the member that did that WRX pickup and he said that he would never do it again.

[85 RIBRATARU]

Thanks! So I'm back to trying to find a donor car for a braking system! So let me get this straight xt6, and the Svx are my two options for disc brake upgrades? And hub/lug upgrades?

[1982gl4]

Not the SVX that is newer gen and will not work. The xt6 is your best (and only) bet if you want five lug and four wheel discs (again hard to find and pricey) But some fab will still be needed. Here is my thread on how I did this

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=118612&highlight=swap%2F

 

As of right now I don't have an e-brake because I upgraed to legacy front brakes and the xt-6 still has one on the front like the brat. I'm not sure if the xt-6 has larger front brakes or not as I have never worked on one, or owned one.

 

Also you don't have to use those mounts in my thread that were welded on. you could also change the tapor for the control arms on the brat to fit a five lug ball joint.

 

There's also the 6 lug swap you can do some searching for that. It's much less work then the five lug swap. There should be a lot of threads on it. It will let you fit toyota, chevy, etc. 6 lug wheels. but you will be keeping the stock brakes with this upgade.

[85 RIBRATARU]

My only concern with that is, does the 4 lug brake set up have the braking power to stop big tires with larger engine and more hp?

[1982gl4]

I believe the xt-6 (someone chime in and correct me if I'm wrong) doesn't really have that much more stopping power the rear brakes are almost identical to those of a four lug rear disc, and I don't know about the fronts as I have never dealt with them . Many people on here are running stock brakes with larger tires, and a 2.2 swap. I would maybe get on the off road forum, and ask people on there if they have a hard time stopping. I think you would be surprised by how much just a rear disc set up would help. I just went for the legacy front brakes do to a much larger than stock engine, and swapping the legacy hubs made it easier for me to put the legacy trans in because the CV's would have the same spline count inside and out.

[MilesFox]

you can do all legacy/impreza front end if you chop in ea82 control arms(and hog out the ball joint hole) will substitute for the xt6 parts in front. you will need axle doj's from a 3at turbo ea82(1985-1994 gl, loyale(part time 4wd, or FWD)

 

for the rears, you need at least the xt6 rear hubs. if you can get the backing plate from an xt6, you might be able to buy loaded calipers with braket at an auto parts retailer

 

with the xt6 rear hubs, you can modify legacy or impreza rear brakes.

 

for the cost of individual parts versus a kit, there is a kit available out of australia. if you want to see about using the whole impreza/legacy rear suspensions, check out the land of oz. I am thinking of grafting in a legact rear end into an ea82, if i can figure out the struts.

 

Brake Kit (MY Series) Looking for better stopping performance in your MY/Brumby? Check out our kit to upgrade to Impreza/Liberty brakes.

 

www.crossbredperformance.com/products

[85 RIBRATARU]

Thanks guys very helpful stuff !