The ever important torque specs

 

You need to get your vehicle up on jack stands and remove the front wheels. Next remove the plastic guard and subframe- no pics of this, but pretty self explanatory- the subframe has two 12mm bolt heads up front followed by 6 (3 to a side) 17mm bolt heads and then four 14mm bolt heads (two to a side).

Remove the sway link bolt at the top (you can leave the lower attached to the arm if your using a different link or remove completely if reusing the stock links)

It's 14mm

 

Next remove the bolt that hold the ball joint into the knuckle it's 14mm also

 

Suspension tech tip- use 6 point sockets and wrenches, many of the components are heavily torqued and it's east to "round" a bolt head or nut- 6 point will help avoid this. Also for the 17mm and up bolts/nuts you'll want 1/2" drive stuff and if you have air available it will help too.

 

Remove the nut on the front control arm bushing (housed in the cross member). This pic shows the bolt head (the nuit is to the rear of the vehicle). Just remove the nut for now- leave the bolt.

 

Next remove the two bolts that hold the rear bushing to the chassis, they're 19mm and are on good (maybe bad depending on how you look at it- torque is 184 ft lbs!)


Front bolt

 

Another angle of the rear bushing

 

Extract the ball joint form the knuckle, you can use a hammer to tap on top of the arm to help knock it out

 

Finally remove the bolt holding the front bushing to the cross member and gently remove the arm.

If successful you should have one old arm out and a new to go in

 

Install the new arm like so

Bolt the rear bushing to the chassis, but not tight.

Install the bolt for the front bushing and temporarily tighten.

Insert the ball joint into the knuckle and torque to 37 ft lbs.

Connect the sway link to the arm and temporarily tighten

The suspension needs to be under load to tighten- that means remounting the wheels and runing it up ramps to finish tightening.

Tighten in this order sway link- 33 ft lbs

front bushing/crossmember 74 ft lbs

rear bushing 184 ft lbs!

Your done.

 

did this give you any alignment issues on your wagon, as the sedan has a wider front trac?

 

did this give you any alignment issues on your wagon, as the sedan has a wider front trac?

No problems as I used GC8 (old style WRX) arms. GD arms on a GG would be more than just alignment issues- the axle shafts are shorter on the GG as well- could cause some expensive problems.

Big Sky

 

Ok dumb question here.. what is benfit to doing this.. stronger part?

Also what year GC8 did you source these from and the cost of them?

Eric

 

Ok dumb question here.. what is benfit to doing this.. stronger part?

Also what year GC8 did you source these from and the cost of them?

Eric

basically, its stronger, so you will be able to corner harder/better. Theres probably some more pros to it to but i dont know.

And i got a question, Do the USDM STI have this part on stock, i would think they do but i never got to look under a usdm sti.

 

Ok dumb question here.. what is benfit to doing this.. stronger part?

Also what year GC8 did you source these from and the cost of them?

Eric

Not dumb. The aluminum arm is slightly lighter (~1.5 lbs)- less unsprung weight, but the main advantage is it's much stiffer. The front arm (transverse link) is just like a big bushing- the aluminum one deflects much less.

These arm can only be found off of the JDM GC8's- WRX's and STi's. I see takeoffs (used) for ~ $400 for everything, brand new is close to $800.

They are kind of hard to find (as you can imagine), but some of the bigger car importers- Gr8wheels, East Coast Scooby, others get them fairly regularly.

Big Sky

 

basically, its stronger, so you will be able to corner harder/better. Theres probably some more pros to it to but i dont know.

And i got a question, Do the USDM STI have this part on stock, i would think they do but i never got to look under a usdm sti.

The USDM STi do have aluminum control arms oem- these won't fit on the wagon, but will fit on the WRX sedan. The sedan arms are longer (wider track).

Big Sky

 

was the improvement very noticeable? did you have to adjust your alignement settings for this piece to work properly>?

 

was the improvement very noticeable? did you have to adjust your alignement settings for this piece to work properly>?

Noticable at the higher end of driving- 8/10ths+, had a set on my sedan as well. It wouldn't be the first piece I'd replace, but a improvement in performance for sure.

Definitely have an alignment done, my toe was off quite a bit after the install.

Big Sky

 

Big Sky,

You're a gift to the Subaru community. Your knowledge of all things suspension/brakes is without comparison.

psycho

 

[blushes] thank you kind sir [still blushing ]

 

ok so... yeah... i'm mid install. and you said to 'tap' the ball joint out of the hub with a hammer. well i'm smaking the chit out of it and its not coming out. what am i missing here? i removed the 14mm bolt to loosen the hub's grip on the ball joint but lets face it, we're dealing with a solid piece of cast iron here.
any help right away would be really appreciated.
thanks,
bryan

 

take a small pry bar or very large screw driver and slip it into the slot and gently pry open- then tap on top of the arm. That should do it

 

its cast iron!!
i took a screwdriver and pryed a bit until i heard a cracking sound. hopefully it was the screwdriver but i dont see any damage to it.
i've been smacking the crap out of the thing and its just not budging. thumbs down to crappy design.
please check this thread or your PMs regularly today becuase i really need my car back together asap!
thanks for the help so far, if you have any other ideas please let me know.
thanks,
bryan
p.s. is the ball joint the same on the stock wrx as the spt control arms? if so i could leave the ball joint in place and just replace the arm itself? just another option if i cant figure this out...

 

and i noticed you keep using the term 'tap'... dont you think 'bludgeon' or something similar would be a more accurate term to describe the action required?

 

Do you have someone that can help? Have that person put a large screw/prybar in the crack and then you "tap" on top of the arm. Might want to pb blast the thing as well- might be rusted.