- Front brakes:
- Cleaned up existing brake discs for semi-temporary usage. I’ll replace them down the road but they’re fine until the kit is fully finished. The pads are even in good condition with lots of material.
- Mounted the 4 piston front calipers.
- Front suspension Issues:
- The replacement ball joint I bought was poor quality and its boot didn’t transfer to the joint provided by FFR. So I am returning that one and buying a Moog one that I will either use or steal the boot off of to replace the one I tore.
- Front steering rack needs inner and outer tie rods 100%. I was hoping to wait but the threads on both the inner and outer tie rod are too rusty for me to use. Replacements ordered. It was about $90 for the set.
- The rack is mounted on the frame though! I wasn’t super impressed with the fitment of FFR’s lateral mount (seemed slightly too tall) or the clarity of the instructions regarding the spacers. It all worked in the end but could have been better.
- Rear spindles:
- Finally got the 12″ lateral link bolts out! Quite the task on old rusty spindles and something I hope I never have to do again. It seems the hard part is really them rusting/corroding onto the lateral links themselves. Mine were bent so I ended up cutting them off as I have already bought used replacements. After that, a vice and an impact were successful.
- Corrosealed and truck bed coated the spindles just like the fronts.
- I still have to remove the rusty heat shields from the rear backing plates, install the rear wheel bearings, and reassemble the e-brake. Rear suspension can go on after that 🙂
- Engine:
- Dremeled off the tabs on the injectors so I could plug the 05 STi side feed injectors into my WRX harness. Only took about 5 minutes and worked like a charm. The tabs seem to be there to prevent plug misalignment but don’t serve any locating/clipping purpose.
- Connected the waterpump to hardpipe with new hoses. All these misc. engine components are adding up 😓.
- Trying to figure out what else actually needs to happen on the engine to wrap it up. I think I have figured out the PCV system fairly well, but I haven’t really figured out where all the vacuum lines need to go or any other miscellaneous components. I’ve got a couple mystery harness plugs with nothing to plug into and in different locations a couple sensor plugs with no harness nearby. For instance, where is the cable that plugs into the PCV hose off the crankcase? It’s not on my engine harness.
- I’m posting these items on the forum to see if I can get some advice. Subaru parts diagrams for these things are pretty horrible and there’s no way to get a sense of the big picture.
- Misc:
- Cut access holes for the lower control arm rear bushings. I personally think this should be in the FFR manual because there’s no way to properly torque either of them with their recommended procedure. I will plug the 1.75″ holes I made with plastic caps.
Steering rack mounted on the frame
They don’t work yet, but they look good
My rusty tie rods
1 ball joint boot and 2 tie rods short of completed front suspension
Post-paint rear spindle
Corrosealing the rear spindles
