air suspension swap completed; Gen1 Legacy

[Guest St Nickolas]

Been ages since I've posted.

 

The 91 Legacy wagon L (FWD,5spd) is still going well at 176K.

 

The 92 Legacy wagon LS (AWD, auto) has been sitting for a bit at 99K. The air suspension was having bouts of depression. I decided it was time for a bit of surgery to convert it to the non-air suspension. The new shocks would be KYB GR-2's like the 91 has. Ordered these from Tire Rack for about $82 each plus a bit of shipping. This wagon was built in 6/91, which precedes the question pre/post 11/91 production. I don't know what the difference was between them or if it ends up being relevant on a swap.

 

A search on http://www.car-part.com for used struts headed me in the right direction. Several phone calls later and I had 3 struts at $50, and one at $25.

 

costs:

$227 KYB GR-2's

$178 three struts

$ 37 fourth strut

==========

$487

 

In addition to that I'll need a 4 wheel alignment. I had planned on taking the struts to a shop to have them swap over the components. After thinking about it, I decided this was the time to get an electric impact wrench from Sears. The wrench was $180, and the spring compressors were $31. The wrench was helpful for the install on the car as well. This job didn't pay for the wrench, but was enough incentive for purchase.

 

Now I want to locate the air compressor so I can see about using it for tire inflation. I did disable it so the car isn't hissing. Still, the HEIGHT button blinks. Anyone know how to disable that?

 

The rear airs never gave me any trouble, and I'll gladly deal on any of the 4 air struts.

 

Oh yeah, now that it is back on the road, the a/c is low and doesn't even pretend to keep up with the 90 degree temps.

 

Nick

[Guest Mike W]

Congrats on getting the swap done and aquiring a new power tool in the process. So how do you like the handling of the KYBs? Big improvement?

The previous owners of my '93 wagon spent a couple grand replacing air suspension just before selling me the car. Having that instant extra ground clearance comes in handy but the handling... oh man, it's like having marshmellows between the struts and the car.

[Guest Cougar4]

Nice to have you back again Nick. Thought you may have got trapped in some college office room somewhere.

 

I can't offer much help on your light problem. Looking at the diagram for my old '88 wagon it looks like the simplest thing to do is remove the light bulb from the switch. There is a pressure switch you may be able to bypass to make this quit but I can't tell you where to look for it. My switch was located ahead of the front tire area on the drivers side.

 

This car is gone now as my mother in law was using it and wrecked it. Now driving the '01 LL Bean. The Soob tradition lives on.

 

Glen

[Guest St Nickolas]

Thanks Cougar. From the drivers seat something blocks my view of the light so not an annoying thing, but tape may do it til I can get far enough into the manual to figure it out.

 

Tis also a good time to ride a motorcycle so I'll stay out of the 'cages' some.

 

The KYB's are very nice. I had installed them on the 91 wagon and really like them. Couldn't justify going to the more expensive adjustable ones. The 91 (FWD) really oversteers when pushed, and the tires it has aren't at all good in the rain. OTOH, the 92 (AWD) has handled well with the air/marshmallow suspension, so I'm looking for it to be really fun when the temps cool or the a/c gets fixed.

 

Nick

[LarsD]

Hi,

I need to do the same...

 

Was it just replacing the shock absorbers - I'm sorry to say - I don't know what struts is (english not my native language) In Swedish, struts is an ostrich but that doesn't seem to fit :-)

 

Could you please elaborate a little bit?

 

Tips and advice greatly appriciated.

 

Kind Reagrds

Lars Dahlberg

 

Been ages since I've posted.

 

The 91 Legacy wagon L (FWD,5spd) is still going well at 176K.

 

The 92 Legacy wagon LS (AWD, auto) has been sitting for a bit at 99K. The air suspension was having bouts of depression. I decided it was time for a bit of surgery to convert it to the non-air suspension. The new shocks would be KYB GR-2's like the 91 has. Ordered these from Tire Rack for about $82 each plus a bit of shipping. This wagon was built in 6/91, which precedes the question pre/post 11/91 production. I don't know what the difference was between them or if it ends up being relevant on a swap.

 

A search on www.car-part.com for used struts headed me in the right direction. Several phone calls later and I had 3 struts at $50, and one at $25.

 

costs:

$227 KYB GR-2's

$178 three struts

$ 37 fourth strut

==========

$487

 

In addition to that I'll need a 4 wheel alignment. I had planned on taking the struts to a shop to have them swap over the components. After thinking about it, I decided this was the time to get an electric impact wrench from Sears. The wrench was $180, and the spring compressors were $31. The wrench was helpful for the install on the car as well. This job didn't pay for the wrench, but was enough incentive for purchase.

 

Now I want to locate the air compressor so I can see about using it for tire inflation. I did disable it so the car isn't hissing. Still, the HEIGHT button blinks. Anyone know how to disable that?

 

The rear airs never gave me any trouble, and I'll gladly deal on any of the 4 air struts.

 

Oh yeah, now that it is back on the road, the a/c is low and doesn't even pretend to keep up with the 90 degree temps.

 

Nick

[Gnuman]

The suspension on a Subaru uses 4 McPherson Struts. Most modern Front wheel drive cars (at the very least) use two of these, as well as the older Shock Absorber system. Older cars use 4 of the Shock Absorber combinations. Shock Absorbers are called "shocks" in vernacular, and McPherson Struts are likewise called "struts", so as not to confuse the two technologies.