Here's a copy and paste dump of my build/project thread from another forum.
As much as I hate the word "hoon" I thought the name would be a fitting title for the car.
I bought the 97 Outback Sport last week, but haven't had much time to look it over and see what needed to be fixed until today. It's a 230k+ mile 2.2 auto car.
The purpose for the car is going to be to put together a capable, decently fuel efficient daily driver that can get the job done when I don't need to drive my truck.
So far the things that stand out to be fixed are both rear drums need to be replaced, as does the left rear hub and possibly linkages. The brakes had their lines cut and are now trash. The hub was the victim of hitting a curb. I could drive it for now without fixing the hub, but it's scary to drive the thing just up the road, let alone in traffic, with no rear brakes.
I'm on the hunt for hubs and brakes, or just a hub and brakes. I don't know a lot about these older cars, so I don't know what will swap over.
Other than that, I will probably make some custom adjustable lateral links for the rear and might modify a trailing arm to get the wheel centered back up in the wheel well. I can't run the Grabbers in the rear until that's done because the tire hits the corner under the door.
A short list of needs/wants:
Battery
Battery cable
Front turn signals
Mirrors
Fix hood latch
Fix dome light
Mount rear sway bar
Space front struts for more tire/fender liner clearance
Skid plate
Light bar
Lights
Roof basket
Muffler
Mud flaps
Fix fender
Intake
CB
Compressor
Horn
Figure out how to get the keyless working, and find a fob.
Here is the car as it came. It is on Forester struts, stock OBS springs, and spaced 1/2 to 5/8 with washers on each top hat.
You can see how far out the rear wheel is cambered from the borked hub and linkages.
These were included at no charge. Apparently the hard line corroded at the drum, rendering the rear brakes useless, and the fix was to remove them from the system all together.
215/65/16 General Grabber AT2 next to the car on the original suspension.
Next to the car on Forester struts and springs with no washers to add lift.
Front suspension swapped with the new tire/wheel on. The suspension raised it about 1" from where it was, and the tire lifted it about another 1.5". So, about 2" total. This will probably get a spacer between the top hat and strut tower to give a little more clearance between the tire and fender liner.
----------
I got a tip from a friend Thursday night that there was an H6 Outback and an Outback Sport at Pic-A-Part. He said he wasn't sure, but thought that both still had the rear brakes intact.
I had originally planned on just taking all the parts off of the H6 because he said the Sport was drums, but when I got there this morning I realized nothing on the H6 would work other than the rotor, caliper, and bracket. I figured it wasn't a total loss and went looking for the Outback to maybe get some body pieces and other small items from.
I finally found the Sport, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I was looking for an older model, this was a newer model. A newer model with disc rears. Disc rears that had not been touched since the car was dropped off. So, I decided to molest the rear of this car and took both rear corners off in their entirety. Apparently I did something right in the last few days and finding everything I needed in one spot was my reward.
The axles ended up not fitting the rear diff of the car, but it's not a total loss as I can just hold on to them for the WRX.
This is after spacing the trailing arm bracket down 1". I would definitely like more clearance in this area. Any suggestions on how to get more clearance?
Here are some shots of the side we got almost done today. There's still some small stuff left to do, like hook up the new brakes, but it's definitely getting there.
----------
I've been working on this thing and have been able to cross a lot of stuff off of my list so far. I still have some stuff left that I would like to do though.
What I've done so far:
Battery
Battery Cable
Adjust Hood
Replaced radio with 02 WRX radio
Replaced speakers with 02 WRX speakers
Lucas trans treatment
Seafoam
Forester Struts
Forester Springs
Forester Trailing Arm Brackets
Swap rear hubs/drums to discs
General Grabber AT2 215/65/16 tires on 02 WRX wheels
Wired headlights for 4 high
It really feels like I have gotten a lot more done than that, but I guess some of that had a lot involved to get it done.
Suspension is finally done though (for now) and just needs to be aligned. I say for now, because I would like a couple more inches out of it, but I'm to the point where a body lift is needed to keep everything kosher.
Decided (found) that one side needed a wheel bearing, so I went ahead and took both hubs off to have them done at the same time. The hubs came off with surprisingly no issues other than needing to drill out the tie rod end cotter pin on both sides. While the hubs are out I am going to replace both lower ball joints and outer CV boots. I have a new set of brake pads to throw in there too while everything is apart.
While I am waiting on the bearings and seals to come in, I decided to do a little work elsewhere on the car. First thing was to knock more and more dirt out from underneath the damned thing. I would venture a guess that 20+ pounds has been knocked out from underneath this thing so far. It's not that I don't mind a dirty car, it's just much easier to work on everything when it's not caked with dirt.
It also has 100% more skid plate now.
The front holes in the radiator support were trash and I had a hell of a time re-tapping them. I didn't trust the threads to be semi-repeatedly used when I need to take the plate off for oil changes, so I made a bracket to stay bolted in place that has good threads on it for the skid plate to bolt to. This also helped dropped the front of the skid plate down.
----------
Slowly but surely getting small stuff on this thing taken care of.
I decided to look into why the rear wiper wasn't working and think I found the reason (or nine) that the rear wiper, and apparently everything else on the hatch, wasn't working. In searching I came across one or two posts where people had the same issue with the wires breaking. I had already found and fixed the broken washer fluid line on the other side, but when I took a quick look at this side it wasn't as obvious that the wires were broken and I had overlooked it. This seems like it would be a common problem though, so remember this.
The wires were a pain in the dick to get soldered back together too. There wasn't much room to work with and the wires didn't want to take any solder.
----------
Now with 100% more redneckedness.
