wakaranai

Ok, so after owning a bunch of great fully independent suspension Honda's (DC2,DB2, EF, EG,EK), I picked up a stock 87 CRX Si last year, and sold it within a month because I got super frustrated with the suspension on the car (lack of aftermarket support, bottoming out, etc). Fast forward 6 months, and here I am again. I found a great deal on an AH5 and I decided to give it another go because someone had done suspension work already.

I noticed yesterday that the car was bottoming out REALLY bad and my assumption was correct; I removed the dust covers from both shocks to discover that the bump stops were still in place. The car had absoulutely no suspension travel at all! And to make matters worse, the car has 27.3mm torsion bars, so I was flying all over the place. So I removed the bump stops and dust boots and re-assembled everything.

Low and behold, I had about 1/4" of travel. I was very disappointed, but not disillusioned, so I went ahead and removed the brake line bracket from the shocks and put them about an inch lower into the knuckle. Ok all great right? Nope.

After all this, I had 1 1/4" of travel so I let it be. I noticed that the front end of the car had also been lowered about an inch. I then peaked underneath the car and saw that there were two bolts hanging about 1/2" off the ground. Upon inspection, I saw that they were completely loose and were just chillin there. It looks like they are the bolts that allow you to raise and lower the front end, but I am a noob at this whole torsion bar thing so I have absolutely no idea.

Now, here is my problem, both bolts are bent because they had scraped the ground before, so I attempted to remove them so I could install new ones. But, it was IMPOSSIBLE to access the top nut. How the heck, do you access the top nut? I am sick of the bounciness in the front end. It is makes the car virtually undriveable, so can someone PLEASE help me raise the front end and/or explain how to remove these freakin' bolts.


What are these and how do I get them off (I managed to get the bottom nuts and washers off)?:

Reduced: 64% of original size [ 800 x 533 ] - Click to view full image

Reduced: 64% of original size [ 800 x 533 ] - Click to view full image



HUGE thanks in advance and thanks for reading my semi rant.

My suspension setup:

27.3mm Torsion bar
Suspension Techniques sway bars
400 lb/in Ground Control rear coilovers
And the bad news...Tokico blues--Something this stiff requires Illuminas, so that is my next next upgrade for the car. However, I am having trouble finding fronts.

1gencrx

Yes, those are the high adjusting bolts. It looks like someone before you replaced them for some reason because the stock bolts are not that long. I've never had to remove them so I can't tell you how to do that. You say they were just loose when you found them, can you tighten the nut's that you took off all the way up; that should put tension on the torsion bar. If it doesn't then I suspect whoever installed the aftermarket torsion bars re-indexed them way to far; even if it does put some tension on them it still sounds to me like they are re-indexed too far.

I don't think replacing the bolts is necessary if you can still thread the nuts on and off. I would tighten the nuts all the way up and I think you will find that you are going to need to remove the torsion bars and re-index them.

cbstd

The previous owner has not done you any favors. Without nuts on those bolts, your torsion bars are essentially not connected (no front springs).

But first: Go over to www.redpepperracing.com for the best web site devoted to the 1st Gen CRX and its brother, the 3rd Gen Civic.

Now, back to your problem: As I recall, you will need to disassemble the torsion bars to get at those bolts. This is NOT a big job, specially if someone has put in newer 27mm torsion bars ahead of you. Everything should be loosened up. Or just slip on some new nuts onto those bolts and then shorten them.

The 1st Gen's suspension is dead simple: Raising and lowering the suspension depends upon the torsion bars and the lever that connects the T bars to the swing arm. To lower the car beyond the adjustment range given by the factory, you will need to remove the T bar and replace it one notch lower.

Removing the brakeline bracket from the front struts and mount the bottom of the struts lower in the kncuckle will give you more suspension travel (a good thing) but it will not lower your car.

Finally, if your car does not currently have an added rear sway bar... ADD ONE NOW! Addco makes a good rear sway bar that is easy to bolt on and does wonders to fight understeer.

SCott

E-AT_me

he's on RPR in the 3rd gen section.. i'm trying to trade him my 91 Si.. if i only wasn't in VA.

Spunkster

To get the bolts out you have to drop the subframe, Trust me, I just swaped from a manual rack/subframe back to a power steering rack/subframe on my 87 Teg. Swapped over my radus arm bushings...what a pain and the 27mm tbars.

At the same time I swapped from a Hydro ITR trans to a cable b16 trans with a quaife.....only to find that the custom hydro mounts i had made were keeping my alernator from rubbing on the chassis even with the big dent. So now i get to take more stuff apart and bash it with a BFH....i'm so sore and my hands are about to fall off.

shauno

Yeah! What he said