After 2+years of testing i guess ill reveal my $30 Lift

Camber bolts are a must anytime you lower or raise a subaru of this nature. And quality camber bolts at that.

If you hate your tires, you can get away with the stock set up but not for long.
 
I needed camber bolts both front + rear for a 1.875 lift on my '02 foz.
 
Has anyone besides fuze911 tried this lift? I'm thinking about giving it a shot in the next couple weeks, just wondering if anyone else had had success with it.
 
Save extra cash by slotting the strut-top mounting holes with a rats tail file to get your camber/caster correction. 1/4" should be enough.
 
ok, at the risk of sounding completely ignorant, the thing that confuses me most about the whole lifting process is camber. I am pretty new to working on cars, I am not a mechanic and neither are my friends.
So, I have just about figured out the concept of camber bolts, but still have some trouble visualizing how everything goes together.
It seems like there are people out there who slot the strut mounting holes instead but besides the price would camber bolts generally be a better choice?
Also, will the lift cause increased negative or positive camber?
thanks in advance for the help. So far this has been a really helpful community and I really appreciate y'all puttin up with newbs like me.
 
When the strut is lifted the control arm is pushed downwards in an arc, pulling the bottom of the strut inwards giving positive camber. To even up the angle of the wheel the strut can be made more upright by offsetting the top mount inboard (either by slotting or by building the offset into the lift block) or the alternative is to adjust the angle of the hub relative to the strut. This is done by taking out the 12mm bolt and putting in a 10mm bolt with a cam on it that can be rotated.
 
The bolts that join the hub to the strut are in shear ie: they have forces acting on them like a guillotine. The torque of these bolts holds the face of the hubs and struts together and the friction of those surfaces holds everything in place. When you put a smaller bolt in (camber bolt) it can't be torqued as tight so there is more chance of slip and shearing of the bolt.

Slotting strut top mounting holes was commonplace back in the day especially on lower budget race cars.

Volvo 144 and 244 came with this as standard camber adjustment.
 
Exc description Stilson. When going camber bolts, I'd only recommend Whiteline KCA414 Camber bolts. Eibach are cheap & have a reputation for snapping. H&R have a reputation for slipping.

If I was to slot the strut top mounting holes, would I need to reinforce it? Maybe just some large HT washers to spread the load? (plus hide the slots lol) ;)
 
The major force here is the weight of the car pushing down on the strut top, this is spread over the whole face of the tophat/lift block, no reinforcement needed there.

The other force would be when you launch over a jump and the spring fires the wheel down until it is limited by the strut. This is where the nuts might try to tear through the slotted hole.

Best bet? Fit a strut brace as the mounting plates sandwich the strutmount between themselves and the tophat/lift block.

Next best? Washers.

The high tensile bolts Ive been using all have large footprint bases that will cover a 1/4" slotted hole.

Always clean any steel filings so they don't rust and paint any bare metal.
Check everything periodically to make sure nothing comes loose.
 
Thanks for the help. Really good description and I think I've got it figured out now. Probably gonna go ahead and start getting the parts together to do the lift whenever I can find time in the next couple of weeks.
Hopefully it comes out alright and I'll be sure to post some pictures along the way.
 
Good job Stilson. What he said!

Im excited to see the progress. Post your experiences in this thread for others to follow. :)
 
Just finished installing blocks last night. Had some snow to play with. Seems to be working great.
 

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I've been thinking about lifting my Forester for a while now and the time is finally right. Just ordered the blocks today.
 
Fantastic mate :ebiggrin:

Will be great to see it once you've had them installed :)

Don't for get to get some before & after pics too mate :raz:

Regards
Mr Turbo
 
I've got the blocks sitting in my closet waiting to go in. Had a busy couple of weeks with work so I still haven't gotten around to installing it yet. I'll be sure to keep y'all updated once I get started on it.
 
FUZE, did you have to go get an alignment done after the lift. Or, did you just adjust the camber bolts and eye it?
 
I've got all the parts and I'm gonna go ahead and lift the Forester this weekend. I'll take some before and after pictures for anyone who cares.

Also, are there any weird things that I wouldn't have thought of when installing the lift? Any things that you wish that someone had told you before you started pulling things apart?
 
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