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can't get rear of 85 rx lifted HELP


hende
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I was hoping someone on this board could help me get my RX's rear lifted.According to my haines manual it is a simple affair of turning a adjuster nut but I can't get it to turn.Any help anyone could give me wold be very appreciated.Hende.

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throw that manual away. =]

i think only the older style subarus had the single nut in the middle that you can turn for the rear lift.

all of the ea82s (like your rx) i have seen have adjusters built into the strut, and require turning a very large part on the strut, at the bottom of the spring.

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Yep - the EA82 rear has no torsion bar, and thus no nut. You may or may not have adjustable rear coil-overs. Not sure about the RX's specifically, but many EA82's didn't have them (I use them on the rear of the EA81's for more suspension lift, and have trouble finding the adjustable ones sometimes). And many aftermarket designs don't either. So if they have been replaced, you may have to find some Subaru ones.....

 

You have to remove and dismantle the strut to adjust them usually - since they are usually pretty stuck with dirt and crud.

 

GD

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Does any one know if there is an east way to distinguish between adjustable and non adjustable? I am helping Hende work on his car (wow 2 sube guys in Rapid City who don't know what they are looking for) or at least trying to but I just got my first EA82 car yesterday and am not fimiliar with them.

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I got mine all the way up on my GL, then took them off. To raise them, you need to take the wheel off, compress the spring somehow (I used vicegrips and copper wire) then cover everthing with penetrating oil and pound the snots out of the spring landing. You can hit it from the bottom from the front and the back. It helps a lot if you have a metal weight to hold against the bottom opposite of where you're hitting it. Doing it with them off the car would probably be easier, and its only 3 bolts to remove them. The top ones were a pain, you may need a breaker bar (my 1/2 inch imact driver at 100psi wouldn't move them) They provide about 1 to 2 inches lift. The manual makes it sound much too easy, mine said the same thing. the fronts are easy, you just turn the bolts sticking out of the bottom of the spring landing.

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I got mine all the way up on my GL, then took them off. To raise them, you need to take the wheel off, compress the spring somehow (I used vicegrips and copper wire) then cover everthing with penetrating oil and pound the snots out of the spring landing. You can hit it from the bottom from the front and the back. It helps a lot if you have a metal weight to hold against the bottom opposite of where you're hitting it. Doing it with them off the car would probably be easier, and its only 3 bolts to remove them. The top ones were a pain, you may need a breaker bar (my 1/2 inch imact driver at 100psi wouldn't move them) They provide about 1 to 2 inches lift. The manual makes it sound much too easy, mine said the same thing. the fronts are easy, you just turn the bolts sticking out of the bottom of the spring landing.
Wow.. that sounds like a pain.. Mine were real easy.. got a spring compresser from autozone, removed struts, compressed spring. tapped on the perch a couple times with a hammer, realigned the notches to the top position, reassembled.. took about an hour to do both.

 

Note.. it didn't become easy until I posted on the board asking how the hell do you get the darned things apart :)

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I use the spring compressor and a air impact wrench to compress the spring. Air wrench save a lot of time and effort. BE CAREFUL , GO SLOW !

 

I have two sets of rear shocks one at the stock low position and one at the middle setting. The highest setting is really stiff .I would only use it if I was carring something heavy. The low/stock height position is best for rallying I think it keeps the rear of the car inline well. You have to make it break lose. The higher setting make the backend of the car feel like it's tring to pass the front end but, you get more clearence. With the two rear shocks already adjusted I can change my ride height of the whole car in under 30 minates.

 

The front adjustable are a lot easier to adjust. You don't even need to take off the wheel. Well, easy once I learned from this board how to do it.

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