slowly getting there with`98 outback lift,,,

turbo1600

Forum Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Messages
49
Location
renmark , south australia
Car Year
1998
Car Model
outback
Transmission
auto
got the REAR lift in my `98 outback. with sg forester struts , 1 inch raised king springs .and 2 inch strut spacers, sg forester rear flexable brake hoses and retaining clips.
( clips from `80s model mitsubishi magna fit spot on. ) ( the original outback flexable brake hoses where they mount on the struts go straight thru , so used SG flex hoses .)

the tops of the rear wheels where leaning out a decent amount.
so i put in 2 adj camber bolts in each rear strut.hey are supposed to be good for 3 degrees total camber.

it corrected it some what, but i reckon i still need ABOUT 2-3 degrees of adjustment on rear,
any body got any ideas ?

i WAS thinking about elongating the lower rear strut mount bolt holes then welding a high tensile washer on each side lower holes. see pic.

mark k
 
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Kings raised springs are about 35mm lift (~1.5"), SG rear struts give about 1/2" lift or a bit more over BG Outback struts, so with your 2" strut top spacers you're sitting at about 4" lift in the rear. That's a bit past the maximum lift for the rear (maximum lift for the front is 2.5" for good CV angles for reliability)

Did you make the strut top spacers yourself?

You can either slot the bottom holes like you've said or use a 2nd set of camber bolts. Camber bolts have ~3deg of adjustment total, so that's ~1.5deg adjustment either side of neutral, ie, 1.5 positive or 1.5 negative
 
one strut slotted

what i ended up doing was cutting a bit out of the strut , basically making it into a long U shape , then i welded ( welded bit at a time so as not to get too much heat in strut ) a thick high tensile washer on each side , see pic . looks pretty good and strong. i`ll let you know later how it goes.

only thing is i dont think i`ll be able to use a camber bolt in lower position., because of the thicker washers . but since the hole has been moved i shouldnt need it any ways,

mark
 
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That's a fair bit of offset, you'll probably have to run the top camber bolts in the positive position. Nicely done
 
Hope you won't have any tire rubbing against the strut !
 
ugghhhh , just found out tyre is rubbing against strut :cry:\ after i modified the strut that fixed the camber issue up....

i was thinking of either using wheel spacers ?

or rear subframe spacers OR a combination of both ?
if i use subframe spacers can i just use them on the rear ? or will i have to use them on the front as well ?

basically i`m just working the rear suspension out. for the meantime....

any help appreciated ..
mark
 
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Subframe spacers (body spacers) won't do anything to stop the tyre rubbing against the strut. The only reason to use them is to keep the CV angles good on big lifts.

You need either wheel spacers or low offset rims. What size tyres are you running?
 
Ok, that's only 26.7", 28" tyres can fit on SG struts without rubbing. Definitely too much negative camber. How did you fit the camber bolts, for extra neg camber or less?
 

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hi, dont the bolts just go in , then you adjust for neg or pos camber. ?
i seem a little confused.....

what i done in the begining , i fitted two adj camber bolts on each side.

then i turned em to bring the top of the wheel in as much as the bolts would allow.
but the wheels where still sticking out at the top.

then i modified the lower strut bolt hole as stated before.
( since i welded high tensile washers to strut , that increased the overall width on bottom of strut , by the thickness of the 2 washers , 4mm. so i dont think a adj camber bolt in lower hole would work,.)

then i got a m14x1.5x70mm bolt to use in the lower hole.
and used a adj camber bolt in upper hole,.

with out doing a wheel alignment , i messed around with the top adj bolt and seems to be pretty darn good .
 
Another way to get more space between tyre and strut is to fit Forester SG lateral links. They are 415 mm long vs 400 mm on the Forester SF. Don't know the length on the BG Outback though.
 
If you're running 26.7" tyres with SG struts & they're rubbing, that means you have a heap of negative camber. This matches with the mods you've done, when you slotted the bottom holes you did it too much and probably added around 3deg neg camber, or more!

So what you need to do is to fit the top camber bolts to add positive camber, not add negative camber. You do this by changing the direction of the HANDLE, twisting the bolt merely changes the amount of this type of camber.

