legacycentral bbs

Hello everyone, my first time here and its really nice to have a place to go to chat about our cars.. Lots of great info here from everyone.. Anyway, I have a 91 Legacy LSI with FWD and 90K miles and getting ready to replace my struts.. I ordered the KYB GR2's upon your recommendations from The Tire Rack and the price was great! What I am wondering is.. the back end of my car is sagging. I did a measurement from the center of the wheel hub to the fender edge and found that it is about 1 1/2 inches too low according to the factory service manual.. the car still has the original factory struts and springs.. the fronts measure perfectly. Will just replacing the struts correct this problem or do I need to get new springs too? I really don't want to replace the strut mounts to keep costs down, so If I need to replace the springs.. where can I get the Whitelines? Thanks much!

Glen

Springs hold the car up. The struts keep the car from bouncing like a trampoline on the springs. So you do need springs.

You can try just replacing the struts....it'll probably help a little, but not significantly.

If you want to replace springs with whitelines, you will need the tapered ones in the rear. If you do whitelines.....you really should get new top mounts. Stiffer springs and soft top mounts will give you a bouncy ride.

Adam @ z1 performance www.z1auto.com has sti ones for $45 a piece.

If you don't have the budget to do it right. I'd suggest trying to get a set of used springs or something to hold you over until you can get the whitelines and sti top mounts.

I got my whitelines from teagues auto www.boxer4racing.com

I had to do some talking with whiteline & MRT directly as MRT does not have their shiat together.....or didn't at that time. I waited a good 6 months for my springs.

You might even have better luck ordering directly from whiteline. Whiteline tech support has been nothing but outstanding.

Thanks for your help guys.. Makes sense to replace top mounts too while I got things apart. I have a question on the ID measurements for the springs.. I just tried to measure the bottom of the rear spring by placing the end of the ruler in the center of the strut body to the outer edge of the bottom coil on the spring.. I came up with about 3 7/8 to 4.0 inches. PDM has two size choices. I used an online metric converter to get the inch value. Their 70368's convert as 95mm to 3.74in for top ID and 138mm to 5.43in for bottom ID.. I measured as seen in another post by placing one end of the ruler in the center of the strut body and measured to the outside edge of the bottom coil seated in the bottom mount on the strut. Seems really off by 1.43in.. Could I be measuring wrong?

Thanks much,

Glen

These are the whiteline spring part numbers I used with my 90

Part Numbers:
Front: 74502
Rear: 70368

My measurements for the stock springs were approx 90mm for the top and 138mm for the bottom

Whiteline specs say

(*) - Check top and bottom I.D. of the original spring.
If top I.D.=125mm and bottom I.D.=141mm then use part# 70369.
If top I.D.=95mm and bottom I.D.=138 then use part# 70368.

I've been doing some thinking this weekend on the spring replacement.. If I could find a less expensive pair of the fatter springs and get new top mounts, would I still be able to use the GR2 struts that I ordered for my 91? I was thinking about getting a newer set of low mileage springs from an Impreza or WRX and try those.. . The GR2's are already shipped and on their way and was wondering if the bottom spring mount on the new struts would work with springs from an Impreza or WRX diameter wise or would I have to reorder struts to fit Impreza springs.. Any thoughs??
Thanks much!

OK... just found a set of WRX sedan spring/strut set for sale.. so all I would need is the rear top mounts? Thanks much!

Glen,

You're really going to run into issues with putting an impreza spring on a wagon. especially a FWD one. The spring rates on the wagon are higher in the rear to support the weight. Even normal impreza springs on a legacy sedan can be a little light.

Also with the different lower mount in the rear.....IMO....you're just asking for headaches. You'll probably get them to physically fit, however you won't be happy with the results.

WRX sedan springs for the rear are a little different then previous setups. I don't recall if it's just in the top mount portion or the spring too.

The GR2's should work with other springs out there......but like I said, I don't think you'll be happy with the results.

If you do decide to swap to a later model spring that is not tapered, you will need new top mounts for the rear, and the spring hat that goes with those top mounts.

So my 91 turbo will have the tapered rear springs, correct? If I get a pair of STI strut top mount, will then I have to use the non-tapered, later legacy springs? I thought that changing the strut tops was all one needed to do to run the non-tapered rear springs. Can anyone tell me how to change to non-tapered? Is there any point to it? And if I want non-tapered and sti tops? Much thanks...oh yeh, anyone know if the KYB agx's are really plug and play for our cars? I have heard yes, but noone ever lists them as fitting non-imprezas.
Much thanks
Micum

Your 91 should have tapered springs.

You can get sti top mounts for the tapered springs.

To use the non-tapered springs you need a new top mount, and a new top hat that holds the spring, and any misc washers, rubber spring holder or whatever is there.

I don't really know if there's any good reason to swap over to the non-tapered setup. The only reason i can think of is your spring options open up more.

As long as you have AWD, which you do, the AGX's should work. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't. They make a set for the 92 legacy

Actually my car is a sedan.. I guess I never mentioned it.. oops! Anyway, I just added that on my signature. In all honesty, I am not really trying to lower the car with lowering springs.. I am pretty much just intersted in stock. I just called 1stSubaruParts and they ran a check on the stock rear springs for the car and have only 1 left in the entire USA in all six warehouses.. They would have to order one from Japan and said that may at best be iffy So what I guess I am trying to do is open up my options and find a more available fatter spring to use that I could find for less $$ and not have the Whitelines as my only option. I am sure they are great springs but just not what I want for my purposes. My new concern is that my struts arrived today (fast) and now I don't know if I could use 91 Legacy FWD sedan struts for lets say GC8 or WRX springs. A different spring from another car may not fit into the lower spring seat on the new strut. Has anyone tried to put fatter springs on the 91 FWD Legacy Sedan struts and if so, which springs did you use? Could I possible convert to 93-94 FWD Legacy sedan struts/spring with new top mounts?

Thanks much!

the lower spring seat on the strut is pretty much the same to my knowledge. The only difference I could see is the positioning of where the spring ends.

Hey Josh - Thanks much for all your help...After searching around for the 91 Legacy stock springs, I finally think I found a solution. I called the parts counter at a local dealer (Ft Worth TX) and the guys there suggested I used springs for the Legacy L instead of the LS. He seems to think that there will be little difference, if any at all, using them. The L doesn't weigh much less than the LS so I thought what the hell.. I'll get them next week from Atlanta. When I get them on I will post my results good or bad.