Lifting my 92 legacy SS

[desmo750]

Alright, I've decided I want to raise my car up and put some all terrain tires on it. I haven't found any definative answers but I believe most people raise their early legacys with Outback or Forester struts and springs with legacy tophats on the rear? Any help would be greatly appreciated! I want to raise the car up about 2" BTW. Thanks!

[555BCTurbo]

King Rally Springs

[bushlocos]

You are correct. I put forester KYB GR2 struts and shocks on mine ($100 from PNP). That gave me about 2 1/2 inches. I did need to swap the rear tophats. The fronts just bolted up.
The only issue I ran into was the caster angle on the rears. The back wheels were riding almost at the front of the wheel well. I made it a little better by swapping the control arm mount with an outback one. It's still not perfect but it's definitely good enough.
I think it looks awesome, now I just need bigger tires.

[desmo750]

You are correct. I put forester KYB GR2 struts and shocks on mine ($100 from PNP). That gave me about 2 1/2 inches. I did need to swap the rear tophats. The fronts just bolted up.
The only issue I ran into was the caster angle on the rears. The back wheels were riding almost at the front of the wheel well. I made it a little better by swapping the control arm mount with an outback one. It's still not perfect but it's definitely good enough.
I think it looks awesome, now I just need bigger tires.

Do you mean camber issue? Also could you post some pics? Thanks!

[kbeefy]

I was just looking at the King site last night, they only listed stock height and lowered applications for the early Legacys.

I think the outback or forester route would be the easiest.


info here if you haven't already seen it:

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=2153

92-94 AWD....GC/GM/GF (93-2001impreza)........FP
........................GD/GG (2002- impreza)................FP, SPT
........................BD/BG (95-99 legacy)...................FP
........................BE/BH (00-04 legacy)...................Probably FP, No fit rear!
........................SF (98-02 forester)......................Probably Nothing
........................SG (03- forester...........................Probably FP
........................BC/BF fwd....................................Rear struts don’t Fit!

FP = Front Upper Spring Perches, RP = Rear Upper Spring Perches
SPT = Might need washer between rear top nut and top mount.

[kbeefy]

Do you mean camber issue? Also could you post some pics? Thanks!

I too would like to see pics.

I imagine there were both camber and caster issues. The Caster issue he's refering to is the rear tires being pulled forward and getting closer to the door. I'd heard of swapping the mounts, but someone else told me they checked and the forester mounts were the same as they're impreza mounts, but maybe they're different than the Legacy mounts (or my info was incorrect).

[desmo750]

I too would like to see pics.

I imagine there were both camber and caster issues. The Caster issue he's refering to is the rear tires being pulled forward and getting closer to the door. I'd heard of swapping the mounts, but someone else told me they checked and the forester mounts were the same as they're impreza mounts, but maybe they're different than the Legacy mounts (or my info was incorrect).

Interesting, found this issue with a few impreza owners swapping to forester struts on other forums as well. Has anyone ran into this with the Outback struts?

[bushlocos]

Sorry guys, I don't have a camera, so no pics.

To answer some questions;

I ended up giving the car an alignment. That happens without question whenever I play around with the suspension, and it's easy to do just by eyeballing it. We can adjust the toe and the camber by turning the adjustment bolts, but there it no adjustment for the caster angle.

The front struts mount straight up and down, 90 degrees to the road so longer struts are not a big deal. The back struts mount on a slight angle so the longer strut from the Forester doesn't quite work without a longer control arm (all models are the same size) or a taller mount.

I thought this would put a lot of strain on the lateral link bushings because they are also slightly out of alignment, but so far no problems.

Also, Outback and Forester struts can fit bigger tires. And since there are no spacers between the sub-frame and the body, I actually have more clearance than an Outback.

[Smoothinto2nd]

Sorry if I missed this but what year were your forester struts for? 98-02 or newer?

[SubaruFred]

^^ Excellent question ^^ I too would like to know the answer. 98-02 rear Forester struts are basically the same as 96-98 OB rear struts only .375" shorter. If Forester struts cause this caster issue, OB struts would be even worse.

[subaru_styles]

i'd imagin the combination of swapping to the outback trailing arm mount + getting an adjustable trailing arm should help center the wheels in the rear

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/OBX-trai ... ccessories

[SubaruFred]

^^That should do it. I just got my rear Forester struts installed today and I see that the wheels are a little closer to the front of the wheel well but it's not too bad. I might do something about it if and when I get bigger tires. I like those adjustable trailing arms. Thanks for the link, I didn't know they existed.