Wentz's Five Lug Swap Thread.

[wentz912]

I've posted a nearly identical thread in the older generation forum since i'm thinking it will get more traffic there, but I am posting it here as well to focus more on the five lug swap and what it entails.

 

Anywho, here we go.

 

My car is a 1985 Subaru GL Wagon with an EA82 and 194k miles. Manual steering, 5 M/T with D/R, currently rocking 14"x6" Peugeot "Turbine Style" alloy wheels fitted with 205/60-14R Falken Ziex ZE512 in the front, and Nexen something or others in the same size in the rear. Spare is another matching Falken.

 

Pics:

 

 

 

My decision to five lug this car came about after one particularly spirited drive back down the hill from a bonfire at a friend's house. The car wasn't particularly adept at handling 25 MPH corners at the 50-60 MPH I wanted to take them at. The rear of the car wants to roll a lot, causing a stupid amount of understeer, and the front feels much "squishier" than I was feeling comfortable with as well. So the hunt began.

 

Next day I had a visit with Spencer, aka "obk25xt", and he happened to have some parts I needed:banana:

 

So from him I got:

XT6 Rear; Swaybar, Rotors, calipers, backing plates and wheel hubs.

Also got the front sway bar, and a good power steering rack with the crossmember still attached, and some other random goodies.

 

Pics

 

 

 

Day after that, I was cruising CL and happened across a guy that was parting out a 1997 Impreza Outback wagon, AWD, 2.2 with A/T. He says I can have all the front end parts I want for $200. Soooo, I make the hour and a half drive each way and this lands on my garage floor once I'm back.

 

 

Got struts, Knuckles, hubs, brakes, control arms and axles.

 

Unfortunately, quickly discovered that the cups on these Impreza axles are the finer, 25 spline version. Darn, means I'm going to at least have to switch those out. Haven't yet had a chance to check out the length yet and compare it to an EA82 to see if I can get away with just swapping out the inner cups. Anybody have any input here?

 

I also got started with tearing the assemblies apart so I can get everything cleaned up and inspected, as well as ditch all the ABS stuff while I'm at it.

 

First I pulled the calipers and struts off, and then ATTEMPTED to break the axle nuts loose. Two broken ratchets later , I decided to take them over to the tire shop down the street and borrow their air gun to get them loose.

 

That finally worked, and the one side pulled out of the knuckle just fine, the other one, not so much. :banghead:

 

Pics of that mess:

 

Easy Side.

 

 

Not so easy side.

 

 

As you can see, I got the shaft off, bu the stub is still in the knuckle. Got the splines soaking in some Kroil right now, later I'll try and beat the stub out of the knuckle. :horse: If not, I'll have to get a hold of a press and push the little bugger out.

 

Another odd thing I noticed is that the axle nuts were not the same size. Is this just a factory vs. aftermarket thing, or did somebody jam the wrong axle into the hub?

 

My "other" next step is to get the wheel bearings out so I can inspect them and, if needed, replace them, as well as get the last of the ABS junk off.

 

That's all for right now, time to do some research on those wheel bearings.

 

Feel free to vocalize any questions, comments or concerns and I will do my best to respond to them in kind.

 

Also, for more/bigger pictures, my photobucket account can be reached here:

http://s92.photobucket.com/albums/l17/wentz912/

[tractor pole]

when I did my swap, I ended up having to put the knuckle in a bridgeport mill with an end mill and cut a slot in the axle nut so I could break it with a drift punch. ended up effing up the axle too... oh well.

[wentz912]

I already got the nut off, just the stub shaft of the axle is still stuck in the knuckle/hub. It should at worst press out after it soaks in kroil a little longer.

 

Might be able to see in this picture that the nut is off, but the stub shaft is still in there.

 

[ShawnW]

An air hammer works a lot better than a press if you have access to one. Gotta be a nice on though, a 2-3 series SnapOn or Mac for example. Not a cheapie like you get in those air tool kits with 3 tools and such at parts stores.

 

Going to skip the e-brake?

[wentz912]

Had an opportunity to try a 20 ton press today. Put four thousand pounds of pressure from the pump and got nothing, it's staying in there. Just gotta find another drivers side knuckle and hub now.

 

gonna hit pick and pull in the morning. Just verified that all the legacy/impreza front end bits are the same.

[tractor pole]

Going to skip the e-brake?

I have impreza front knuckes with Loyale calipers. Check out my Five-Lug thread

[wentz912]

I'm going to go with the nissan rear brakes to gain the cable rear handbrake.

[wentz912]

Picked up my good legacy knuckle from the local pick and pull today. All that's left is to either find some XT6 front control arms, or buy a reamer to hog out my EA82 arms. Also need a new pair of balljoints, some brake pads, and a set of wheels and I'll be ready to rock

[wentz912]

I am now in possession of ALL the parts I need for my swap minus my TRE's, Balljoints, and a set of wheels/tires.

 

Gonna go get the little parts from the shop tomorrow. And try to find some wheels I can mount my nearly new 14" tires on.