Fitting Light weight front wishbones and ALK kit advice?
 

Hello
Am fitting a whole raft of goodies to save on costs with the garage managed to pick up for my classic facelift 1999 subaru impreza turbo :

STI alloy front Wishbones (to replace the standard heavy ones..)
Whiteline ALK kit
Whiteline Roll Centre Rods
Whiteline front and rear Drop links

Am a big time novice and with the help of my dad and some ramps fancy giving it a go but need advice on how to do it ? Pics would be very beneficial as no idea what most things are !! sorry folks and any help would be much appreciated...
Cheers,
Kris

Hi Kris,

It's not particularly hard. I will mention, though, that for the wishbones and the ALK you will not be able to fit them on the ramps, you'll need to have the front of the car on jack stands. Also, make sure you have the little steel cones that come with the alloy wishbones.

No pictures of my install, unfortunately, but once you get under there it's really straight-forward. The lower wishbones are effectively attached at three points: the front bushing (just remove one nut and bolt), the rear bushing (since you're replacing it with the ALK just remove the two rather large bolts that are threaded upwards into the chassis, reuse the bolts) and the lower balljoint. With the latter it depends on whether you're replacing them with the WL ones. If not - remove the split pin and undo the nut at the bottom and use whatever you can - a balljoing separator of some sort would be really handy - to get it out of the lower wishbone. If you're replacing the balljonts you'll need to get them out of the knuckle which can be quite a job. To start with, the bolts that hold them in place have snapped on me and it's a real pain to get them out so make sure you use plenty of anti-seize spray and tap the bolts and the knuckle with the hammer to give yourself any chance at all. With the bolts out the balljoints will still be probably stuck in the knockle as the design allows dust and dirt and water to get in there through the slit in the knuckle. A bit of heat, a lot of swearing and a proper puller should get you there eventually. In my case the knuckles were off the car but it was still a headache and a half. Installation is effectively in reverse order with the steel cones used between the wishbone and the balljoint. Use new split pins.

Drop links - depends on which ones you have but in most cases it's just removing the two bolts and nuts that hold each stock one and installing the WL ones instead.

Steering rods ends - just as straightforward. You loosen the locking nuts on each side, remove the split pin and nut that hold the end in the knuckle, hold the steering rod in place with a spanner and unscrew the rod end off, screw the WL end on, tighten the locking nut, insert the rod balljoint into the knuckle, tighten the nut, insert new split pin. Try to get the length of the rod and rod end reasonably close to what you had before so measure before you remove the old one but you'll need to get alignment done in any case.

Good luck!
Alex