Xise's 1993 Legacy Turbo

[xise]

Mixed reviews today, the good news is that I got the rack all done and new tie rods. The rack works great after bleeding the air out and Sex Panther is not back on the ground and parked out front.





The bad news is that I have no return action when I have the wheel turned and release it.....The caster looks like it should be positive enough to return to center but who knows. Also I filled the tank with some gas cans and it appears that fuel is leaking out right over the innermost passenger lateral link... This is shaping up to be a HUGE PITA. Not sure what the deal is but fuel started to leak out after the tank got to a certain % filled....I love this shit

[cj91legss]

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

[Legacy777]

Did you change anything with the caster? Was it like that before you did the work?


It sounds like the fuel lines on top of the tank may be leaking....that or the tank itself. You can try removing the plastic covers to see if you can see where it's coming from.

[xise]

I am thinking the kink made the fuel go down the vapor return and then leaked out the "valve". I think that kink is causing a vapor lock in the filler hose or the other lines on my filler neck just won't work with the 02 tank.

The caster is definitely off even though it does look still positive you can't really be sure where it sits. I am bringing it to school tomorrow to hopefully align it if I have time. I will at least get to see where it stands....probably off everywhere lol. Once it drives straight I can at least drive it again, the new RS rack seems smooth as butter though, not sure but I think it gives me more steering angle, I made a really tight turn from it being parked that I am not sure if I was able to do before....who knows.

I was also toying with the idea of putting a spool in a 5spd and installing it in this as my RS is coming out nice and looks like it will be straight as an arrow again so I might want to keep it AWD and make the car wiith the rusty body the drift machine. Very indecisive right now

[xise]

Did you change anything with the caster? Was it like that before you did the work?


It sounds like the fuel lines on top of the tank may be leaking....that or the tank itself. You can try removing the plastic covers to see if you can see where it's coming from.

The caster must have been fine before because it did return to center. I basically had the entire suspension aside from the swaybars out of the car so yeah the alignment is probably all over the place. I am just wondering what specs I should go by since Iam on impreza coilovers rear arms and now a steering rack, no original legacy suspension parts remain....aside from swaybars.

[Legacy777]

Caster is non-adjustable on the stock suspension....which is why I asked if you did anything to specifically change the caster.

I typically run 0 toe and -1 deg of camber front and rear. If you don't mind a little more twitchy feel on highway, you can put in a little bit of rear toe, which improves the turn in response. The 0 toe & -1 deg of camber is a good overall setup to start with.

[xise]

I didn't do anything to change the caster on purpose. I fitted all stock oem parts cxcept for the coilovers. Aside from the swaybars, everything is impreza fitment wise. Caster adjustment requires an eccentric bushing to be pressed into the control arm....I am not doing that. It should go back to a factory alignment, I am not low on the coilovers at all, close to a factory ride height.

The camber looks slightly positive in the rear, my passenger front looks toed in slightly. Would this cause the wheel to not be center, I also noticed some popping sounds when turning sharply from a stop. It drives pretty straight, better than before I did the rack.

To give you an idea of what might be to blame, here is a list of things done:
Version 3 STi lateral links/trailing arms (camber/toe adjustments)
Tien HA coilovers (front camber only, standard mounts)
2001 Impreza 2.5 RS steering rack
New Moog tie rods
Whiteline HD steering rack bushings

I might be able to get some camber bolts for the rear and possible a bolt for the lower mount on the front coilovers.

[Alphius]

Your top hat bearings might be shot. I had that issue before, no return to center and popping while turning and it ended up being bad strut mounts. This was on a completely stock '96 Legacy.

[xise]

Well it still was tight after the alignment, but I noticed that the not returning to center was because of an issue with the power steering. I had too much fluid in the reservoir and it was causing the rack not to bleed. Took a while and all the air still might not be out but it is way better than it was.

Also got the numbers for the alignment rack.


Not perfect but I can fix some of it...caster is out on the whole right side, and the camber is out on the right rear...gonna get some camber bolts and get the camber right. My control arm bushings are totally shot to shit up front so maybe i'll change the bushings or the arms too see what happens. At least caster is not a wear angle

[Alphius]

Try and get around -1 degree of camber front and rear. I'd throw a camber bolt in the rear side that's not great and match it up to the .8 camber on the other side.

Your front toe is not bad but the closer to 0 you can get it, the better the tire wear so don't be afraid to mess with your tie rod adjusters some more, it's near the outside of the spec and pretty easy to fix.

Caster needs help for sure. Keep in mind the more caster you can get the better. Subarus are very deficient in front caster, every little bit helps handling and tire wear in aggressive driving situations. Even if you don't get any mechanism by which to adjust caster, you should fix whatever is wrong and giving you that much cross caster.

When I had my SS I ran:
-1.5 camber front
-1 camber rear
absolutely 0 toe
Whatever caster I ended up with, since it's not adjustable stock... You can add an ALK for more caster though.
Shouldn't end up with any cross caster, that indicates some part of the suspension is bent or off spec and needs replacing.

