legacycentral bbs

I'm confused, is the car you're looking to do this on FWD or AWD?

FWD. The only conclusive info I've found about it was your post, but you switched to the AWD stuff.

The fronts are going to be the same in perch design, and you should be able to swap between AWD & FWD, and 90-91 & 92-94 all you want. However I don't know about the perch height differences between the different years & models.

With my sedan, the FWD specific front & rear struts for the 90 sedan fit fine, and I think sat ok. The stance was a little rearward looking, but that's just how the cars look.

However I really don't know what other options you have...

OK, I'll just stick with the ones I'm supposed to use. Thanks.

So if Im reading this right, if i use 90-91 GR2's on my 1993 Turbo Wagon, im going to have a slightly lower front end but a raised rear end?

I have a buddy willing to sell me a set of GR2's from a '91 L at a price I cant pass up. They will be going in my '93 Turbo Wagon.

-Brian

Is your friends L AWD or FWD? If memory serves from when I was playing around with this, FWD front struts won't work on AWD BC/BF's. AWD to AWD swap I think your alright though.

I could be wrong.

Yeah its AWD

-Brian

ok, well i have a 91' FWD Legacy Sedan.. i did have the original struts that came on the car.. i changed them myself with GR'2s because it rode like a 72' cadillac.. anyways..

when i ordered the 91' gr's i compared the front and rears..
rear gr'2s were identical to the originals..

the front GR'2s were different.. the difference was the spring perch was 1 1/2" higher than the original.. this told me that kyb is using the awd perch hieght for the FWD struts.. which sucks i might add..

now i have to figure out how to lower the front end so its not in take off position.

its deffinitely noticeable driving down the road at 75mph, the car likes to float in the front.. on the good side i can never bottom out the car on a parking curb, speed bump, hell i can drive over a cinder block and not bottom out the front..

any ideas on how to lower the front about 2"? i'd rather have rake than take off..

When my 91 was FWD I used the GR2's all around from tirerack. I didn't have a nose to the sky problem. You might want to check the part numbers stamped into the side of the strut to be sure you were shipped the right ones. I have recieved the incorrect struts before when ordering (by the look of the packaging it had been a returned product before).

On the other hand you might be able to find a set of springs with different overall heights. I ended up with 2.5RS springs on my 91 FWD. Had to change the rear strut mounts and front top spring perch.

hi guys i keep reading post about suspension.
And right now i am so confuse and scare about fitment issues
height issues, top mount etc...


i just order legacy 92-94 strut gr-2 and wonder what spring would be great with this setup
i also have new top mount.

Okay, dead thread ressurection. After doing some extensive research on part numbers and spring perch height, I've found definitive results as to which KYB GR-2 struts have which height compared to the OEM units from a 92-94 AWD Legacy Wagon. I used the same measurement points on all of the struts measured (lowest point on the spring perch, in line with brake hose mount). Here are the results I've found:

92-94 OEM wagon front: 9.5 inches
90-91 KYB GR2 front: 9.5 inches
92-94 KYB GR2 front: 9.75 inches

92-94 OEM wagon rear: 12.75 inches
90-91 KYB GR2 rear: 12.125 inches
92-94 KYB GR2 rear: 12.625 inches


So as you can see, the difference is in the front perch height on the 92-94 and in the rear on the 90-91 (1/8 difference for the 92-94 rear doesn't produce that much noticable drop). What we've found is the best solution is to use the front GR2's from the 90-91 and the rear GR2's from the 92-94. This gives the least appearance of front lift/rear sag. I hope this helps clear up any issues. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Thanks for sharing. I'm assuming you took the measurements from the bottom of the strut shaft to the lowest point on the spring perch?

On the rear struts that was the case. On the front struts I measured in the same location, which contains a small lip for the lower spring cusion. On the front strut measurement the lip was included in the measurement, but it since I included the lip in the measurements of all of the struts the results were untampered. Even with the spring cusion lip it is the lowest point on the spring perch, anyway. I just wanted to clarify my exact measurements for those who might wish to duplicate my findings. I also have yet to find a set of 90-91 OEM struts to measure, but I would expect my findings to come up very similar to the 92-94 OEM struts since the wheel arch measurements don't show any difference between the model years.

Good deal! Thanks for the research

The kyb site says nothing about ABS or non-ABS. It is the same part # for all. Do these work on a ABS cars?

Yes, I've installed KYB GR2's on a 94 TW & SS with no problems.

BSOD2600 wrote:Yes, I've installed KYB GR2's on a 94 TW & SS with no problems.

Thanks for the info! So I'm going to pick your brain now that you have done this Which struts did you go with? The '91 fronts and '94 rears? I am looking to do springs at the same time with just a 1" drop and want it to sit slightly nose low as it does now stock. Suggestions? Thanks!

I went with the GR-2 for the '92-94. As you mentioned, slight lift from OEM, but doesn't bother me much as I'm running 16" tires and actually drive on mtn roads so the extra clearance is good.