L series (EA82 85-94) Control arm mod for MY series (EA81 80-84, 89 Brats and hatches.)
PROJECT UNDER REVISION. PLEASE DON'T ATTEMPT THIS AS IT ISN'T WORKING PERFECTLY FOR ME.
This modification is for better suspension geometry setup and better handling. It involves shortening the L series control arms to fit the MY and fitting new custom radius rods.
First off I will explain how this mod makes your car handle better. The camber on a stock MY (Brumby, Brat, Hatchback) Subaru has about 1 to 2 degrees of positive camber. This means your wheels look like this from the front of the car \-----/ which is bad for tire wear and handling. See, when you enter a corner the weight from on side of the car is shifted to the other sides suspension thus giving body roll. When you have positive camber this means your tire around the corner is tucking itself under the car and pulling on the bead of the tire. This creates bad wear problems and also gives less rubber on the road around that corner then if it were negative camber.
The "Radius" is the angle at which the shock absorber leans to either give negative camber or positive camber while turning. On a stock setup on a MY Subaru this is set as negative. Which means while at full lock the 1 or 2 degrees on positive camber turns out to be more like 10 to 15 degrees. This really gives horrible tire wear and also can cause the bead to come unset while doing stupid stuff on sand or dirt.
If the wheel has 0 degrees of camber and the shock absorber is perfectly upright you wheel should stay upright at all times in relation to the car. But because the car will lean (body roll) into a corner you want to get more negative camber on the wheel in relation to that car so it is upright in relation to the road. Thus getting more rubber in contact with the road around sharp corners. To do this you need to set your shock absorber to have more positive radius. You can either do this by moving the top of the shock backwards in the car or move the hub forwards. I done this by changing the control arms and radius rods to move the hub more forwards. This also give a better entry angle and more clearance for larger tires. Here is how I done it.
Now for the acutal process. The EA82 control arms are longer and straighter then the EA81, as you can see in the picture.
The L series is 30mm longer when taking into consideration of the angles. Because nothing is equal, i.g my Brumby is bent, I had to make each arm a different size. The left side needed to be about 20mm longer (yes, 20mm!!!) To get the exact measurement we needed for the arm we first measured the legnth from the ball joint to the top of the strut tower. Remember, you have to do this again for the other side, both sides on mine were completely different. Then with the wheel attached and the car on the ground at normal ride height you measure 150mm on the wheels hub using a small ruler square with inbuilt spirit level, pull the bottom of the ruler square away from the wheel until the spirit level is, well, level! Now using plain steel rule measure the distance between the bottom of your 150mm mark and the wheel. This measurement, just say it be 5mm, now has to be worked out for the full legnth of the strut. For this you'll need to divide youre strut length by the 150mm then use that number and multiplie it by your gap measurement. So say strut is 720mm long then it's 720 divided by 150 = 4.8 x 5 = 24mm. So your EA81 control arm needs to be 24mm longer.
Because you only want the wheel moved forwards (this is the radius/caster mod) 25mm to 50mm you'll still want an angle on your arm. And because EA82 control arms are straight you'll need to cut and angle out of the control arm. The approximate angle you want is around 10 degrees facing backwards over what the EA82 arm is. To gain this 10degrees you will need to cut about 8-9mm more out of the rear edge of the arm then the front. This will also shorten the arm conciderible. After doing the angle wedge cut then bend the arm so the cut closes up completely. Now measure the distance between the engine crossmember mount side and the balljoint mount side of the EA81 arm and do the same with your newly bent EA82 arm. Now using the measurement we figured out you need to cut out enough of the bent EA82 arm to make them that measurement longer then the EA81 arm.
