bivywack

So it is done. I finally switched out the air suspension with some standard suspension. Lessons learned: 1. It is obvious that a shop will charge you to much for this conversion. My favorite shop, really good guys, said they could do it for me for $1150. Bah, I bought the car for $2300 for christ's sake. That's when I knew I'd be doing it myself. 2. Parts at the local wrecking yards aren't always the cheapest. Both local yards wanted $500 for a the 4 strut assemblies I needed. All in all, not that bad, but I just felt I could get them cheaper. I tried to negotiate with the yards. The conversion from air to standard was obviously too common to have any ground to negotiate from. They knew they'd be able to sell those parts to the next customer, so why lower the price for me. Can't blame them for that. I put an ad out on craigslist.org and got all my parts for only $200. They're the same as what I would've gotten from the yards. 3. No suspension sucks, and power tools rock. So I started working the suspension. Those damn self locking nuts got the better of me. I need an air compressor and an impact gun. I wasted hours trying to break those nuts free, then decided to visit a friend of mine east of here. The wagon went east, on no suspension. My air compressor wouldn't inflate the system at all anymore, so I rode on nothing. I felt like I was in a covered wagon on the Oregon trail. Every little bump bounced me all over the place, and the entire trip was on smooth interstate. Ugh, my back hurt by the time I got there. Then his impact gun took the strut-to-knuckle nut off in about .056789 secs. That was the only hard part of the job for me, and the power tool took it off faster than I could sip my beer. Well, with the right tools, the job was done in 3 hours, with a break for dinner in the middle. Easy, peezy, lemon squeezy. Thanks for all the info guys!!! For those of you looking for standard suspension to convert your air system ... put an ad out, and check the classifieds for parts cars. Mucho money savings!!!! Total cost: $208 Strut/spring assemblies = $200 Half rack of Rainier Beer = $8

It should be pretty easy if you swap the entire assemblies out. If you piece it together it'll be a little more work and you have to pay attention to the mating parts to ensure you buy the right combos (strut, spring, top mount, etc.). Click here for some good search results: http://bbs.legacycentral.org/search.php?mode=results

That should help a bit, since I'm looking to swap out the entire assemblies. Thanks.

pffffffffft! I was driving home on Friday, and the rear passenger air strut, that I've aptly named shifty (due to it's behavior), can now be called shifty-no-more. I pulled into my parking garage and it hissed till it was flat. I'm going to switch out these crappy air struts for some standard suspension, something I should've just done when shifty started shifting. My Legacy wagon is a 94, and I may have a line on some parts cars. None of these are a 94, but I'm assuming if it's a 90 - 93 the suspension parts should match my 94. Is this right, or am I assuming too much? Also, if anyone near Seattle has a complete set of strut assemblies (non-air) that fits a 94 legacy, let me know.

New to forum, first post, need advice please A DUI drunkard totaled my vehicle on Saturday ... thank god no one was injured. I settled with my insurance company, and after paying my remaining debt, I have a few thousand to play with. I'm looking at a 94 Legacy Wagon Ti AWD this evening for $2700, 190K miles(http://seattle.craigslist.org/car/84359332.html). Ad says it's clean and in great running condition. Price looks reasonable compared to Blue Book. I talked with the owner, and he knows his vehicle ... not a gaper. The skinny: front axle replace a couple years back original clutch, clutch cable adjusted regularly and everything still functioning well. Don't know about wear. tires good brakes good Everything functions Owner mentioned that the suspension for the Ti uses "air ride" shocks, which, if they need to be replaced costs about $1000. Any input on this year/model and the issues above? In your experience, would the clutch and shocks need to be replaced soon, and if so how much?? Thanks, B