Keep in mind I am a bit of a perfectionist... Those numbers are good enough to drive around with no undue problems but not what I like to see in a performance alignment.

[xise]

Yeah I had to watch 2nd quarter students do my alignment to my horror one of the kids had and oxy torch on my inner tie rod threads trying to break loose the lock nut. I had to yell at him and tell him that you ONLY put the flame on the nut, expanding the threads on a tie rod will ruin it and make that nut NEVER EVER EVER move again....the fools...not to mention when he pulled the torch away from Sex Panther he used no precision or care and the flame touched the cv boot, my brake line and the fender liner.....mind you it was quick enough to where nothing was burned or melted but still WTF!! Needless to say I hate when people touch my car, I was not allowed to do the alignment myself.

Yeah after looking it over the alk bushings are shot to shit, the outer edge (the one that looks like a castle) just spins so it separated from the rest of the bushing, the other control arm bushings are also toasted but I have a set of those lying around...not sure if subaru always used the same control arm front bushings these are for GD fitment...the alk kit from whiteline will probably help the caster out a bunch...should I just get aluminum control arms? or should I just do the bushings?

I am a perfectionist myself so I would like to get the numbers exactly where I like them. I would get the toe to as close to 0 as possible. Here are the numbers I was shooting for.

Toe ZERO
Front Camber -1
Rear Camber -2
Caster 3.0 to 2.8

I have no money for any whiteline goodness, I have 2 sets of the wrong diff bushings to sell though in case anyone needs them. Still plenty of work left to do. Plus in other more shitty news it appears as though my Tien HA rear coilovers are blown, they are super bouncy in the rear, exactly what you DON'T expect a coilover to do I already gave the ebay seller good feedback too. My luck is so good, it's unbelievable, Sex panther isn't allowed to have nice rear suspension. Maybe i'll contact tien and see if they can re valve them.

I really want to get some new headlights, mine have cracked mounting taps and are yellow and have water stains inside them. Anyone know if other headlights will fit like a 1992 toyota corolla or nissan sentra? Just looking for cheaper options, I am only going to use the cases for an HID retrofit.

I am also trying to find some foglights that will fit the "D" shaped holes on the front bumper, anyone have any ideas because those JDM fogs are REALLY hard to find....and expensive. If anyone has confirmed fitting lights please let me know.

I am almost finished with the functioning elements of the car, the motor runs fantastic minus the boost spiking. Power steering feels great now although I do get some popping in the steering when turning going into the driveway I think it is the steering u-joint. Will an impreza one fit? because I have free access to one of those. I have found a transmission too, an 02 WRX 5 speed, I am going to get a new cluster that will the transmissions electronic VSS. Do any of the JDM clusters fit? like the version 3/4/5/6? I am pretty sure those fit under the bezel, I am sure the Ver7+ ones will not fit but who knows?

[cj91legss]

I have some clear 92-4 headlights fs if you wanna buy them

[Legacy777]

Toe ZERO
Front Camber -1
Rear Camber -2
Caster 3.0 to 2.8

I woudln't recommend that much negative rear camber. If anything, you want that much negative camber in the front.

[xise]

I have some clear 92-4 headlights fs if you wanna buy them

I might take you up on that, I was hoping to use something cheap that I can retrofit projectors into. I was going to wire it as 2 projectors in the same housing, one for low and high...the high beams are going to be the super bright 60000k ones and the regular lights something like 9000-12000. Probably around the same for when I do the fogs.....thats a lot of ballasts lol

As far as camber I am trying to eliminate some of the inherit understeer that comes with an AWD. I would like it to have a good balance but leading more towards the tendency to oversteer rather than understeer. I know front camber helps out with understeer on FWD and I heard rear camber does the same for RWD.so I figured the best of both worlds would be to have negative camber all around (mild of course) on all 4 corners. I am not going too extreme as the -2 is still within factory specs and would show green on the alignment rig. I see no problem as long as I don;t push it further like those Honda boys do for no reason

[cj91legss]

well just let me know, im not trying to make a butt load of money off them. as I said, they're already clear. PM me an offer shipped and paypal'd.

It'd help me out since i wanna order some phenolic spacers and a new under the manifold intake piece.

[Legacy777]

Negative camber helps grip. You can add a bit of rear toe out, which will make the rear end a little twitchy and will promote the rear end to pivot/rotate, like a RWD car.

[Alphius]

Yeah, more rear camber like that will make it more likely to understeer, not less.

Go for like -.5 to -1 in the rear and -1 to -1.5 in the front.

But first take care of the control arm bushings and get your caster fixed.

[xise]

well just let me know, im not trying to make a butt load of money off them. as I said, they're already clear. PM me an offer shipped and paypal'd.

It'd help me out since i wanna order some phenolic spacers and a new under the manifold intake piece.

Not really any extra money right now, I need to deal with the current issues that are far more aggravating than my yellow old headlights, I will def keep you in mind though.

Yeah, more rear camber like that will make it more likely to understeer, not less.

Go for like -.5 to -1 in the rear and -1 to -1.5 in the front.

