The end of my lifted wagon (56k warning)

[bushbasher]

Well, my lifted sube is no more. It died fairly unspectacularly when I hit a good sized stump at about 40-50kph while offroad. It stuffed the front tire into the fenderwell, launched the car onto 2 wheels, nearly landed on its side, then came down and broke the rear crossmember. The car was saveable but rusty and I needed to clear some cars off my property so.. I scrapped it.

 

Heres my last pics of it. I still have all the good parts and I intend to build a new one at some point. I have new ideas and need to start from scratch with a good non rusty car for my next project.

 

Just another little tidbit: I swapped a Nissan 720 tcase into it, and was able to get it high enough by cutting the tranny tunnel that the output sat level with the rear diff at 4" lift. So, moral of the story is, yes a tcase lift is feasible and practical with 6" lift, you just have to cut your tranny tunnel a bit

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Subaru_dude]

how's the low range with a t-case with tires that big? i have no experience with t-cases. that's quite a lift... do you have any damage pics??

[bushbasher]

The gearing was great with the tcase,3.65x1.59x2.0x3.9=45.3:1 reduction versus stock 22:1 Makes all the difference in the world.

 

 

Here are some specs for those who dont remember/never saw:

 

Nissan 720 tcase (previously lada niva tcase)

31" Grabber MTs on stock yota rims

6" subframe lift front, 4" subframe lift rear +2" suspension

front suspension moved 2" forward

double DOJ rear axles

rock sliders

welded front and rear

 

It also had custom front a-arms at one point but didnt make them strong enough and they reduced approach angle so I reverted back to the stock control arm+radius rod setup.

 

oh, and there are damage pics there, its just hard to tell. The radius rod in the front is bent, you can see some deformation on the lift blocks as well as a broken weld, and what you cant see is where the radius rod bracket ripped out of the unibody. In the back there was just the broken crossmember.

[stinky]

Q1) How did you attach the rock sliders? looks like they're sitting where the 'seam' usually sits under the sills ?

 

Q2) What was the onroad drivability like with the locked front diff ? I wonder seeing you had a rear diff at the front if you could do the old 'remove an axle' trick and just use an outer through the wheel assembly to hold it together when the axle is out.

[dixracing]

i would sure like to see some pix of the t-case mounting :D

[Scott in Bellingham]

 

welded front and rear

 

.

 

 

how do you like having the front diff welded ?

 

whats it handle like with both front and rear locked up?

[Rollie715]

i would sure like to see some pix of the t-case mounting :D

 

Bushbasher,

 

NIce setup

 

I'm very interested in learning more about your set up. I have an 88 GL wagon with an SJR 6" lift and am thinking of going the transfercase route. My thoughts are to do it all without adding any more lift to it. I'm also interested in details about how the transfercase mounts, how tight the front diff fits under the engine and what you did for engine mounting. I've even been looking at ways to raise the engine a little higher then stock to make more room for the front diff. I don't mind cutting into the transmission hump to allow the transfercase to sit higher and provide better clearance under the middle of the car. Pictures would be greatly appreciated.

 

Rollie

[WoodsWagon]

Where's the rust?

[crazy D]

damn tHAT sucks dude.....oh well sh%t happens. at least u can build another one....plenty out there. good luck

[bushbasher]

There are a pile of older construction pics in my gallery.

 

To mount the nissan case I welded square tube above the floorpans between the brace underneath the front seats and the rear wall of the floorpan. This pic is from the lada case mounting, but I just reused the existing structure for the nissan case:

 

Also, 2" square tube was welded to the rockers to serve as rock sliders and to make a place for the crossmember to mount to. The crossmember doubles as a skid plate and as a way to mount the bottom brackets for the tcase. I dont have any pictures of the crossmember, but it was slapped together with scrap metal just to last 1 trip, so its not exactly a good model to copy.

 

In the ea82, the front control arms dont sweep back like an ea81, so its much more difficult to mount the front diff. You would probably need 10" or so of lift to mount the front diff high enough so the axles fit over the control arm mounts. My solution was to cut and angle the ea82 control arms back 2", mount the whole front crossmember forward 3", giving me 1" extended wheelbase to clear 31s against the firewall. The radius rod lift blocks end up being made with a 1" forward offset. Doing all this allowed me to fit the diff up nice and high with a 6" lift.

 

the rear was fairly simple, 4" lift blocks with some bracing welded in, +2 inch suspension lift. On the ea82, in order to maintain full downtravel with 2" suspension lift you need double DOJ rear axles. These come in some earlier ea82s. The kind with an outer CV and inner DOJ wont have enough travel.

 

I welded up the front and rear diffs, it handled like rump roast on the pavement and I would venture to call it completely unsafe for the road. I would never consider it for a street driven rig, but on the trail its incredible. I would say that just having a welded front diff would have a greater impact off-road than just having the rear welded up.

 

The rust is there, you just cant see it in those pics because thats the side I welded up to look nice. I never got around to the other side, and then I realized how bad the rust was structurally.

 

My next rig will likely involve completely non-subaru independant suspension, or I may completely transcend the subaru body and go straight o a skinned tube frame in the style of a wagon, with subaru power. Or maybe not subaru power. I dunno.

[beataru]

Save up for the diesel YEAH BABEY!!!! wait you dont want to wait that long... oh sorry!