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87 XT air suspension swap


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I am working on a friend of mines car its a 87 xt GL-10... the original air suspension is busted. he brought it somewhere and they installed aftermatket air suspension i think from a truck and did a bunch of other things with the wiring so that pretty much threw out me trying to repair the original air suspension... but i believe its to much for the car when he drove it he said it was bouncing all over the place. So I drove it to my house with defalted shocks... THAT was a fun ride... never laughed so hard in my life... anyway i want to remove it completely and i have been sitting on the forums reading thread after thread and im sooo confused... with EA82,xt, xt6 this and that... i just want to know what suspension do i have to use to convert it to regular struts. and is there anyway to "trick" the computer so the the dash board isnt going nuts. Thank you in advance..

Edited by makipsee
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Hi,

 good  questions.  in the short sence xt6 front struts DON"T fit the car you're working on at all,,  the rears will,   but only 2wd xt6 had spring shocks and struts, all 4x4 xt6 had air suspension originally.     any of the ea82 cars, wagons, xt's, coupe,  series will fit both ends of your friends car,, .. now is the rub,,  if the car you're working on is a 4-wheel drive type, you will need to source  the rear shocks & springs etc from a  4-wheel drive  car, wag, coupe 3 dr.   if you buy new rear shocks  the springs and seats etc can work on them from either a 2wd or a 4x4 setup but it is better to have the correct ones,,   on the front same thing applies,, any ea82 series car, wagon , xt , coupe 3dr etc  will fit on your friends xt,, but the 4x4 versions sit higher, so you want to source the version that matches your friends car, unless you intend to change the ride height , up or down depending on choice of parts.

  as for the dash , once all the stuff is un-plugged and disconnected the lights should go off , if not you can unplug the air system control computer, i think it's under the pass front seat or that lower sill panel , when  you get to there we can get it's location nailed down for sure.

  just find any ea82 setup that is like what your friends car is,, either 4x4 or 2wd,, because if you put 2wd rear shocks on a 4x4 it will raise the rear about 3"-4" , otherwise it fits but the shocks are different length,  same thing with fronts but not as drastic.

Edited by ruparts
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he said when there was 40 psi in it it was bouncing like crazy still... and when i first looked at the car there was like 20 psi and it was like on the ground.... i will try jacking the pressure up but does anyone know what the psi should be around on average?

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A comfortable air ride pressure should be 35-40, not sure why his would be bouncy at that pressure. We had air ride in my gti and it got harsh at 60. The less pressure the more comfortable, until you start bottoming out the struts/shocks. Sounds to me like the air struts were designed for a vehicle much heavier.

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thanks for the quick reply... my next problem.. what is a xt6 and ea82? lol and the car i am working on is a awd 5spd 2 door coupe

 

85-89 DL or GL, wagon, sedan, 3 door

 

90-94 Loyale all.

 

Any regular XT  (4cyl, not XT6, not GL-10)

 

XT6 is 6cyl version and completely different hub/knuckle attachment and most all were air suspension anyhow.

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  • 4 years later...

This thread appears to be the best place for me to ask. I recently picked up an 89 XT6 that someone has already removed the air suspension from. I have no idea what the donor car was, but the rear sits about 2" higher than the front, and I'd like to raise the front to match. Can anyone tell me which of the possible front struts give the most ride height? If I can't correct it by replacing the struts, I'll be building upper mount spacers to compensate. Rather do it without that, however. Being an XT6 it already has 5-lug hubs etc. Any guidance would be helpful, thanks!

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26 minutes ago, longtimeacoming said:

This thread appears to be the best place for me to ask. I recently picked up an 89 XT6 that someone has already removed the air suspension from. I have no idea what the donor car was, but the rear sits about 2" higher than the front, and I'd like to raise the front to match. Can anyone tell me which of the possible front struts give the most ride height? If I can't correct it by replacing the struts, I'll be building upper mount spacers to compensate. Rather do it without that, however. Being an XT6 it already has 5-lug hubs etc. Any guidance would be helpful, thanks!

Either way you're looking at some "custom work". 

Raise the fronts: 

A. Get a 2" lift for an EJ vehicle from SJR lifts.  He's a member here.  They will bolt right up to an XT6, same bolt pattern.  This is the easiest solution.  Just contact him and he'll set you up with the front two components only. 

B.  Install 1996-2004 outback/forester front struts, those should (recognizing we don't know what it currently has) raise the front. The mounting flange on the bottom needs spread out a little bit to fit onto the XT6 knuckle.  And the XT6 strut mount bolts will require some help to get through the EJ strut bracket and XT6 knuckle - but they will eventually go in.  Grease the threads so they slide and are less likely to get damaged on the way through, I've had to chase the threads with a die to clean them up before as well. 

C.  Get custom length coil springs to lift the front.  Numbchux has posted links to where he has bought them from, you can get any rate and length you want....although maybe not knowing what fronts you have will complicate selecting springs.  

Lower the rear:

If you get EA82 or XT6 rear struts you can flip the top mount and that will drop the rear a little bit.  This may also be helpful if, after you install front struts it's still not quite level.  This is of course assuming the "Truck air bag modification" didn't change the mounting set up and configuration. 

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Thanks, man! The XT is on the back burner until spring, too many other projects to take care of before I get to start playing with it. Once I get into it and get a better idea of what's already been done, I'll probably have more questions. Until then, I'll keep an eye out for possible replacements. My brother's buddy has a couple Foresters that are no longer on the road, I'm sure I can use them for reference or rob parts as needed. My XT is kinda rough, so I think it's just going to be a winter beater/off road toy anyway. We'll see how it goes once I tear into it. Considering I only paid $200 for it, I've got lots of room for upgrades lol

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You're set - those front forester struts will bolt right up to the front of the XT6 without any modifications.  3 12mm nuts up top and 2 17mm bolts on the bottom - that's it.  5 fasteners once the wheel is off. 

they can be tight squeezing in place though - you may have to disconnect the front sway bar bushing to get the control arm to push down far enough to install the taller strut. but once it's in and compressed it's fine.  then reconnect the sway bar. 

Edited by idosubaru
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I am an xt owner and i understand that most people simply "upgrade" to conventional struts. It must be nice to have it working, but you can't find factory parts. A working factory air compressor is probaly ebay gold! But the xt already sits sky high, with pumped up shocks they must sit extemely high but ride like a skateboard.

But i had air shocks on my camaro and i hated them looking back, but they did level her out!

My air suspension was removed long ago, and she sits level. I am not aware of any diffrence between the early and later xts suspension wise, or any L body for that matter, with the exeption of the five lug hubs.

There was a guy on here years ago that had (hopefully still has) a beautiful slammed xt and he tried the hat flipping trick and was disappointed. You get about a one inch drop and have to wallow out one of holes

@alongtimeacoming maybe someone did the hat trick on yours? No not scoring three goals but once yours is level feel free to throw your hat or a party or your gf out of bed for badmouthing your xt or whatever you want! Haha

On a side note, i am glad to see that the old gen subforum has kind of become xt central lately. I never could join that xt forum because the website was broken. 

Edited by sparkyboy
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