The arm then needs to be tested.You'll want to spot weld it so it doesn't twist. Bolt it in, and lower the car gentily so you don't bend it. Now do the same measurement on the wheel hub like we did before. it should now have a gap at the bottom (giving it negative camber.) You can calculate the degrees of camber by using the gap you have and the 150mm measurement your measuring and using the inv-tan function on a scientific calculator. What you need to do is divide the gap you have (just say that be 1mm) by the 150mm your measuring over. Then use the Inv button then the Tan button. This should give you 0.3819 if you use 1mm. That 0.3819 is your degrees of camber, in this case it's negative camber. Optimal negative camber for a road car is somewhere between 0.5 and 3 degrees. Some race cars go for more, but this will give badly uneven tyre wear. I've gone for the closest to 0degrees camber without being 0. This is because I don't want it to change over from positive camber to negative while turning the wheel. And the reason it goes from positive to negitive is your caster. But for now, we'll just get on with welding up the control arms.
After your cuts have been made and the arm has been tested weld along the seam of the cut. Weld the backside. Plate the it with 3 to 5mm steel for strength and weld thoughroly. It shouild look something like the image just above.
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After the two cuts were made we welded the arm back together. Then grinded it back until flat so we could fit the reinforcing plates.
For the reinforcing we used 40mm wide by 3mm thick bar steel for the top and underneath. And 25mm by 5mm thick bar steel for the sides.
Once the reinforcing was welded we got to work on the radius rods. We used the rods from a XD Ford Falcon. But really anything is easy enough to mod and fit to the Subaru. I chose the XD Falcon rods as they had a long thread which make small adjustments possible. Also they are quite a bit thicker then the standard rods which gives for some more strength.
Although these weren't the easiest rods to mod. I had to put them on the lathe to turn another 25mm of thread onto them (I done 60mm, but you only really need another 25mm.) I had to make a blank spot between the old thread and new thread as it was to hard to continue the old thread and line it all up.
Once this was done I mounted them to the car for a test run before drilling the new hole for the second bolt to hole the radius rod to the control arm. I used the original front bolt hole.
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Here is a picture of the new thread vs the old thread. The picture has been modified to show you exactly how much thread I added.



After a test fitment we took it out, drilled out the new hole for the second bolt, and then painted the custom control arms and new radius rods. After cutting off the unwanted EA82 L series anti-sway bar mounts.
We then needed to enlarge the holes for the metal plates that hole the rubber in the radius rod to gearbox crossmember joint. I didn't have a 19mm drill bit so I used a masonry bit and used plenty of WD40 to keep it lubricated and cool.
We drilled new holes in the top of the control arms and cut the hand brake cable mounts to then fit the new mounting holes.
Add about a can of spray paint to everything to stop rust. And we were almost set for installation.


As you can see in the bottom right of the before and after picture my shock absorber is now at a angle backwards. This will mean when I hit bumps the shocker can go up and backwards instead of having to push the wheel forwards to go up like it was stock.
I have also since cut the front of the fenders as there was slight rubbing.
I not have less then 1degree positive camber while on the flat and about 4 or 5 degrees of negative camber while at full lock. The handling of the car is much better feeling and I am not worried about my tires every corner. I also have enough room to fit 2" bigger tires.
2 Days after this modification was complete I took the car on a 900km round trip to a great offroad spot near Robe in South Australia. It is mostly beach and dunes. I will have a video of this trip on my site soon. It was a great test for the new parts as I got the front wheels air born more then a few times in the dunes and had no failures. It also survived some very bumpy rock crawling and over 400km of on road driving at speeds up to 110km/h.
If anything breaks, I'll update here.
NOTES:
If you want to refit the sway bar you will need to get new rubbers to fit the bigger radius rods, turn down the new radius rod, or just get a longer rod of the same size (70's and 80's honda accords look to have very similar radius rods only 2" longer.)
I have a issue with my right front drive shaft (axle) now.
When near full lock it clicks a lot. The left is fine, so I am thinking maybe the drive shaft is on it's way out. But still it shows this mod puts extra strain on the drive line in the car. Just be careful not to give the car much power near full lock.
As you might have noticed my front springs are smaller then usual. I done this with the idea of using different strut tops and moving the strut in or out to adjust the camber. My new plan is to use the same control arm adjusters Matt on AUSubaru did.
DISCLAIMER: Attempting to follow my modification is done at your own risk. This mod is most likely illegal in your area, again, do at your own risk. I do not hold any responsibility for anything of yours. Your the one cutting, live with it, or die with it, just don't come crying or tell me.