custom lift

[htc]

Don't forget pics!

What he said!!

[Micro Mudder]

took the pic when i went to kansas city to see the family

lifted.jpg

[Micro Mudder]

my starter went out on it the other day too making my build a bit slower and more to fix.. and i cant find out how to make the pic bigger

[kingstonpygmies]

Oh I definately want something like this for mine. Since its custom maybe you do a parts list. Or diy. I want this on mine. Keep it up looks awesome

Sent from Kingston Ga from my hillbilly handheld

[Micro Mudder]

I'll take pictures of the rear how I got it made but I'm still trying to find a cheap lift for the front cuz I only have a fue dollars in metal for the lift on the rear so I'm trying to keep the front cheap too so ill keep drawing designs on auto CAD till I get one that works the best so I might just make a converter so I can bolt on rear struts on the front so I can fit the huge tires on it so any one wanting to sell me there old rear struts get hold of me ASAP so I can finish this monster!!!!

[Movin]

Shoot, your pic blows up bigger than my screen, lookin good! Your shop foreman with the bears shirt looks like a real whip snapper!

[Micro Mudder]

Lol yea he is my little brother and he is great at handing me stuff so I don't have to get up and get it my self! and Im getting a one tun electric winch just incase I get stuck!!

[kumalaba]

kool kar

[TominMO]

so basically i need to make longer axles, custom control arms, longer tie rods, and alter the sway bar mount. so if any one has ever done this it would be nice to get a tip

There is an easier way to do this than make all those custom parts. Keep all the stock parts and use aluminum spacer blocks and longer grade 8 bolts.

Let's say you want a 6" lift. On the front suspension, your suspension lift can be done by making two brackets (one each for driver and pass. side) to raise the two lower strut bolts 6". These will have to be sturdy steel ones, not aluminum of course, and a total of four more of those lower bolts.

To keep everything else lined up without making custom steering and drive parts, drop the engine and tranny 6". You place your 6" aluminum spacer blocks, made up for you by your local machine shop, between the body and the transaxle crossmember, and bolt them in with the 6"-longer bolts. For the pass. side motor mount you will need a bracket to drop the mount 6". You will also need brackets to drop the steering rack 6", and an extended steering u-joint. That's basically it, and any machine shop should be able to make these simple parts to your specifications. You will just need to supply a u-joint for them to weld in a 6" extension.

There will be other small things you need, which will be easy to source, such as new longer rad hoses. That's probably it, but if there is anything else, like a longer coil to disty wire or a longer fuel hose, it will be easy to come up with.

I used to have a 4"-lifted 1990 Subaru Loyale 4WD. Loved it! The above description is how it was done.

Edit: to keep proper alignment and steering geomety, you might need camber-compensating bolts or some other solution. That part I will leave to other more competent members to comment on.

[Micro Mudder]

I can make all the parts easy its whether or not I can get my tires to fit with the stock front suspension that's why I want to try to get rear struts to fit on the front cuz I only have a 1/2 inch clearance between the rear wheel and shock so missing is missing and I want to be able to fit the same wheels on the front so I can weld any thang so I just needed length for the parts which I got now and its just time to build it and money and I'm cheap so I don't want to screw up and buy new parts

[TominMO]

Depends on tire width, wheel width and wheel offset, as you know. I doubt you will have fitment problems on the front. My Festy with stock front suspension has no prob with 185/60x14s on 6" wide rims. Your mods will only make it easier to fit bigger tires; but I'd try to go taller, not so much on the wider, if possible. But it would be interesting to see what you could cram under there. You might have to trim the fenders, but maybe you could get away with just flaring them.

You can't just use rear struts tho, because they mount differently. I think you will be fine by just raising the bottom of the front strut with a steel bracket. You could use rear springs with the front struts to possibly give more lift too; but they might not actually do that, since they are lower-rated and will sag more than front springs, under the greater front weight. I'd try just using the brackets first.

Another thought: if you build a bracket like I described to raise the front strut, you could set the hole spacing for a non-Festiva strut. The bottom two holes would be spaced for the Festy knuckle, but the top two could be for another car's strut, for struts that mount similarly to ours. Like maybe VW Mark I struts. The best Festy strut we can get is the KYB GR-2/Excel-G, but even better would be a KYB Gas-a-just or even more better, a Bilstein. You might have to mess with the top mounting a bit, but I doubt that would be a big deal.

[Micro Mudder]

I actually have brackets I made for the front but to put them on I have to compress the springs a little to get them to fit so ill get a spring clap thang at napa today to put the brackets in hopefully

Oh and I lied about the biggest tire I can fit on the rear is 205/75/r15 I found theses tires at the farm and they fit so im putting the 14,s up front now

[Huli]

Please post pics of the front. I have my rear lifted. The front is not high enough still. What springs/struts did you end up using? I kept topping out the festiva struts up front.

Oh yea... working on a swaybar with disconnects for the rear.

[Micro Mudder]

I actually have brackets I made for the front but to put them on I have to compress the springs a little to get them to fit so ill get a spring clap thang at napa today to put the brackets in hopefully

Oh and I lied about the biggest tire I can fit on the rear is 205/75/r15 I found theses tires at the farm and they fit so im putting the 14,s up front now

[Micro Mudder]

Please post pics of the front. I have my rear lifted. The front is not high enough still. What springs/struts did you end up using? I kept topping out the festiva struts up front.

Oh yea... working on a swaybar with disconnects for the rear.

I actually still are using stock shocks and struts and I'm using the struts topped out is how its sitting using a block I made its only 4 inches but its the highest I can go in the front with out putting longer axes and control arms ill take pictures in a little bit of what they look like and dimensions for you