EG, HANDLE pointing IN adds negative camber, rotate the bolt to control how much negative camber you add

HANDLE pointing OUT adds positive camber, rotate the bolt to control how much positive camber you add

Please look at the diagram I posted. You need to have the top camber bolts with the handle pointing OUT to add positive camber, and rotate the bolt to control how much positive camber you add.

After you've done this you need to go get a proper wheel alignment. Please don't drive the car without an alignment, you'll scrub the tyres out way too fast plus it will be dangerous as you won't have the proper handling

I make lift kits for Subarus. I deal with this kind of thing all day long, every day. Having any car, esp a Subaru, properly aligned makes a massive difference to the handling. If it didn't we wouldn't bother putting so much effort into the design of the camber & caster offsets, etc
 

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got wheel spacers , now the tires are leaning in at the top. it DID SEEM the holes i modified where goin to be ok. so got one strut of , removed the weld and washers , just gotta repoosition the lower bolt hole closer to its origional condition. will let ya know how it goes...
 
all done !!!!! ( lift )

hi, finally finished my lifted 1998 outback.

i used :
sg forester struts
sg forester raised 1 inch king springs
sg forester flexable brake hoses
2 rear flexable brake hose retainer clips from a mitsubishi magna
2 inch strut top spacers
2 inch rear control arm spacers
20mm hubcentric wheel spacers spacers for rear.

and ebay special camber adjusting tool.

on the rear my first attempt to modify the lower rear strut holes was WAY too much. so i removed the washers and welded new ones in about 2mm from the original factory hole. ( approx 2 mm , i cant quiet remember, forgot to write it down.,)
you can see by the hand drawn sketch where the original washer was welded.
this helped alot with a adj cam bolt in the upper hole only. i doubt a adj cam bolt would work with the washers welded in the lower hole.
using the camber gauge i had camber either way + and -.

wheel spacers HAD to be used with the rear . even after the back was finished the tyres still rubbed on the strut . i could have maybe used 10 or 15mm wheel spacers, i got plenty clearance anyways.

with the front struts no mods needed. used the factory adj cam bolt with a aftermarket adj cam bolt. again had adj either way of 0 camber.

due to the lower arms front and rear being on more of a angle i had to make new sway bar end links. so i orded nolathane bushing kits and got some suitable thick walled pipe , 16mm solid rod and a pipe cutter,. pipe cutter makes a faster and alot neater job cutting the metal pipe for nolathane bushes.

made new end links all round , not real pretty but stronger than the plastic original ones. and functional.
i used sg forester flex brake lines so i didnt have to mess around just zippy tying the lines.
i didnt have the clip retainers for the rear so ( the factory ones where too narrow in the slot ) so i ended up getting some from a mitsubishi ( wedge shaped ) magna. they fitted perfect.

for some reason one front flex brake line would sit in its natural position , and the bolt hole wouldnt line up so i welded a little bracket.

the brakets for the abs wires needed a little bending and so did the metal brake lines for added clearance.

i removed the front cv shafts and dissasembled them and repacked them with moreys big foot grease . its SUPER sticky and may help with longetivity of joints.,
in the pic you can see what cv boots i used. stretch ones for outer and silicone ones for inner , this also may help to prolong life of cv boots.
took it in to get wheel alignment front and rear and everything got adjusted perfect.
took alot of time but i did it all by meself.!

mark k
 
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Nice work mate. It looks good with the XV wheels. Just out of curiosity, why did you not use the factory Outback shocks? As far as I could tell the factory BG rear struts have the most travel of pretty much any factory strut, plus plenty of spring perch clearance. I was considering putting the rear BG struts up front, they're so long I don't think they'd need a strut top spacer and of course they have heaps of travel.
 
hi, i think the sg forester struts are slightly taller. and plus i got some sg forester raised king springs cheap.......so i HAD to buy sg struts ...lol
oh, forgot to add , i also have a 4EAT shift kit to put in...


mk
 
wrong shift kit.

looks like my shift kit install wont be done for a while... i need shift kit for R4AXEL . not the trans with the 3 ? 4 ? solenoids,.
i need RE4R01A-HD2 shift kit for my trans
mk
 
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