Yep. It's time for new ones for Red, the $300 94 Alpine Wagon. Any recommendations on brand / model? BTW, It's a stock suspension. Also, what bone-yard springs would fit to make the suspension a bit stiffer?

Edited January 24, 201016 yr by Sonicfrog

Yep. It's time for new ones for Red, the $300 94 Alpine Wagon. Any recommendations on brand / model? BTW, It's a stock suspension. Also, what bone-yard springs would fit to make the suspension a bit stiffer?

I'm a firm believer that the KYB GR-2s are the best bang for the buck. Also they are common enough that one can get them for a decent price if you shop around.

 

As to stiffening up the suspension, find a bone yard model with significantly less miles on it than yours.

you can find a lot of suspension information about the 1st gen legacy on http://bbs.legacycentral.org

 

In my personal experience the GR2s will raise your front suspension about 1in. For stiffer springs, I tried some front springs from an 97 OBS and it did stiffen the front end without increasing the ride height.

I put KYB-GR-2's on the front of my '90 legacy wagon. Pretty happy with them so far. I got them for around $130 for the set from RockAuto IIRC (they were closeout sale or something odd like that).

 

The old ones were so bad (zero damping....) that the oil pan and y-pipe and transmission cross member was full of dents from hitting the ground (rocky half mile driveway to my friend's house who I bought it from... though I could go up her driveway even with the completely shot struts without bottoming out though I did have to use precise throttle to counteract bouncing at times). Now it'll cruise at 80 on the highway if you floor it and feels really smooth. And, it does look like it may have raised it a tad, but hard to tell for sure.