5speednobrakes

My 86 GXL was making a racket on the passenger rear side whenever i hit a small bump so i replaced the rear struts. simple enough procedure. Until i realized that the electronic suspension relies upon two little motors mounted above the strut on each side. I did not buy these new. I had salvaged them from a wreck i bought along with my rx7 for parts which is another adventure due to the difference in years. Anyway, i have no way of knowing where they were positioned when the car came apart ie(sport/normal). after getter it all back together it seems as if the car is "looser" in the rear cornering and bouncy over bumps(roller coaster or boating comes to mind) and such in sport mode. Is there an easy way of adjusting the struts back to factory (or even a little tighter heh heh) or is this my imagination playing with me?

Nick86

iTrader: (1)

Did you replace the rear struts with ones off a GXL? Not all RX's had the Auto Adjusting Suspension (AAS) but I'll assume you did.

The easiest thing to do is take the actuators off the strut and toggle the button between "Sport" and "Normal" while looking at the bottom of the actuator. You'll notice a small post in the center turning Clockwise, then Counter clockwise depending on which setting you are on.

This little post corresponds to the actuator in the top of the strut.

Now, once you figure out which way the actuator turns for sport, you can turn the one on the strut that way to be sure it's in sport too. * I seem to remember that the adjuster in the top of the strut turned a few turns in either direction, and there were some guys who turned it all the way to the sportier side and reported that the struts became much harder...... but I've never tried that, so I can't give you any first hand experience on that.

5speednobrakes

Thank you for the post and the info, I have now tried a few turns in the sport direction and haven't had much of a noticeable change in stiffness, assuming my actuators are meant to turn only a small distance like they do when i view them in action between sport /normal modes. I plan to turn the struts stiffeners as far as they will go and then ease them off a few turns and see whats happens.

5speednobrakes

So i realized that my donor car was actually a GS of some variety and its struts were shot. I found them still use full, i used the rubbers and spring and mounting plates as a base and rebuilt my old electronic suspension struts to newer condition again. car handles great in the corners now. i don't believe the GS had adjustable suspension init either tho its strange that they had the turnable pins for the electric motors to run on. so ive learned a thing or two.

Its hard to go from 350cu to rotary but easy to go from Rotary to 350cu.
i still like my RX7.