Lifting a loyale and a 84 GL help.

[Rnasty]

I'm swapping the whole drivetrain out of my loyale and wanted to lift it while I'm there. It's my dally so I was thinking a 4" AA lift, might go with a 6" depending on how much harder they are that a 4". Never lifted a Subaru before but I know you have to extend the steering knuckle, radiator hoses, and brake lines but is that all with the 4"? Is there more to fabricate with a 6" or are they about the same?

 

I also found a 84 GL yesterday for free and its got a d/r tranny so I wanted to make it a trail and hunting rig. Mostly swamp or snow around here so I'd like to make it water crossing ready, maybe side by side tracks, big o lift, welded diff, ext. Will it's little 1.6 and 4mt be able to handle that though? I know the 4speeds are considered crap but this thing will pretty much live in low range and crawl around. Also how high can I lift an ea81 with stock axles? What all do I have to extend and disconnect.

[Scott in Bellingham]

AA does not sell kits any more, I sell them here www.sjrlift.com, with Subaru lifts its mostly a body lift so as the lift gets taller the axles keep the same stress, with the 1.6 4 speed, put a weber carb

on that and keep your tires on the smaller say 27" max side, that engine and trans is a good match for each other just keep the tires smaller as tire size goes up the gearing also goes up,

 

on the EA82 with 4 or 6" lift its about the same, the rear has a few extra blocks, so what are you swapping into the loyale body? hopefully a Dualrange possibly a EJ2.2?

[Rnasty]

Thanks for the info Scott, swapping in a 5mt dual range from a 86 GL and maybe a 2.2 when my engine finally dies.

[Uberoo]

The 84 GL should have a 1.8 EA81 engine,not a 1.6.The 1.6 only came in FWD DL form.With that being said the 84 gl is probally a better wheeler than the loyale is out of the box,its lighter and physically smaller.However,some things on it are not so good offroad. The front axles for instance wont take more than about a 1" suspension lift without eating CV axles like candy,while the ea82(loyale) tolerates up to 2.5" of suspension lift.When I say suspension lift I mean installing stiffer springs or dropping the struts lower than the rest of the drive train to get more ground clearance.A "body lift" just spaces the entire drive train away from the body while still retaining the factory geometry. Another thing "wrong" with the 84 gl is the weak 4 speed. Fortunately subarus are just giant lego sets. EA82 front suspension can easily be swapped in place of the factory ea81(84 GL) suspension,same with the 5 speed dual range out of the later subarus. Even the EJ22 is almost a bolt in deal, the engine mounts need to be slotted 1/2" toward the outside of the car but that takes 5 minutes with a die grinder.

 

 

That all being said the "standard" lifted subaru tends to run a 4/3" lift some 27-29" tires and a welded or LSD rear diff and they do pretty well.However, they are not rockcrawlers because the gearing is too high once Plus sized tires are added because they only have 3.9 gear ratios with either a 1.17,1.42, or 1.59 low range.The added power of the ej22 kinda makes the lack of gearing a moot point because it makes enough torque at low-mid rpms that it will keep the car from stalling out.Since the standard offroad subaru is pretty mild removing weight from the car(as well as yourself if you have some extra to spare) will make it offroad better.For instance turning a wagon into a "4 door trucklet" by cutting off the roof after the rear doors makes a massive difference even if your only loosing 100 lbs of glass and steel.

 

here is a picture of my old 83ish gl wagon with a 2" suspension lift, some 235/75/15 tires,welded rear diff, and weight reduction surgery

 

If most of what  your doing is swamp and forest terrain with out much rocks you could adapt some side by side tracks for a alot of ground clearance without loosing gearing because of the built in gearing of a tracked system.

[Chewy_719]

I'm going with a 4" lift for my Loyale with some 215/75R15. How much length do I need to add to the steering knuckle and also the pitch stop on the tranny? How do you fix the bushing issue I've been seeing for the mount on the shifter in the rear?

[Uberoo]

How much to lengthen steering shaft, no idea I've just cut it in half and added enough tube to make the ends meet.Or you could measure the angle of the steering at stock height then do a little trig to find the hypotenuse of the triangle that is formed when you lower the subframe X inches.

 

actually everything in your question can be fixed by the above methods.You can either drop the shifter with the transmission or you can lengthen the shifting rods on the transmission-cut and splice or trig.

 

Unless you already have some brand new 215's go bigger because 215's with 4" of lift will look like you have stock sized tires.

[Logan K]

Get a late 90's outback or forester steering shaft it will work no cutting and welding required