As much as I hate the word "hoon" I thought the name would be a fitting title for the car.
I bought the 97 Outback Sport last week, but haven't had much time to look it over and see what needed to be fixed until today. It's a 230k+ mile 2.2 auto car.
The purpose for the car is going to be to put together a capable, decently fuel efficient daily driver that can get the job done when I don't need to drive my truck.
So far the things that stand out to be fixed are both rear drums need to be replaced, as does the left rear hub and possibly linkages. The brakes had their lines cut and are now trash. The hub was the victim of hitting a curb. I could drive it for now without fixing the hub, but it's scary to drive the thing just up the road, let alone in traffic, with no rear brakes.
I'm on the hunt for hubs and brakes, or just a hub and brakes. I don't know a lot about these older cars, so I don't know what will swap over.
Other than that, I will probably make some custom adjustable lateral links for the rear and might modify a trailing arm to get the wheel centered back up in the wheel well. I can't run the Grabbers in the rear until that's done because the tire hits the corner under the door.
A short list of needs/wants:
Battery
Battery cable
Front turn signals
Mirrors
Fix hood latch
Fix dome light
Mount rear sway bar
Space front struts for more tire/fender liner clearance
Skid plate
Light bar
Lights
Roof basket
Muffler
Mud flaps
Fix fender
Intake
CB
Compressor
Horn
Figure out how to get the keyless working, and find a fob.
Here is the car as it came. It is on Forester struts, stock OBS springs, and spaced 1/2 to 5/8 with washers on each top hat.
You can see how far out the rear wheel is cambered from the borked hub and linkages.
These were included at no charge. Apparently the hard line corroded at the drum, rendering the rear brakes useless, and the fix was to remove them from the system all together.
215/65/16 General Grabber AT2 next to the car on the original suspension.
Next to the car on Forester struts and springs with no washers to add lift.
Front suspension swapped with the new tire/wheel on. The suspension raised it about 1" from where it was, and the tire lifted it about another 1.5". So, about 2" total. This will probably get a spacer between the top hat and strut tower to give a little more clearance between the tire and fender liner.
----------
I got a tip from a friend Thursday night that there was an H6 Outback and an Outback Sport at Pic-A-Part. He said he wasn't sure, but thought that both still had the rear brakes intact.
I had originally planned on just taking all the parts off of the H6 because he said the Sport was drums, but when I got there this morning I realized nothing on the H6 would work other than the rotor, caliper, and bracket. I figured it wasn't a total loss and went looking for the Outback to maybe get some body pieces and other small items from.
I finally found the Sport, but it wasn't what I was looking for. I was looking for an older model, this was a newer model. A newer model with disc rears. Disc rears that had not been touched since the car was dropped off. So, I decided to molest the rear of this car and took both rear corners off in their entirety. Apparently I did something right in the last few days and finding everything I needed in one spot was my reward.
The axles ended up not fitting the rear diff of the car, but it's not a total loss as I can just hold on to them for the WRX.
This is after spacing the trailing arm bracket down 1". I would definitely like more clearance in this area. Any suggestions on how to get more clearance?
Here are some shots of the side we got almost done today. There's still some small stuff left to do, like hook up the new brakes, but it's definitely getting there.
----------
I've been working on this thing and have been able to cross a lot of stuff off of my list so far. I still have some stuff left that I would like to do though.
What I've done so far:
Battery
Battery Cable
Adjust Hood
Replaced radio with 02 WRX radio
Replaced speakers with 02 WRX speakers
Lucas trans treatment
Seafoam
Forester Struts
Forester Springs
Forester Trailing Arm Brackets
Swap rear hubs/drums to discs
General Grabber AT2 215/65/16 tires on 02 WRX wheels
Wired headlights for 4 high
It really feels like I have gotten a lot more done than that, but I guess some of that had a lot involved to get it done.
Suspension is finally done though (for now) and just needs to be aligned. I say for now, because I would like a couple more inches out of it, but I'm to the point where a body lift is needed to keep everything kosher.
Decided (found) that one side needed a wheel bearing, so I went ahead and took both hubs off to have them done at the same time. The hubs came off with surprisingly no issues other than needing to drill out the tie rod end cotter pin on both sides. While the hubs are out I am going to replace both lower ball joints and outer CV boots. I have a new set of brake pads to throw in there too while everything is apart.
While I am waiting on the bearings and seals to come in, I decided to do a little work elsewhere on the car. First thing was to knock more and more dirt out from underneath the damned thing. I would venture a guess that 20+ pounds has been knocked out from underneath this thing so far. It's not that I don't mind a dirty car, it's just much easier to work on everything when it's not caked with dirt.
It also has 100% more skid plate now.
The front holes in the radiator support were trash and I had a hell of a time re-tapping them. I didn't trust the threads to be semi-repeatedly used when I need to take the plate off for oil changes, so I made a bracket to stay bolted in place that has good threads on it for the skid plate to bolt to. This also helped dropped the front of the skid plate down.
----------
Slowly but surely getting small stuff on this thing taken care of.
I decided to look into why the rear wiper wasn't working and think I found the reason (or nine) that the rear wiper, and apparently everything else on the hatch, wasn't working. In searching I came across one or two posts where people had the same issue with the wires breaking. I had already found and fixed the broken washer fluid line on the other side, but when I took a quick look at this side it wasn't as obvious that the wires were broken and I had overlooked it. This seems like it would be a common problem though, so remember this.
The wires were a pain in the dick to get soldered back together too. There wasn't much room to work with and the wires didn't want to take any solder.
----------
Now with 100% more redneckedness.
