Remote reservoir shocks

[Kershaw]

I think these adjusters will be long enough, but we'll see how the car sits when its finally back on the ground.

Finally finished with the chassis repairs (for now) over the weekend. Hopefully it's much much stronger now. My welds aren't great, but hopefully it's enough to keep it from collapsing in on itself. Smothered all the weld lines in steelstik to keep the moisture out, then primer, then bedliner. I added another layer of metal to the spring hats too.






Finally can start on reassembly, got the 4.10 front diff in today.

[AndrewBird]

If you are looking for cheap coilover sleeves:

http://www.a1racing.com/A1_Racing_Products_12452H_5_Coil_Over_Sleeve.aspx

http://www.a1racing.com/A1_Racing_Products_12460_2_1/2_Spring_Coil_Over_Adjusting_Nut.aspx

They have them in all different sizes and lengths. Springs are cheap too:

http://www.a1racing.com/sssb12.aspx

[Kershaw]

They fit fine, but not like they do over the RWD tubes, the supplied o-rings definitely won't fit between the tubes and the adjusters. It's a snug fit. It's actually better using the RWD tubes to replace the the threads. If there was a slight misalignment during welding the adjusters would get stuck.

What year Civic for the adjusters?

Looking legit now!

[nando]

heh, I ended up using Civic adjusters from ebay that were trimmed down - GC springs and camber plates though.

They must have made one that fit the ix, because that's the original kit I got and they fit fine, but I'm sure they don't sell to a ton of ix owners these days.

[Kershaw]

Ended up having rwd strut tubes with good threads welded onto the struts. Rwd tubes are definitely thinner. The GC adjuster barely fits onto the ix tubes, needs help with a mallet.

[nando]

Who says it destroys front half shafts?

That's ridiculous. My front CV shafts have almost 300,000 miles on them.

[fiftytakedowns]

I tried searching and found that having coil-overs was somewhat useless in IX's because the lowered car destroys the front half shafts. Are you doing coils for the increased travel and ride comfort? I'm trying to catch up here...

[alloydix]

My understanding was that the race shocks had the same travel as the standard ones, just with shorter shock bodies. That is what allows you maintain decent travel when you shorten the strut housings. Otherwise it would be same thing as just using lowering springs or cutting the stock ones. Is this not correct?

[nando]

huh? Who said they have the same travel?

It's not really about absolute travel. It's about how far the struts compress before they bottom out. And in the ix's case since the struts are directly above the front CV shafts, we are limited in how much they can compress. So to gain extra compression, you can shorten the tubes or cut the bump stops (which works in the case of Bilsteins as the factory bump stops are quite long).

[alloydix]

If the Koni race shock bodies are 2in shorter than the the standard ones with the same travel, why can't they make a standard koni shock with 2in of extra travel?

[Kershaw]

I cut half the bump stop off, travel is nearly 5". I think that's good enough.

I think they're hosed too, they may hold initially, but I'm not sure how long. I'll take them to a machine shop this week and see what they can do.

[nando]

Cut it off and section another tube in there or move the threads down (I thought you wanted to shorten the strut tube?). Those threads are hosed. I'm amazed that perch could still support the car!

IIRC the ix strut tube is thicker than the RWD models, but the same as the E36 M3 (not sure about other E36 models).

That strut looks like mine before I sent them out (actually, mine may have been a little worse). I even have the same engine stand, lol.

[Kershaw]

Anyone have any ideas for reinforcing the threads? Wrap steelstik around the top and hope for the best?

Before anyone says anything, yes the spring perch was completely removed.

[Kershaw]

My ground control coilover conversion came in today. I will post pics of the set up when it's done. I ordered 10" 250lb circle track XT (extreme travel) barrel springs for the front and 350lb springs for the rear. I'll cut the bump stop down for the front.

Hopefully that fixes the bottoming out issue. Maybe I'll even gain a bit of travel. If not, I might go with 275lb 12" springs.

[The Dark Side of Will]

You'll bottom out the strut LONG before you coil bind the springs.