21 replies to this topic

[kaymo]

i know kakabox lowered his front shocks in the knuckles to help his shocks stay closer to the height where they were designed and valved to run, but i have not seen ANYONE do this for the rear! has anyone bothered? i want my shocks to last a long time and i figured this could help. my plan was to move the lower strut mount bushing to where the top one sits, and then run a metal "strap" over the bottom bushing.


instead of trying to explain im gonna draw a pic.

[Motor City Hamilton]

It is less of an issue for the rear. If you have coil over springs, try removing them from the rear, put the shock back in. Have the rear of the car on jack stands (pinch welds/rear jacking point), then put a jack under the rear axle (no springs in the car). Jack the rear end up to ride height and look up in the fender well to see how much travel you have left. Now go a couple of inches past (lower than) ride height and look again. I bet you're not close to bottoming out the shock.

The primary reason to lower the front shocks down into the suspension arm is that with a lowered car, you can bottom out the shock on the bump stops. Heck, I even took out my bump stops and could still bottom the shock. Blowing a front shock comes from a hard slam, bottoming it out and blowing the shock seals. There's really no difference in damping or wear along the shock's travel - that's a myth.

I wouldn't mess with the rear shock mounting.

[DEIVIONCRX]

The only solution IMO to extending the rear shock travel would be just to blow out the factory strut tower, then weld in your new one basicly.

[RexKrazy]

I concur. The advantage is simply in suspension travel, not shock efficiency. Not to any degree that would matter at least.

Someone has done exactly what you're suggesting.... I think it may have been David, aka firstgencrx or something.


* edit
O yea. it was Jay. Hey Jay.

[DEIVIONCRX]

I dont know of anybody thats done it yet, Me, David, and several other guys had a big discussion thread about it and some other ideas.

[jsgprod]

It is an issue with the stock length shocks if you're crazy enough to lower the rear too much. I had to have 'both' of the shafts replaced on my rear Konis a few years ago due to them being bent...from bottoming. This with 850 lb/in rear springs no less! I should have had them shortened at the time but the budget and time wouldn't allow it.

I did something similar to what Kaymo is depicting and was able to raise the top mount 2" from where the stock location is. I was even able to do it so that everything mounted in the same location that the OE shock mount would be located at (damn rules). Worked perfectly for over a year until I could afford to buy new shorter Konis.

The 2" figure was what was needed with the axle bottomed on the chassis. FWIW.

Jay

[kaymo]

yeah nevermind... lol i have heard that you wear out shocks faster from not being at the correct ride height but if thats bullshit then fuck this lol. i did bend all the metal to do this, but i didnt drill any holes.

[84b18]

there is a second benefit to this mod. you could also minimize the diameter of the strut tower eliminating the need for custom top hats with more modern springs. this would make it easer and cheaper to adjust your rear spring rate.

[Airgazm86]

Another problem you will encounter, depending on how low you plan to go, is the axle beam may hit the rear floor pan. So even though you have plenty of room for rebound, your compression will be limited.

This happened on my 3G when I had air-ride and prevented me from going as low as I wanted to.

[Aren D.]

I raised the rear shock mount just like in the pic above on my crx, only for more travel and better coilover mounting.

[kaymo]

there is a second benefit to this mod. you could also minimize the diameter of the strut tower eliminating the need for custom top hats with more modern springs. this would make it easer and cheaper to adjust your rear spring rate.

how would my mod minimize the diameter of the strut tower? or are you talking about if you redid the entire tower? i used 88-91 upper spring mounts for my coilover kit. i removed the factory spring mounts and cut out the centers of the 88-91 spring mounts. i didn't even cut off the studs, they will slide inside the factory strut tower, and also help center the spring

but yah im not lowering that much so i dont think i will run into the axle hitting the body

[otterrs]

personally i think you would be better off spending the money on a ground control set and some ilumina shocks (if you can find them. I dropped my rex about 4'' total all the way around without messing with the tower. The shocks are adjustable for dampning so there is no problem with "bottoming out" i don't hit the axel on the a$$ of the car, and it handles like a champ. I'm still working on tightening the front of the car down so it doesn't bounce (see ground contol thread) but the car sits perfectly flush. Since there really isn't a "safe" way to lower the front any farther, why would you want to drop the back any farther than 4" or so? I mean, unless you like the "rex popping a wheelie" look? Trust me, spend the money on the groundd controls and go from there. If you really want to drop it more, then move on to using your torch... JMO

[otterrs]

I raised the rear shock mount just like in the pic above on my crx, only for more travel and better coilover mounting.

Love the brace setup btw! hopin to do somethin like that to mine eventually

[strudel]

The only solution IMO to extending the rear shock travel would be just to blow out the factory strut tower, then weld in your new one basicly.

Imagine that, an RPR member resorting to using Mini pics to make a point! I would never have thought of that!!! Glad you made your point. JS

[kaymo]

otters- you say i will be better spending my money on ground control kit. what money? lol i never said anything about spending money. this mod i was doing for free, like most of my mods. i've already got a coilover kit. never liked ground controls. and running tokico blue shocks. my reasoning for doing this at all was because i thought shocks were valved for a certain height. motor city hamilton informed me that was a myth. that was really the only reason i thought this might be necessary at all.