ONe21

The previous owner installed Koni Yellows and H&R Sport springs, but I remember him saying the springs were H&R Race. The drop is pretty substantial (see pictures) so I always assumed they were, in fact, Race springs (2.5" drop). He auto-crossed the car, but it actually has a surprisingly good ride on the road as well, with the exception of potholes and bad roads. I'm more of a daily driver, so I looked around for a spring to lower the car ~1.5" and maintain some of the feel of the current set-up. I settled on Eibach Pro Kit springs (1.5" F, 1.3" R). When I inspected the current set-up more closely, the labels indicated they were actually H&R Sport springs (1.7" F, 1.5" R)?!? The springs are configured on the top ring of the Konis for front and middle ring for rear, so I cannot figure out why the car sits so low. I have a set of Pro Kit springs in the mail, but now I'm wondering if it will actually fix anything.


The drop looks to be around 2.5-2.7" in the front, and the rear is around 1.8-2.0"


The top mount nuts were loosened in this picture, also notice the tear-out of the sheet metal to the lower right from bottoming out (adjustable upper control arm)




I cannot pin-point anything that looks out of place but, then again, I don't really have much experience



Thanks in advance for the help

kristo

I don't see any install issues -besides the fork alignment collar that seem to be missing. I would though place OEM upper arms for clearance, use Ground Control bumpstops and possibly have the OEM front top hats extended (Ground Control style so the bumpstops fit in).

Pro springs will be much softer. If you want to keep the current springs but have the car sit higher, you could use the upper groove of the Konies in the rear, and have an extra upper groove machined in the front -or use some kind of spacer or heightened ring for the lower spring cup to sit on (PM me interested in such 'ring-spacers').

Fork collar in place:

cruizinmax

iTrader: (2)

Does the car have extended ball joints?

Tyson

The fork collar is the problem. Not having it lowers the spring perch, this lowering the ride height.

kristo

^Looks to me that the fork sits at regular height even the collar is not installed, not?

OP install:





Difference regular install / fork trick (no collar):

ONe21

I have some Moog upper control arms on order. I'll consider the extended top hats but, for now, I'm focusing on correcting the current issue with ride height.

I definitely would rather stay with the H&R springs; I love the feel of them. The ring spacers sound interesting and I'll look into that but, again, I'd like to figure out what the current issue is rather than rig something up.

cruizinmax - I have OEM type lower ball joints and adjustable upper control arms.

kristo/Tyson - The way the strut is situated in the fork, it looks like it is actually sitting a little higher than the location of the collar. If I were to place a collar and rest it on that, it looks like it would lower the car even further.

Tyson

I don't know why you guys aren't seeing it.

Put the brake collar in. You don't even need it, you just need to raise the shock in the fork and pinch it in the right height and it will stay.

Raise the perch, raise the ride height. So obvious....

kristo

Apart from the collar factor, the only thing I see that could possibly be an issue is that the forks are not EG forks, and are shorter. If not that would most probably give rise to serious camber differences compared to original, hence maybe the adjustable arms. But I'm no cross model parts swap specialist.

Tyson

Forks are NOT shorter.

Tyson

Maybe it IS me who isn't seeing things correctly.

Are those shocks even made for a civic? Why do I not see a brake collar but the very bottom is still only barely sticking out?

What is that crud around thr shock in pic 3 near the fork?

ONe21

I bought the car in its current state, so I'm honestly not sure about any parts that may have been swapped from another car. I think the crud you are referring to is rust.

kristo, you have a PM.

Tyson

What number is stamped on the shock.

spAdam

iTrader: (1)

Look again, the car isn't an EG either. I'm not sure about the swapability of forks other then 99-00 Si and CTR will not work. The car doesn't look that far off. I'd pull the damper and look at two things:

1) Make a mark on the damper (with a sharpie or whatever) at the top edge of the fork. Take it all apart and visually line up where the pinch bolt sits in relation the the "dent" on the back of the damper. That will tell you if it is installed at the right height.

2) Have a look at the top to see if the previous owner cut one of the dead coils. It's not as uncommon as you think.

kristo

A wrong model shock was my immediate thought after posting the fork thought. I think that crud is where a collar used to be, and that the fork is mounted in the right position but without collar.

