kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:10 pm

You got a garage cat...he's hanging out

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 7:13 pm

That's what he does too. Just shows up when I go over there and stealthy sneaks in and meows at me until I pet him. I love that 3 legged cat. He gets skinny in summer but he fattens right back up in the fall. I like a nice reasonably fat cat. That doesn't drool.

NICO · Post by **NICO** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 8:33 pm

very nice car and project your doing !!

when you say canadian head liner for the roof ? did you have the felt type and you switch to the hard plastic one?

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:14 pm

No he switched from the US headliner that fits the automatic seat belt trim pieces to the canadian headliner that fits the manual seat belt trim pieces.

dropdfocus · Post by **dropdfocus** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:21 pm

Um yeah... Cats kinda need their whiskers long. They will be as long as the cat is wide to use as feelers in the dark.

Great to see some progress made!

NICO · Post by **NICO** » Thu Nov 19, 2009 10:25 pm

Legacy777 wrote:No he switched from the US headliner that fits the automatic seat belt trim pieces to the canadian headliner that fits the manual seat belt trim pieces.

o ok i got it now, thank you.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:49 am

NICO I WRX U wrote:very nice car and project your doing !!

Thank you. As Josh said, it's to fit the canadian seat belt trim pieces which are smaller in width and thus expose gaps in the headliner. There's a thread with picture of this somewhere about the whole canadian seat belt topic.

Only other difference in the headliner is the USDM one has a crappy particle board backing and the canadian had a nice hard plastic backing which won't crease easily or bend as easily.

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:51 am

I love watching this thread haha. It's fun to watch all of the progress that you've been making. Do you by chance have any pictures of the USDM headliner with the manual seat belt trim pieces? Where are the gaps?

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:52 am

Never mind, you must have posted that right before I responded. Haha.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:53 am

dropdfocus wrote:Um yeah... Cats kinda need their whiskers long. They will be as long as the cat is wide to use as feelers in the dark.

Great to see some progress made!

Yeah I felt bad for him when I discovered his new "haircut". Hopefully they grow back. I doubt he was pleased but he kind of lets the girl do whatever she wants with him. He's a nice cat. He has attacked my girlfriend a couple times though haha.

Progress is good. Hoping to go pick up a replacement gas tank this evening and then remove mine tonight. Those are my plans, just gotta get a hold of the guy with the tank.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:57 am

Those gray-striped cats are the best. I've yet to meet one that sucks, unlike other cats. We had one when I was a kid that my sister would drag by the tail without protest (if she caught him), yet he beat the bag out of every other cat in the neighborhood and chased a doberman down the street. Friggin' Greeks around the block raised attack dobermans that would occasionally get loose and terrorize the neighborhood. One cornered my sister and I was running around the house with a bat when I saw the cat come around the corner at full throttle. The dog turned and ran without a second hesitation and I watched the cat gaining on him, locked on like a sidewinder, the dog's back legs skidding for traction as he turned the corner of his street. By the time I got to the corner to see what happened, the dog was gone and the cat was walking back up the hill in the middle of the street with the swagger of a conqueror. When he got old, he refused to stay inside even though it was to protect him from the younger cats that now wanted top status. The last time he got out, I had to beat two cats off him at 3 in the morning with the bat. I was hoping they'd run off, but they didn't. Cats are pretty rugged, not to give the impression that I enjoyed hitting them. Had to put the cat to sleep a year later or so. He was something like 18 years old. It was sad watching my grandfather bring him to the vet—the cat used to follow him to the store everyday and wait for him to come out so he could walk back with him. It was like the best of a cat and the best of a dog.

Oh, and the whiskers will grow back. My sister did the same thing when she was small.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:06 am

That's awesome. Those are my favorite cats too. I don't even like most cats.

Cats are pretty rugged, not to give the impression that I enjoyed hitting them.

That part had me crackin up.

This cat was born with 3 and a half legs. One of his hind legs is missing what would be the shin and foot part of his leg. Not sure what you'd call that on a cat. So he's got one powerful back leg. He still jumps high in the air and scales fences and vertical walls without a problem. Can climb trees and run like the wind. Very tough cat. He used to fight my other cat that one day was found with paralyzed legs. Never did figure out what happened to his back legs but they were limp and he drug himself around on his front legs. It was very sad. Tried to put him in the house and even got him the wheelchair for his rear end but he hated it and hated being inside and one day ran out when someone opened the door. So we just let him stay outside and he eventually slowly gained most of his rear leg functions back. Then he froze to death last winter.

Luckily we still have our 3 legged friend.

evolutionmovement · Post by **evolutionmovement** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 4:32 am

You ever see that video with the 2-legged dog that runs around like mad?

But, yeah, I smashed one of the usurper cats in the top of the skull, slamming into the driveway. Made a horrible sound. Friggin' cat ran off like I just squirted it with water or something. Probably crawled up somewhere and died after. Still—I was only 9 or 10 at the time, but that shot would've put me out no problem. The other cat I smacked in the ass like a low ball pitch and sent it up the driveway. After that, we were better at keeping him inside. He'd still cry to go out, but I didn't want to have to get up in the middle of the night to beat any more animals off him.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 5:52 am

I remember seeing a dog with only hind legs that walked upright like a human. It was pretty cool. I think the dog is dead now though. It was on TV and stuff.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 3:36 pm

Picked up a gas tank from Brandon (Airgne) who was keeping it at his cousin's place who just so happened to live less than 5 mins from my house. And he works at the subaru dealership that I go to frequently.

