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BS on easy lift for 85 e82


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Who if those that say blocks are easy for a lift, probably didn't finish the job, probably puffing on the vape, this spoob is not for the weekend, lots of time and fitting, thought I had all to do, made parts and extras, my problem being placement of holes after following a vice of one that supposedly did a lift, now in the next few weeks I will give info for what has to be done in order to lift a 85 GL.

K

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I posted a lot of information and Photos regarding same subject; also on a '85 GL, here:

 

~► http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/106807-improved-shock-absorbers-and-spring-coils-on-loyales/?do=findComment&comment=1302391

 

Yes, that's not easy, and people usually don't tell the complete story,

 

so I wrote it as complete as I could.

 

Kind Regards.

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Loyale, your install and advice is the greatest, probably going to by a SJR kit now,I noticed on yours there are two holes next to each other, looks like the same dimension I am having issues with, for the top of the struts. The Subi is going up no matter what lol, one block is to wide, needs to be about a 1" wide, the other two will work, but as I said will either order the kit or fab one like it, thank you sir for your advice and thurough instructions. Now going to grab some pop corn and a brew ????

Cheers

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Loyale, your install and advice is the greatest ... thank you sir for your advice and thurough instructions ...

 

You're Welcome!

 

Thank you for your kind words. 

 


 

Are you having troubles with the Strut Top Blocks, or the Spacer blocks for the Crossmember?

 

I kindly suggest you to share here with us, Photos of your Blocks and placement issues,

 

This will aid to see exactly What's Happening, so we can help you in a much better way.

 

Kind Regards.

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Typing in complete sentences makes it simpler to understand and people will be more likely to read what you have to say and offer advice.  Try typing out your post in MS Word or another word processing software, run spelling and grammar check, THEN post it here.

 

As far as lifting, it sounds like you set out to build your own lift (I couldn't be bothered to read that ridiculous first-post run-on sentence.  Unless you have built a Subaru lift before I would budget a lot longer than a single weekend to do it in.

Edited by carfreak85
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I'm. Not sure anyone has ever said fitting a lift kit is an easy job. it might seem that way, but when you think about all the places the suspension is connected to the body, its a lot of work.

My first kit was an "approved" one that came with 20 odd pieces, lots of bolts and very detailed instructions.

You need to be realistic and logical about it.

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... My first kit was an "approved" one that came with 20 odd pieces, lots of bolts and very detailed instructions...

 

Could you, please, share more information and photos about that "Approved" kit?

 

Sounds pretty interesting; I only knew about "Approved" lift kits for the first gen Leone wagons, during the 1970's decade, but not for the third gen ones.

 

Kind Regards.

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I'm. Not sure anyone has ever said fitting a lift kit is an easy job. it might seem that way, but when you think about all the places the suspension is connected to the body, its a lot of work.

My first kit was an "approved" one that came with 20 odd pieces, lots of bolts and very detailed instructions.

You need to be realistic and logical about it.

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If you do the style in the pic with the double rings and the center pipe between, you can rotate the lower mount a bit to help clearance.  Lets the rear inside bolt stay farther away from the inner edge of the shock tower.  The upper half of the mount is a forward facing triangle, the bottom is a sideways facing triangle (facing out).  The center is still angled to the inside, you just spin the bolt holes. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have an 82 Brat. I purchased a 2" lift kit for it from a supplier I found here on USMB. The kit came with no instructions, only several pieces of 2"x2" heavy wall tubing drilled, and two offset pieces which locate on the top of the front struts. The ad said no re-alignment would be required since the camber was built into the top strut mount provided. In all honesty the kit was cheap enough, but there was several issues with it. Holes not drilled correctly, and three pieces that would not fit as designed.

