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Post by moemoney313 on May 4, 2014 23:11:13 GMT -5
My second generation 1994 Subaru Justy DL needed struts bad! I took a chance and ordered both front and rear from Rockauto.com by way of England. The rears were easy to install. I had problems with the front. The driver side that I took off had a destroyed inner strut bearing seal. I found the bearing totally destroyed on the passenger side with no inner grease seal at all! I tried with no luck to locate replacement parts. I ended up buying upper spring seats, upper strut bearing plates, and upper strut mounts ... hoping they came with the parts I needed as promised ... they did not! I even called Subaru of America. They did their best to sell me a new car! This is what I did. I got two of them. There is a lip inside the spring seat that this grommet locks into. Install the lower stainless steel bearing plate. Lube with lithium grease. Install bearing and outer seal. The bearing came with the aftermarket strut kit but the outer seal I was able to clean and reuse. Install upper stainless steel plate over bearing (these are thin), followed by the bearing cap (thick and curved down). With the spring seated in your new strut, install upper strut plate. Tighten nut on end of strut before releasing spring pressure. Rotate upper strut mount while releasing spring pressure to seat strut bearing and to keep from binding. You should be able to turn the upper strut plate by hand when done.
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Post by madmatt on May 17, 2014 22:18:09 GMT -5
Moemoney.
You should be in for a long service life...
I did pretty much the same thing, minus the cool grommets years ago. The roller bearings were rusty bits with broken races... I did make up a plastic washer using a yogurt container lid, but who knows if that even matters... Mine get serviced fairly frequently, but so far so good.
Drive on!
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Post by goskate on Jun 13, 2014 16:13:53 GMT -5
I've got a 89 and had no luck looking for front struts, saw these at rock auto but my vin# wasn;t a match with what hey showed the staff at rockauto was no help. Was there a different body for the european model, will those fit my justy too??
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Post by moemoney313 on Jun 16, 2014 21:51:01 GMT -5
Although I have a 94 Justy DL, I got your same response! My first order was cancelled because RockAuto could not confirm if these struts would fit my Justy. I did some research and I could not find what the differences were. The KYB part numbers were all the same! You have an 89 ... it should be 2nd generation, same as mine. See if there is a part number on the strut. The number on mine was 721521030. The other side was 721521020. Front struts are right side or left side. You are probably going to have to jack the vehicle up with the wheel off so you can see what number is on your strut. You will be able to check that number with the number RockAuto has for that strut right after "info". FYI: The vehicles in England are right hand drive so their VIN will not be the same as ours. Another thing, I got both front and rear. The rear was firm, but the front is a little soft for my taste. I wonder what the Boge, which only list for the front, are like. Good Luck!
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Post by goskate on Jun 17, 2014 22:14:48 GMT -5
Although I have a 94 Justy DL, I got your same response! My first order was cancelled because RockAuto could not confirm if these struts would fit my Justy. I did some research and I could not find what the differences were. The KYB part numbers were all the same! You have an 89 ... it should be 2nd generation, same as mine. See if there is a part number on the strut. The number on mine was 721521030. The other side was 721521020. Front struts are right side or left side. You are probably going to have to jack the vehicle up with the wheel off so you can see what number is on your strut. You will be able to check that number with the number RockAuto has for that strut right after "info". FYI: The vehicles in England are right hand drive so their VIN will not be the same as ours. Another thing, I got both front and rear. The rear was firm, but the front is a little soft for my taste. I wonder what the Boge, which only list for the front, are like. Good Luck!
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Post by moemoney313 on Jun 18, 2014 12:26:55 GMT -5
I ran into two major problems replacing my front struts on my 1994 Subaru Justy DL. 1.) The strut bearing seal which I addressed in the above posts. 2.) The brake lines attached to the struts. It is going to take some heat from a torch to break loose the brake line on the strut so you can remove and install on the new strut. I recommend replacing with new lines from RockAuto. They have both flex brake lines that run from the body to the strut and from strut to the brake caliper. Since I did not have time to wait for these parts and my brake lines still looked good, I did it another way. Mine you, if you live in the salt belt, I do not recommend it! Better to get new brake lines! I took a hacksaw and cut the brake line mounting brackets at their thinness point so that I could bend the bracket and slide the brake line out ... but first remove your brake clip! You have two on each strut. Like I said, it is better to replace the lines, but I cut into the brake mounting brackets on the new strut. Bend the brackets out the way to install the brake line. Bend the brackets back so you can install the clips and you are good to go!
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Post by madmatt on Jun 18, 2014 15:54:15 GMT -5
Meh... silly suby flexline set up... zip tie FTW
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Post by moemoney313 on Jun 18, 2014 18:03:20 GMT -5
Madmatt, You truly amaze me!
Adjustable coil over setup! Stainless Steel flexible brake line! Zerk fitting on the strut!
Do you have a post for that?
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Post by madmatt on Jun 19, 2014 14:19:35 GMT -5
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