Custom 4" Lift for 1986 GL?

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Mon May 04, 2009 4:52 pm

I live in Canada where shipping everything is a fortune and we have a low dollar. On top of that I'm a student with access to a shop on campus.

I was looking at the kit provided by SJRLift and it looks fairly simple. Is there anything I need to watch for when lifting my subaru? The back seems fairly straight forward. I'm waiting to get my car on a lift so I can figure out exactly what i will have to space out.

From the pictures I've seen on here it looks like I have to add 4" spacers under the rear shocks, trailing arm mounts and the read diff housing. It also looked like there was a torque arm or soemthing that would need spacing out on the rear diff. I will probably need to space everything out 4"?

How hard is the front end to lift? This is the questionable area for me. The strut extension is simple enough. I'm worried about connections to the motor and the exhaust. The current exhaust is stock.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Mon May 04, 2009 6:17 pm

If the strut extension is simple for you then the rest of the front end will be even simpler. You just need spacers under both sides of the engine crossmember, and under the radius rod plates.
Exhaust will end up hanging down too low, you will likely have to get an exhaust shop (or just soembody who can weld exhausts) to cut and change a few angles to tuck it back up closer to the body.
Make sure your shifter linkage bushes are in good condition without too much play or else you may encounter some problems selecting gears. These nylon bushes are cheap.

tex · Post by **tex** » Mon May 04, 2009 9:56 pm

The canadian dollar is quite good compared to the aussie dollar, So just a thought perhaps you should buy a lift kit from australia (I don't know if we can source you a 4" kit though) I know for a fact that air freight here is cheaper than canadian or US regular post. The big issue in canada with freight is time here we ship across the country in 3 days regular post as opposed to weeks, Unless you go UPS where it takes months if at all!

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Tue May 05, 2009 3:31 am

With my budget I can afford about $300 for the lift. I'm thinking it will run me between $100-$200 in materials with the modified exhaust. I'm going to try and modify the exhaust myself if I can. The racing team I'm a member on has a TIG welder that I'm pretty good at using. All the parts will probably be TIG welded.

With the strut extensions I noticed some people were running them with an offset on new subarus? This doesn't seem to be a case with the older kits. Can anyone confirm that won't need to run an offset?

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue May 05, 2009 9:12 am

no, you definitely need to have them offset. The measurements may have been posted somewhere on here, have a search around.

GOD · Post by **GOD** » Tue May 05, 2009 10:18 am

Outback bloke wrote:No probs talking about kits on here any more. 6-7mm offset per inch for the front. 3-4mm for the rear. 2 inch is fine for the rear but the 3 inch kits need more offset and you then run in to troubles with the kit fowling on the body. You may still need to massage the body to fit the 2 inch tops.

ten characters

YouTube · Post by **El_Freddo** » Tue May 05, 2009 10:49 am

tex wrote:The big issue in canada with freight is time here we ship across the country in 3 days regular post as opposed to weeks, Unless you go UPS where it takes months if at all!

Wow, those guys actually make australia post look good!

Bennie

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Tue May 05, 2009 2:09 pm

This is the kit I was planning to base my lift off of for any wondering:
http://www.sjrlift.com/catalog/images/DSC02630.jpg

The strut towers don't appear to be offset. They are rotated slightly but not offset like the newer subaru kits are.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Tue May 05, 2009 4:03 pm

Impossible to tell from the camera angle, if they are like any normal L series lift kit then they will have an offset - email them and ask if theirs is different for some reason. If so then all their customers would have rediculous looking camber on their front wheels after installation.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Wed May 06, 2009 4:58 pm

I just looked at another picture. This one is the spacer on their 6" kit. It definately looks like there is an offset. It looks like the round tube is cut at an angle on each end to create the offset.

It seems apparent in the right spacer.

AndrewT · Post by **AndrewT** » Wed May 06, 2009 6:05 pm

Yes, liftkit strut tops are offset.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:27 pm

So with a 4" spacer I should offset the bottom plate 26mm towards the passenger compartment?

Phizinza · Post by **Phizinza** » Fri May 08, 2009 12:08 pm

The offset has to push the shocker in towards the engine on both sides. 7mm an inch is what I know works well for the front.

Don't forget about steering extension.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:40 am

Just an update.

I'm working 10-13 hours a day all week and then working saturdays landscaping. I figure I would save the time designing a lift kit and spend more time building stuff like tube bumpers and doing the lug conversions.

I went ahead and ordered a 4" lift kit and last weekend I stayed at the shop until 3:30am tig welding my new 3" C channel bumper. It turned out pretty good but its a little plain. I'll post some pictures a little later.