 

It has taken me three weeks to rebuild the front suspension, and lift the car. I replaced axles, rotors, pads, wheel bearings, seals, struts, and tie rod ends. At the same time I purchased some new Toyota wheels and BF Goodrich tires. There seemed to be no way out but to replace the Subaru 13" wheels if I wanted a capable fwd.  Couldn't find anyone that had a clue about wheel offset, and tire size. I went with 8" wheels, and 15" 215-75 tires.  Wheels have a negative 6mm offset. Not nearly as much much as the original wheels which have something like a 30mm negative offset.  Once lifted the front tires scrub the inner fender. I have cut the fender, and beat heck out of the inner sheet metal to get the tires to clear. Bottom line is I would recommend 7" wheels and a slightly smaller tire, perhaps a 205-70. Only thing is tire shop wouldn't mount the 205-70 tires on a 7" rim. I did find a couple of internet sources saying it would be fine, but I decided to go with the tire shops recommendation.

 

The kit didn't come with anything to extend the steering linkage. Not sure what the heck the manufacturer thought you would do about the 2" difference. Nothing was said about brake lines. I removed the lines from the existing supports and was able to get the extra 2" out of them by gently bending the tubing.

 

Rear shocks were the same story. Nothing in the kit to extend the shocks the extra 2" I was adding between the body and the frame. I fabricated some extensions out of 1"x.25" flat bar, drilled, heated and bent to properly align.

 

Got everything together and drove my Brat down to get it alignment shop only to be told there isn't anything the alignment shop can do to correct the camber. I looked at the situation with the tech. It appears the only thing I can do is extend the lower control arm to correct he 7/8" positive camber I have at the bottom of my wheel.  I think the radius rod and tie rod ends might extend far enough to correct after I extend the control arm. I sure hope so.

 

Has anyone ran into this before, or am I getting off in the weeds with the control arm extensions?  I looked at the top of the struts. The alignment shop told me they sometimes slot the top of the strut on lifted trucks to adjust camber, but they didn't think there was room on my Brat.

 

No the project hasn't been easy, and I am an engineer who has been working on cars for more decades than most of you have been around. I have a shop full of tools, and I think I used most of them. Not really knowing what I was doing and having to feel my way through it has been one of the more frustrating parts.  I took lots of pictures, and found a youtube video of a guy replacing his axle which helped.  I have a factory service manual, but it too was of little use. In fact it almost scared me off with it's constantly referring to "special tools" that are required.

 

 

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wow i never had any troubles lifting any of my rigs i can say it was easy i have built and installed all my own kits on 4 or so different subies the loyales/gls are very easy the 04 lego wasent hard but geting the alignment back has been a chore mostly because of bent and damaged stuff from the previos owner i have a 5" lift on my daily i have the 2" lift blocks on my spare loyale less than 4 hours to build and install a kit on the gl10 the 04 lego was done in a weekend all 4 new struts front strut spacers rear lift blocks new arms new upper camber links the problem was finding the right alignment guy some one who wasent stuck on factory bs and realy knows there shibbit the alignment guru we used realy liked the lift kit and it should be all good here in a week or so once you do it a few times its easy the straight block you have dosent look right it looks way to big other than that it should go in real easy just unbolt the top of the strut use your foot to push down on the wheel and stick the blocks down the whole easy the crossmember blocks if you drop your bolts in before lowering the crossmeber it keeps it aligned and goes back together real easy the rear is even easyer installing a lift kit is easyer than writing with good spelling and grammer for me anyway and im pretty sure your car isent going to fall apart because u missed a period some where or miss spelled something and your sentances run on but i could be wrong maybe it could cause a exsplosion of something or more likely someone lol good luck i hope your next one will be easyer

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it's never easy when you get someone else's 2nd hand kit. You never know what's missing...

 

Ever since the Outback came out, the custom built (expensive) steering extension has pretty disappeared. you usually get the universal joint out of the steering column of one of those.

 

If you end up with the same camber each side, then I wouldn't worry about it too much. Got no idea how much camber 7/8" is, we usually work off degrees here. To be honest though, these car need more castor angle to stop the wheels being splayed outwards on turning...

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