legacycentral bbs

Planning to swap in a 02 wrx rack and install Whileline roll center/bump steer correction ball joints and tie rod ends included in the kit they sell.

I will be running sti pinks all round with 05 sti struts and top hats with the rear legacy 90 91 top hats

any issues or stuff to look out for?? is it necessary?

http://www.whiteline.com.au/product_det ... ber=KCA313

I was thinking about getting these, but had already bought new OEM ball joints & tierod ends.

Jamal may have experience with these.

Let us know how you like them.

yea i ordered 2 oem ball joints 2 i think id sooner pay 60$ for 2 oem lol

okay i will taker one for the team and order them...

Cool, like I said, let us know how you like them and what differences they do in aligment. Do you have a recent aligment sheet/specs for your car? I'm assuming you're planning to have it aligned after installation?

I was under the impression that the 05 sti struts won't work due to the change to the 5X114.5 hubs.

i have the whiteline bump steer kit on my legacy. There is a slight problem though. Since i'm basically replacing my front end, I didn't install the lower ball joints that came with the kit yet.

When i did my coilovers, i did my alignment and had a hard time with my front toe since the outer and inner tie rods were 17 years old. Everything was seized. Had to take a torch to the jam nuts to break it loose (I do not recommend using heat since heating and cooling metal tends to make it more brittle).

Once I received the kit, I installed the outer tie rods. Once I installed them and aligned my car, it seemed to drift to whatever side I turned the wheel to. Made a left turn the car tends to drift left, made a right turn the car tends to drift right.

Pulled the car in and double checked everything. Now here is why I can't diagnose what the actual problem is:

1) rack is leaking (memory steer?)
2 ) did not replace lower ball joints (since i lowered my car the geometry of the control arm is not where it is supposed to be. by using the lower ball joint, which is slightly extended compared to oem, it may correct the geometry somewhat)
3) rack bushings are shot (i have the whiteline bushings also but like i said i am replacing my whole front end and will do it all in one shot once i get the swap done.)

When doing alignments, after tightening the jam nuts down, the tie rod end should be "up and down" not cocked forward or rearward, so there is no binding when turning. After taking it around the block, the tie rods would be cocked one way or the other. I am not sure why this is happening, but I will figure it out sooner or later. Hope this sort of helps.

The memory steer can sometimes be caused by the caster & king pin angle being messed up. When you did the alignment what was your caster reading?

I'm sure the questionable rack & bushings and not using the ball joints that came with the kit are contributing to the issue.

Sounds like you messed up the caster angle. The change in tie rod orientation makes me suspect that the most.

hey guys decided to cancel the order, decided to wait until the springs are installed, to determine if i need them, i might put in strut spacers in so it might reduce the drop

greg donovan wrote:I was under the impression that the 05 sti struts won't work due to the change to the 5X114.5 hubs.

modified the 05 strut to make it work

Legacy777 wrote:The memory steer can sometimes be caused by the caster & king pin angle being messed up. When you did the alignment what was your caster reading?

I'm sure the questionable rack & bushings and not using the ball joints that came with the kit are contributing to the issue.

I totally forgot the specs since i did it 4 months ago, but i know for sure they were both good and even on both sides. I'm pretty sure though, that once i get everything installed, it will be fine.

I have them, good idea if the car is lowered an inch or so and you need to replace the stuff anyway. If the car is not lowered, these actually aren't a good idea.

Jamal,

I've got my car lowered. What specific benefit would I see if I replace the stock parts with these whiteline parts?

well I have yet to install my sti pinks because I am still waiting on some parts, but in your case did you notice any differences in the feel of the steering after you lowered your legacy? the whiteline tie rods bring the geometry of the steering closer to stock after lowering the vehicle.

Will those fit on SS hubs and steering rack? On the applications it lists 2nd gen legacys but not 1st gen.

Outer tie rods/ lower ball joint: KCA313 - Whiteline Roll-centre / bump-steer adjust kit

njdriver04 wrote:well I have yet to install my sti pinks because I am still waiting on some parts, but in your case did you notice any differences in the feel of the steering after you lowered your legacy? the whiteline tie rods bring the geometry of the steering closer to stock after lowering the vehicle.

No I really didn't notice any issue or difference in the steering after lowering. It's been about 10 years thought since I've lowered it, so it's a little hard to compare now.

I can say that the one I do notice as a difference between my Legacy and my 97 Impreza is that the Legacy steering feels more assisted than the impreza....even with stock tires on the Impreza and wider tires on the Legacy.

njdriver04 wrote:hey guys decided to cancel the order, decided to wait until the springs are installed, to determine if i need them, i might put in strut spacers in so it might reduce the drop

greg donovan wrote:I was under the impression that the 05 sti struts won't work due to the change to the 5X114.5 hubs.

modified the 05 strut to make it work

Might I ask how? I didn't think that was possible.

take a donor 04 strut housing, cut off the inner plates where the bolt holes go through then remove same plate on the 05, weld the 04 plate on then drill the outer housing with the 04 pattern. My friend did it for me at his shop.
Not something for the faint of heart.