jono Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 (edited) Hi there, I have posted this on subaruXT.com forum as well, also , thanks to Numbchux for hammering home the shock height differences with his Miata shocks depicted !! Over on ausubaru.com we are working on identifying factory fitted rear coil springs of XT4, and various L Series models, sedans 2WD and 4WD. 3 door and 4WD wagons. I'd like some input from this great website The factory springs always come in black We are finding colour dabs of paint added to the coil springs 2nd and third coil from the top, and suspect it is applied to identify which set up it is for factory assembly, as to what spring rate and shock rate/ length it is made up for. The top brackets of some also have colours wiped as ID marks We have found wire thicknesses of 9.90mm and suspect this is for rear of FWD sedans and possibly FWD XT4.Free height 285mm Have found one of these, it has one orange paint dab next wire thickness up is 10.40mm with a yellow paint dab, free height of 285mm, suspect these are from 4 the door RX as we have about four or five confirmations. Uploaded with ImageShack.us The rest seem to be 4WD wagon rear springs with not one colour dabs but two. Green / orange and pink (faded red?) /orange. They are 10.80mm wire thickness Uploaded with ImageShack.us Confusion sets in when looking at FSM with specs indicating we in Oz, got either 160lb/in springs for all sedans or 196 lb/in for all 4WD wagons. We did not get FWD wagons as far as I know, nor did we get 3 door sdans . hatchies. Our listngs show your 3 door hatchies got 180 lb/in springs - giving us 3 different rated springs for the L Series and XT. By specs, we in Oz should only ever had two spring ratings and we now have found three different wire sizes so likely three different spring ratings. The RX turbo sedans with four doors got shocks with valve ratings near twice as hard as all other shocks in the range, OK, twice sedans, 30% more than wagons.Starting to think our Aus delivered RX got same 180lb/in springs your 3 door 4WD hatchies got without the factory manual writers being told! At least two US based RXs have confirmed yellow dab springs. I wonder if 3 door RXs and 4WD 3 door owners can confirm they also have yellow dab springs?? We also got rear shocks with 3 differient heights between bottom bolt hole and coil seat - this gives a spring a different working rate and different ride height. We got 130mm, 142mm and 154mm. Also with early 85 models we got 140mm with adjustable 15mm steps up to 155mm and 160mm What I would like from the rest of the Subie world is for you to swing underneath the back end , or sift through your spares and let us know if you have factory black coils fitted, what model year and type of vehicle FWD or 4WD, sedan, wagon, hatch or XT and importantly what colour paint dab, one or two Thanks heaps Jonno Edited August 28, 2011 by jono Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T'subaru Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Here are the spec's listed in the '89 fsm although there are no references to paint colors on the coils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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