It was a PITA just as I assumed it would be. And that's an understatement. Took me 4 hours to get the tank out and put the new one in and that's where I stopped. I just bolted the tank in, hooked all the hoses and electrical up and quit. Didn't have time to put the crossmembers back in or whatever that thing is called that the lateral links mount to. Not to mention the heatshield, driveshaft, rear diff, axles, etc. That's all still laying on the garage floor. I forgot to mention that the night before I had already removed the exhaust, rear diff and a few other things.

That's how much it sucks to replace the gas tanks in these cars. Hardest damn thing to get to on the car.

I guess it's all downhill from here then, eh?

I bought an STI fuel pump for $30 on NASIOC and was planning on bolting that right in but it turns out it's not plug N play as I thought it was. Everyone says "Get a Walbro 255 or for cheap you can just get an STI pump." They never mention that our cars have 2 bolt on wires and the STI pump just has a plug in connector. Also, it's like 2/3 the size of our pump.

So how do I install this thing?

I noticed that the forester pump/sending unit setup has the same plug in connector as the STI pump and the external connector is the same as the legacy connector. I was thinking maybe I could remove the whole electrical connectors and wiring from that pump and put it on my pump. But then I saw that there's a couple of wires that are soldered onto the fuel gauge mechanism and those would need to be spliced with the wires on my pump and that scares me.

I started to install my whiteline adjustable rear swaybar but when I was about to assemble the link I noticed the kit is missing 2 washers. So I have to go buy some hardened washers. Lame.

I noticed the links are a bit different than the stock links. The stock ones have a backet on the end of them that the swaybar sits in and bolts to which mounts the swaybar directly in the center of the link. On the whiteline setup it's an eyelet on the end of the link and that means the swaybar mounts on the side of the eyelet.

Does it matter which side I bolt it to? It doesn't specify. Probably doesn't make a difference.

Post by **Legacy777** » Fri Nov 20, 2009 7:04 pm

Really shouldn't matter which side you bolt the bushing to the bar. One side will fit better when you get everything setup.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:14 pm

Figured out when I removed my stock swaybar and compared it to the whiteline bar the ends sit just outside the stock bar ends. So I mounted the endlinks on the insides.

Couple things I have to say about this whiteline bushing kit that came with the swaybar. It's missing 2 washers that sit between the bolt head and the swaybar. Had to go buy them today at home depot. Then after putting the endlinks together and bolting them to the swaybar I noticed the bolts are not long enough! WTF whiteline!? They're like 1/4" too short but going even 1/2" or more longer wouldn't hurt anything and it would sure as hell be better than being too short.

The problem is the nuts are nylon locknuts so they have nylon plastic on the ends of the threads and the bolt is just short enough to stop right before it gets to the nylon so the nuts are just going to come right off. I may have to put them on backwards but I couldn't get them threaded on by hand because the nylon is not threaded. The whiteline instructions say "do not overtighten the bushings or they will become preloaded and not function properly and may fail prematurely." It says to tighten til the washer stops spinning and then tighten it 2/3 of a turn more. Well in order to tighten it enough to hit the nylon you have to tighten it a hell of a lot more than 2/3 turn past snug and you can see the bushings being squeezed out.

Anybody else have this problem? I know others run this bar, like Phyrra. I think I'm going to have to buy a couple bolts to replace them so they're long enough and I don't have to overtighten the nuts.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 3:28 pm

The studs on the forester rear LSD were way too long so I ordered the 91 legacy rear diff studs and picked them up at the dealership.

Part number 800912040

Used the double nut lockwasher sandwich method to remove the studs that were too long. Worked great.

Finished bolting the crossmembers back up and all that other suspension crap and a heat shield for the gas tank. Bolted the rear diff in. Then I went to bolt in the forester driveshaft because the bolt pattern is different than the legacy bolt pattern on the rear differential end and that's when I found out the forester driveshaft is too short. By 2"-3". So that's not going to work. I think my only other option is to unbolt the input shaft mounting plate on the rear diff and swap it with my legacy one. If that's possible. Problem is I don't have a big enough socket for that. I'll need a compressor since the legacy rear diff is not in the car anymore and I don't have way of holding the axle stubs still while I torque on it.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 5:50 pm

I was going to order the mounting flange for the 91 SS diff to bolt onto my forester LSD and found out it's $76! Subaru is outrageous sometimes. Well, cars companies in general.

So it looks like I'm now going to just take the one off my 91SS and whoever buys it is just going to have to use theirs.

38386 5200 FLANGE UNIT $76
38387 5200 LOCK NUT $6

Post by **Legacy777** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 5:58 pm

Regarding the whiteline drop links. I didn't have any problems with mine when I put it in.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:21 am

Do you have any good pictures of the endlinks installed and bolted up to the swaybar? I'd like to see exactly how you did it and how long your bolts are and if you used the same washers as I did.

asc_up · Post by **asc_up** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 3:55 am

I'll take pictures of mine tomorrow for you.

kimokalihi · Post by **kimokalihi** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 4:32 am

Sweet, I think you were the one who showed me which swaybar to get in the first place.

NICO · Post by **NICO** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:06 am

you do know that you can open the center shaft section yoke up and swap the two.

but there is one thing, my father did it five years ago and i forgot how he did it. i know there is a plastic cup or steel cup and once you remove it there is a bolt that splits the yoke. i just cant remember it all, but ill find out for ya.

Airgne · Post by **Airgne** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:15 am

tank was good to go?

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kimokalihi's 91 SS EJ20 Swap