Oops Being from Europe I associated those wheels with EGs and didn't look any further.

Agreed with Tyson and spAdam about what to do:

3) Check the shock's model number (somewhere on the lower part of the shock). If not visible anymore, take some good pics of the bottom where the dent (for the pinch bolt of the fork) and the 'bubble' (which marks the top position of the collar) are, and measure the shock length: overall length, shaft and body length, so we can compare the dimensions with a correct EG/EK/ITR front Koni Yellow. Correct part numbers are 8041 1152Sport (Front) and 8041 1213Sport (EK Rear).

ONe21

Alright, I'll pull the strut this weekend, possibly tonight, and report back with the information. Thanks for all of the help.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Maybe the PO cut some coils off the springs to lower it more. After over-doing it, he may have moved the front perch to the upper position?

Just spit balling.

Prokit springs should raise the car up. I thought prokits dropped the car like 1.1" from stock?

ONe21

Alright, I got a few pictures and some information. I didn't remove the spring from the strut yet; hopefully it doesn't come to that. Maybe counting coils will suffice?
**Edit - I counted the coils on an image from another forum and it appears that no coils were removed.

You can see where the top of the fork was located on the strut by the ring of bare metal.

Also, the only number that I could find on the strut was 4708, but it didn't seem to correlate to anything when I searched it online.


Here is a nice shot of the spring model number.


A quick AutoCAD sketch, because I couldn't help myself . The strut diameter is 1-5/8".

Tyson

Nothing else embossed on the body?
https://honda-tech.com/forums/sale-1...-used-2891614/

ONe21

After looking again, there was a very faint embossing that was not legible. Though, I removed the other front wheel and could see "8041" on the strut body. I guess that is one more thing that can be checked off.

P.s. my Eibach Pro Kit springs arrived this afternoon. I'm not taking them out of the box, because I'm probably going to return them.

kristo

This is the build number meaning week 47 year 2008.

You can discern nothing after '8041'? As you can see from the sale post that's the fist part of the model number.

In any case they don't look far off an 1152. Myself I can only measure up my stocked Koni set on Monday.

Disassembling the shock/spring should be relatively easy given good quality tools (especially for grabbing the top nut of the shaft).

ONe21

Ok guys, after looking again I was able to make out the 1152 on the strut.

I disassembled the struts, so here are some pictures:

This is the overall spring length. Both sides had factory looking finish, so I'm 99% sure that no coils were removed.



My Moog Upper Control Arms came in last night, so I'll be replacing those as well as the lower ball joints sometime soon. It doesn't seem that it would account for 1" of drop, but who knows at this point?

kristo

Good news, now you can start (re)building up

Btw what is the current rear ride height? What engine is in the car? Since it appears there is a difference between Sport Springs for the SI and for non-SI maybe the extra weight of a B-engine on non-SI Sport Springs could account for the extra drop.

Edit:
Btw² how did you end up fixing your rear sway bar?

ONe21

The rear is the same height as the front. I do have a B18C, but the weight difference seems to be a non-issue. The rear can be raised (~0.5"), because there is still a higher perch setting.

I have my entire front suspension uninstalled in preparation for the new stuff. Unfortunately, I realized the Moog Upper Control Arms were ordered for a 1988 civic . It looks like the adjustable arms will remain for now.

I have an additional thought on the ride height; there aren't any spring isolators between the top hat and the chassis, which will make a minor 1/4-3/8" difference. It still blows my mind that I'm missing 1"+ of suspension travel and the reason isn't obvious.

P.s. I haven't re-installed my Type-R sway bar yet. I'm going to order ASR end link adapter inserts, but I keep forgetting.

Tyson

i did a search on the springs.

theyre made for a 96-00 civic.

H&R Special Springs, LP.

i guess their approximate measurements are just off.

i'd use the pro kits anyway.

ONe21

After looking at a ton of pictures on Google images, I think you are right. Mine appears a bit lower, but it may be because I don't have spring isolators.

You are right about their advertised drop; they seem to be off. I had an EF with H&R Sport springs and I still had 1/2" of fender space in the front; my 1998 civic is tucking the tire by 1/4".

My course of action is to replace the aforementioned parts and install spring insulators. If I'm still not happy with it, I'll switch to the Eibachs.