legacycentral bbs

Put the WRX take-offs into the 1990 Legacy yesterday. Not too difficult - used a Dremel tool to cut the brake hose brackets and bent them out of the way and worked fine. On the rears the original spring clips held the hoses on to the WRX struts. On the front I just used a couple of strong zip ties on either side. Rear top-mount nuts are a nuisance in the sedan.

I used WRX everything, except a rear top-mount adapter from DMS that allows you to use the WRX tops in the legacy.

You can see that the non-tapered springs are a tighter fit, but still no problem.

Only problem is the following: the steering is tight, and sticks slightly which is a nuisance on the highway. I can't figure out why.

But let me get to the real question: when I put together the WRX fronts last week (and remember they were cobbled together with various donated parts) no-one supplied me with a cone washer to go between the shaft top edge and the bottom edge of the top mount, but the Legacy one that came off had one. It seems to spread the load from the strut across the whole top mount bearing rather than just load the inner race.

1. Should the WRX front strut have one of these?

2. Is the absence of this causing the steering to bind?

ACP

1. Yes

2. I'd say yes... the cone washer also allows the strut to freely rotate in the top mount.

But I'm looking at the WRX service manual and it describes all parts but no cone washer...?

Also - this may seem like a funny question - but does it sit with the wide side facing upward (to spread the strut's load) or down (to prevent the bumpstop from hitting the outer edge of the topmount?

A.

to prevent the bumpstop from hitting the outer edge of the topmount. it can only touch the inside part where the bearing lets it rotate.

If that's the case, how can that be what's making the steering tight, as it's tight all the time rather than when hitting the bumpstop, and the shaft only hits the inner race of the topmount bearing even without the cone washer...??

A/

the steering is tight if you don't have that cone washer in there.....it MUST be reinstalled......you're probably killing the strut tops mounts by driving like that.

I know this sounds obvious, but did you check the allignment ofter doing all this?

Mark

Alignment: I marked the bolts before removing them and the steering wheel is on the same angle as before, which is to say if there's any error it's at least equal on both sides! I plan to realign, but I play with alignment a lot on the rally car (toe out on ice etc) and this isn't an alignment problem. This is a sticky pivoting problem.

Washers: I don't get it. Legacy777 - the only way what you're saying would make sense is if the washers are mounted wide surface up, spreading the load across the inner and outer races. I don't know the internal design of the top mounts, but that approach makes sense to me.

But if the washers are mounted wide side down then there is no difference, as far as the top bearing is concerned, as either with or without the washer all the load is taken by the inner race. So is the other response (mount it facing down to transfer loads from the bumpstop to the inner race) incorrect?

A.

I don't recall exactly how the washers are mounted.......how were they setup on the legacy suspension?

Ummm, embarrassingly we wanted to get the top mounts off and didn't have a spring compressor so we undid the top bolt with the struts still in the car and lowered the shock out of the spring that way, but in the process the washer just fell out. No idea which way it was in. Isn't this in a FSM somewhere? In the WRX manual it doesn't show it.

A.

yeah it is probably in there, however I'm traveling this week....and don't have access to the suspension one.

its wide side down.

AH - I looked at the old struts and now I see: the washer goes wide side down between the top spring carrier and the top mount. That's the part I wasnot getting. The reason it's hard to turn is that the spring is not putting all its load on the center race, but on the whole top mount bearing. It doesn't strike me that this is going to damage the bearing if I don't run it too long. Will switch as soon as convenient.

It's never convenient, is it?

A.

Hey man, can u please post some pics up because im doing
95 WRX STi RA into a 90 GT Wagon on sunday, i rekon mine will come out mint...fingers crossed. i got wrx top mounts and all so shud work fine...

But pics please..im gonna take pis of mine all the way throughn and post them up...

If the rear top mounts are for the GC8 impreza then they should bolt right in to the Legacy rear strut towers. What we in NorthAm call a WRX begins in the bugeye headlight era, and those top mounts won't fit, but an adaptor is available from DMS in Australia. Other than that it should be bolt in, but I don't know much about NZ-spec Wagons!

There is a full description about how to do this on the actual legacycentral page, in the library. I didn't take pics as we were in a rush.

ACP

how does the ride height compare to the legacy setup?

Appears to be exactly the same.

this is a real stupid thing to say, but i got those struts on sunday, and checked them out...they look to bolt straight on, with nothing, no new top mounts or anything, just replace the springs, and bolt them straight up.

the model number on the new shocks compared to the stock, are near the same, slightly newer model obviously.

work delayed for a week, i needa get some compressors, might be ok without them cos they aftermarket springs, but still....

I'm trying to do something similar, but on a wagon. If I were to put the stock spring/strut assembly on my wagon will I need these DMS adapters? Where can I get them?