Removing the body spacers on a 4th gen Outback

Has any removed the frame spacers on a BR outback? I need to do it because I blew 3 of my axles. Rightfully so lol. I have legacy BR9 coilovers, upper rear legacy control arms, adjustable rear lower control arms, adjustable lateral links and adjustable trailing arms. My axles gave up on me and I can't blame them lol.

 

Heres a link to a 3rd gen outback. http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php/body-spacers-151384.html

 

I searched and didn't find any specific BR specific threads.

 

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_2.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_3.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_4.jpg

Edited October 31, 2016 by SubaruSVXCrazy

*** Part numbers are for my 14 Outback 2.5i 6MT, if you have something else use them at your own risk. I'd assume 10-14 6MT outbacks would share the same part number but don't hold me to it.

 

Okay so I was thinking, since if I move up the front subframe up higher I'd also move up the engine mounts that are bolted to it! This was the first generation with these stupid new mounts that make transmission removal a little pain in the ass. I went to the dealer today and compared between legacy and outback in the engine and trans department. I found that all three FB engine mounts (very good assumption and say EJ too) are different between Legacy and outback. So I got this print out for you guys hoping one day this thread can help someone else out. If you can see I wrote in pen numbers 1-4 on the paper. The front engine mount is on the left and the 1 transmission mount is drawn on the right. Between legacy and outback numbers 4 and number 2 are different. Number 3 and number 1 are shared between both of them. Keep in mind only one transmission mount is drawn representing for the right and left sides. This makes a total of three engine mounts, one front engine mount (part# 41032AJ20A), left trans mount and right trans mount (part#'s 41032AJ030 and 41032AJ080).

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_5.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_7.jpg[/url]

This one is a better shot of what the larger rear spacers look like. You can see it between the silver body frame rail and the black crossmember. This one is the right rear.

(part# 20176AJ01A)[/b]. And when you remove the larger outback spacers you have to replace the bolts with them because they have a larger shank on the outback bolts and if you try to reuse them you will bottom out the threads. Smaller legacy bolts (part# 901000378). I need to get another parts diagram of the front subframe and rear crossmember.

 

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_6.jpg

The 2 pictures below are the spacers for the rear crossmember. There is a total of 4 that have to be changed along with the bolts! You can see the left front larger metal spacer for the rear crossmember. These pictures aren't the best examples but they are good enough to give you an idea where the rear crossmember spacers are. In this picture it's under the silver body colored frame rail on the left. You can see its above the black crossmember that's in a shadow..

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_8.jpg

Heres a picture with the right front outback spacer. Between the blue lower control arm and the pink lateral link.

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/Mobile%20Uploads/image_4.jpg

Alright well all four axles are about to snap so its time to get this done. I'm starting with the subframe first. There's 4 round spacers sandwiched between the front subframe cradle and the body of the car. On my 2014 the front two are welded to the subframe itself and 2 (one on each side) on a stud that loosens up from the body and then you remove it and thread it all the way back in. Don't bother grinding them off because the rear subframe brackets that are welded to it are different. YOU NEED A LEGACY SUBFRAME!!!

Right now the parts that I see that are different are:

-Front Subframe

-Removal of the 2 rear metal color spacers

-Front engine mount (SOA catalog pic #3)

-2 lower transmounts that bolt to the subframe (SOA catalog pic #9)

-Steering rack universal joint

 

Now you can see that I've drawn stuff on these pictures mostly for comparison sake. L= Legacy O=Outback

 

Here's the lower trans mount brackets. See the height difference?

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/44CEECE2-5F51-4ECF-B8EC-46D5CE880285.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/DB7D1D64-A7C3-4B2C-8DE6-E7F1B2E76B75.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/BF5B714F-25D3-46FF-8F28-5B1CB728DE7B.jpg

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/1D752F73-9F7F-4EA5-B64B-83DADC5E1751.jpg

These rubber pillow mounts are the same. (SOA catalog pic #7)

http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg107/subarusvxcrazy/C8099578-3722-47BB-A2ED-8B551A8AACD7.jpg

I just want to comment and say how goddamn beautiful you car is. A USDM BR9. God it looks better than I could have imagined it.

Nice work! Beautiful car!

 

I'm going to move this out of the media section into the 5th Gen Legacy section....cuz it's a 5th Gen Legacy now.

Following

 

 

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Thank you guys. Sorry gteaser, thanks. I've got it back together and man was it a roller coaster and I'm waiting for time to get another axles because the 2 from duralast that I've got had problems and for some reason they don't stock front axles for these cars when there's a million of them on the road. Well actually now that I think of it they are manual specific lol...

 

There was so much trial and error and head scratching. I was second guessing this at some points of this project lol. I took pictures I just gotta take the time to go through it and organize it. Even after that I still haven't got it on the ground yet to check to see if my alignment angles changed. I can assume the will lol. Then it needs an inspection. At some point I'll make a build thread of the whole thing just to document the whole car. The average person would never think of any modification besides the cat back and coilovers lol.

Edited October 31, 2016 by SubaruSVXCrazy

Its beautiful. Plans to GT swap it and make it the 5th gen GT wagon the US never got?

Yeah the plan was to diesel swap it but then I got a house lol

As far as axles go, I would stick with Remanufactured OEM axles directly from Subaru. They are not that expensive. Aftermarket replacement axles always seem to be an issue on Subarus.

Yeah I thought about it but Autozone is selling duralast aka rebadged a1cardone axles. Yeah they may suck but they are lifetime warranted for a little over 100 bucks a piece with a commercial account lol. Figure I change an axle once every other diff service in doing good lol. It ain't hard at all. In the front it's just the lower ball joint and the axle nut and the axle pops out you know? Yeah the rears are a little more challenging but if they back up the lifetime warranty I'd say it's worth it lol. I'm keeping this thing for the long haul. Put in way too much work and just way to special to sell imo. Edited October 31, 2016 by SubaruSVXCrazy

I'm not a frequent poster on the forums but have lots of engine, tranny, brake and suspension tuning on my Outback and finally have some free time to share some info. When converting the rear to Koni coilovers with the Koni perches on WRX shocks, I lowered the rear somewhere around 3". Camber went from the factory setting (which I neglected to measure but assume was around 0.7*) to an average of 1.8*. I wasn't entirely happy with the resulting tire wear over 20,000 miles, nor with the bad camber curve from having the lower control arms parallel to the ground, nor the reduced rear ground clearance because of the low subframe. So as SubaruSVXCrazy did, I swapped spacers and bolts, and camber was reduced to negative 1* with only a tiny increase in ride height (because I changed the location of the suspension lever arm but not the pivot point at the coilover). Legacy / WRX / BRZ upper control arms are required for body clearance with the change in subframe height but are identical in length to each other and to the stock Outback control arm based on the measurement jig I built to measure all of them. I used WRX / STI subframe reinforcement plates instead of the Outback specific ones for the forward subframe mounting points and a Kartboy / Torque Solutions XL / long exhaust hanger to hold the exhaust at the correct height now that the hanger is raised about and inch and a half from stock. Mission accomplished. The change in driveshaft length is inconsequential and the half shafts are still well within their normal range. Some pictures are attached below. Just a boring Legacy rear suspension, now!

The issues with aftermarket axles go much farther than just durability issues. They tend to cause inexplicable issues with noise and vibrations. If you get a good set I would be hesitant to change them for another just because. I have never needed a new axle on my subies. A couple cv boots, but that is it.

Hey man I know this thread is ancient but I’m planning the same swap. I’m bummed to learn that the subframes are so different

thanks for all the info you posted but I can’t see any of your photos on photobucket. Can you help me out?