But first take care of the control arm bushings and get your caster fixed.

Good to know, I never really played around with suspension settings like I am about to so I will keep that in mind. I need to either fix my STi struts or send these coilovers to Tein to get them revavled....just spent $500 to fix my suspension issues on a nice set of blown coilovers

[cj91legss]

Just take the sti struts apart and grease them, it takes 15 minutes.....

When you drove on them were there any signs of them being bad besides the clunk?

[xise]

Just take the sti struts apart and grease them, it takes 15 minutes.....

When you drove on them were there any signs of them being bad besides the clunk?

Not really, everything I was feeling was psychosomatic, I plugged my ears while driving and all seemed well. Not really harsh or anything like that just annoying to listen to that's all.

I am pretty bummed out though, after spending all that money that I probably won't ever see again...I opened up a case on ebay but it is over 45 days so it is up to the seller to be a cool dude and give me a refund on his own merit....who knows maybe he will take a return.

As for more BS, I have a charging issue that seems somewhat intermittent and weird...I was only seeing 10-11 volts while running and the battery would creep back up to 12.6 when turned off for a while. I know for a long time it was only charging at slightly over 13V so I figured it was time for a new alt, which seemed to solve the problem at first after charging the battery (from the old alt running it down) it was back around 13.9-14.5 which seemed good to me. But now it is charging at 12.1 or lower, raising the RPMs does not raise the voltage at all. I have already tried replacing the main ground for the battery and checked all the other grounds...everything seems like it should be fine, I even checked the S terminal with a multimeter and it all seems to be good. I can't imagine that the alternator went bad, I am starting to think I didn't need an alternator to begin with. The battery seems more than strong, it goes back up to 12.6 even after the hell I have put it through testing and driving around with sub-par charging going on.

I am really getting frustrated with all these compounded issues going on, I just want this thing to be reliable enough to daily drive without all this nonsense going on all the time. Seriously every time I get one thing solved, 5 more things break down. I am usually good at solving electrical issues, but this one has me thrown, I am almost ready to just re-do every ground in the damn car to see if that helps, but the ground for the alternator circuit seem to all be perfectly fine...where is all the amperage going....not back to the battery that is for sure......

[xise]

Could a fusilble link cause a no/low charge issue? I checked it for continuity and it was fine but maybe it burned up most of the wire and is hanging by a thread and I just can't tell? All the wiring is fine, the underdash fuses are fine. This isn't a complex circuit by any means but I should see more than .5-2 amps when reving the motor. I also cleaned all the grounds and sanded the contacting points, new fresh bolts, recheck every ground.....must be some oddball problem because all the obvious stuff I tried.

I was doing some reading online about someone's harmonic balancer going in their legacy ( the rubber part of the crank pulley i'm assuming) and causing the belt tension to not be right...anyone ever hear of that?

This BS has me questioning my tensioning of the belt, I tried it looser, tighter...nothing. I am running out of ideas...

[Danny-G]

On the fog light topic, my turbo wagon came with a set of piaa lights in the stock opening. They are the 510, in yellow, they really do help out. Also, Napa sells headlight bulbs that are 100 watt lows. I run a set and, even though the headlights suck, those bulbs are an improvement.

[Legacy777]

....This isn't a complex circuit by any means but I should see more than .5-2 amps when reving the motor..

I don't think it's the fusible link. How are you checking the amps when revving the motor?

[xise]

....This isn't a complex circuit by any means but I should see more than .5-2 amps when reving the motor..

I don't think it's the fusible link. How are you checking the amps when revving the motor?

I checked amperage in a few places, using an inductive clamp I checked each wire coming from the voltage regulator, I checked the + battery supply cable and the fusible link itself. Funny thing is I changed the fusible link and it was fine 14.1V......then it later on I started it up 17.2-18.1v !?!?!!?

Even stranger sometimes it will be at 11.8-12.1V and then it will go up to normal 13.8-15 or so and it kind of will stay there mostly and go above or below normal whenever it feels like it. Very strange if you ask me, sound like the voltage regulator in this new alternator has no idea what to do....or I have some bad wiring somewhere along the line, probably the plug from the voltage reg to the power distribution box.

either way this random electrical issue came out of nowhere, sounds almost like a kinked wire that starts off 12.1V until the wire gets warm, then it evens out....not sure else what could cause this does anyone ohm specs for each wire coming off the alt? Somethings is intermittently wrong and here and it doesn't seem to be related to driving conditions or load on the battery, it makes no difference if it is driving, at a red light or in park it does whatever it pleases. It will however, go to normal if it is 17V+ if I switch the headlights on, it drops right down.

I just hop I can straighten this out before WBM.

[xise]

Finished my LSD today, can't wait to install this bad boy.
For anyone that has done this before you know how much of a pain in the ass it really is. There was a mathematical formula in the FSM to set the bearing preload for the retainers using different sized shims...here is my impromptu worksheet.








Also I traded my EJ22T block with rodknock for some serious goodies


Now I just need some injectors, a tune and i'll be making some good power.