L wagon rear springs in RX Sedan ?

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:55 am

Hi all , I mentioned in another thread that I want to try wagon rear springs in my RX sedan .
From the Subaru manual rear spring rates are 159/179 and 196 inch pound
(in/lb) rated for 4WD sedan/coup/wagon .
I think RX sedan springs are too soft in the rear and coup ones would be interesting to try but hardly grow on trees here in Australia , so that pretty much leaves the wagon ones .

Has anyone tried this on an RX sedan and if so what changes could be felt ?

Cheers A .

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 4:43 pm

The ride is firmer and higher

ToyRX · Post by **ToyRX** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:05 pm

DP - if this is for your comp car it is hard to beat Bilsteins, custom job though I am afraid so $$$. If wagon springs increase ride height more than you like you can drop it 15mm or so (and gain in travel) by flipping the top mount upsidedown, with a little tweaking it will bolt up fine, I dont know about regular shocks but my bilsteins also required a hole drilled in the top of the wheel arch to accomodate the top nuts on the spear.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 6:24 pm

Hi again , back at P&Pl this time for wagon rear springs . I am disgusted to say that I was armed with the 19mm socket and 600mm breaker bar to get the nut off the struts lower anchor bolt but someone must have borrowed the 17mm one and so no way to remove the top body mount . Grrrrrrrrr ...
FHI did a piss poor design job on this bolt/nut , its done up so tight that it virtually friction welds itself to the A arm ear . The nut looks like it has three ears aimed at the mount so that it deliberately bites in . None of my heavier more powerful Nissan's did it like that ...

Because I was steamed and not going back three days running I bent the damper shafts and unscrewed the two top nuts at the top of the damper rams . Ping - out but damper rooted .
The funny thing was from one car the rear springs were not the same - one side was 10 turns and the other 9 and different lengths . GRRRR-rrrrrrrr !
Burning now started removing lower bolts and swinging the struts back and forth till the shafts broke - the quick method .
So from 3 wagons I "liberated" 4 springs to get a matching pair which interestingly have a dab of pink and orange paint on two coils . The other 2 were longer or shorter with from memory the longer one having a dab of purple paint on one coil .
Given a choice I'd have gone for the shorter ones if there had been 2 , I'm going to look at the 89 manual this time to see if it mentions anything different to the 87 one .

My RX has original type rear dampers with the height adjustment . I must see if I can persuade the spring platform to go even lower .

Must learn not to disembowl cars Clive style (Every Which Way but Loose) .

A ......

Suby Wan Kenobi · Post by **Suby Wan Kenobi** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:09 pm

discopotato03 wrote:Must learn not to disembowl cars Clive style (Every Which Way but Loose) .

A ......

If you do that there is also no spitting pissing and picking your asss

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:04 pm

ToyRX , no this is a road car and the you beaut suspension won't get that far because Evo 6 bug is biting .

However firmer springs are needed , and if I can find something adequate ie a KYB damper that gets the ride height no higher than std it'll do for the back . Rear bar will be 19-20mm one off .

Cheers A .