show your DIY suspension conponents, lets get it started!!!!

 

Ive DIYed spacers for mounting my swaybar, but thats it. Anything more than that, I wouldnt want to tackle without some significant calculation/study as to what the strength, durability would be, as well as the effect said piece would have on my suspension.

What in particular did you have in mind when you were asking about everyone's DIY suspension bits?

If you want to see some really trick one-off suspension designs and manufacture, 2007 FSAE Competition gallery

 

Add washers to the rear upper control arm of 88-00 Civics to minimize camber.

Testing waters: EK lcas are longer than EGs, so in theory, putting EK LCA's in an EG adds camber. Putting EG LCAs in an EK should decrease camber. This hasn't been tryed but thought I'd throw it out there as I don't know if this will have an impact on toe settings or not.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by FalkenSiR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Add washers to the rear upper control arm of 88-00 Civics to minimize camber.

Testing waters: EK lcas are longer than EGs, so in theory, putting EK LCA's in an EG adds camber. Putting EG LCAs in an EK should decrease camber. This hasn't been tryed but thought I'd throw it out there as I don't know if this will have an impact on toe settings or not.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, but you'll also change track width, and have to deal with the interesting motion you'll put the trailing arm bushings through, by changing out the LCAs to ones of a different length.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Voyage34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ive DIYed spacers for mounting my swaybar, but thats it. Anything more than that, I wouldnt want to tackle without some significant calculation/study as to what the strength, durability would be, as well as the effect said piece would have on my suspension.

What in particular did you have in mind when you were asking about everyone's DIY suspension bits?

If you want to see some really trick one-off suspension designs and manufacture, 2007 FSAE Competition gallery</TD></TR></TABLE>

of course you have to know your doing, DIY doesn't always means small skills and intelligence, it can also mean that you are smart enough to fabricate and build your the components yourself instead of buying ,good craftsmanship should always be respected. the call is to all the skill suspension people we have here at HT!!!! so with that in mind lets see what everybodys got!!!!

 

theres smart enough and then theres having the machining capability so these parts arent manufactured with a cutting wheel and a power drill

 

Reinforceing the seam welds throughout the chassis, with gussets etc. Especially the rear lower subframe.

Custom extended top hats.

High tensile washers spacing the two parts of the front LCAs for positive caster (the outermost bolts more than the innermost).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by suspendedHatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Reinforceing the seam welds throughout the chassis, with gussets etc. Especially the rear lower subframe.

Custom extended top hats.

High tensile washers spacing the two parts of the front LCAs for positive caster (the outermost bolts more than the innermost).</TD></TR></TABLE>

Whiteline makes a "caster kit" for EG/DC Hondas, which is literally nothing more than longer LCA bolts and spacers. However, since this would push the LCA forward and change the LCA to chassis angle, I wonder how much the inner bushing is being twisted.

I actually have the kit, since it was $35, but have yet to install it, both because I'm worried about killing my bushings and because I don't think it would be STS autocross legal.

I would love to hear any stories about people actually doing this modification, and what the results were, both in terms of vehicle handling and bushing wear.

*edit: Found a place selling the kit:
http://www.flatironstuning.com....aspx

 

The stress on the inner LCA bushing will be pretty minimal. Your are probably only pushing it out of alignment by a degree or two. The real question is how does this sort of caster adjustment effect bump-steer. It has been proven that moving the upper control arm bushing rearward (like swapping UCAs left to right) to add caster creates more bump-steer as a side effect. I wonder if the white-line kit does the same...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 94eg! &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The stress on the inner LCA bushing will be pretty minimal. Your are probably only pushing it out of alignment by a degree or two. The real question is how does this sort of caster adjustment effect bump-steer. It has been proven that moving the upper control arm bushing rearward (like swapping UCAs left to right) to add caster creates more bump-steer as a side effect. I wonder if the white-line kit does the same...</TD></TR></TABLE>

00 GSR, 400/400 rates, Comptech rear ARB, Koni Yellows
front: -4.0* camber, +4.0* caster, 0 toe
rear: -1.4* camber, slight toe in (forget exact value, its factory spec)

While the bumpsteer in my car is certainly noticeable, it doesn't seem to be bothersome enough to worry about. Honestly, on track, I don't notice. Only on the freeway, and only under large suspension movements, (pot holes, overpass transitions, crappy LA freeways) does it present itself. And when it does, it just makes the car try and steer away from the bump, which I can handle.

Then again, I'm not all that low, and I hear the bumpsteer gets worse the more the car is lowered. I'm 6" from ground to front side jack points. I haven't run lower with this much caster, so I can't comment there.

I'm running SPC UCAs, flipped left to right for an additional 1.5* of caster, and then have them adjusted for max caster as well (+-1.5* caster adjustment), giving another 1.5* of caster. Stock 1* + 1.5* + 1.5* = the current 4* of caster that I'm running.

So, yes, it definitely increases bumpsteer. It also reduced my car's tendency to "tramline" on the freeway, and makes driving the car overall easier. Moving the upper ball joint rearward, will also increase Ackerman, but I don't know enough to comment on good or bad in this case. I do know that it makes tight parking lot maneuvers squeal the tires, where as before they wouldn't.

Pushing the LCA forward, will reduce Ackerman while increasing caster. Since we want to keep the tie rod as close to perpendicular to the chassis as possible to avoid bumpsteer, this should also reduce it slightly on a lowered car. I'm going off of memory, and my (trivial) understanding of the EG/DC front suspension, so I could be completely off here. Verify anything before taking my guesses as fact.

I worry about bushing stress, because you will be twisting the bushing along its axis of rotation, instead of about its axis. Then again, a swap out to a spherical would remove any and all concern. I don't know how to determine how much the bushing is actually deformed from its resting state with a couple of degrees of caster added. I'm also probably worrying too much over something not important enough to worry about...

 

Well thats encouraging to say the least. I do like the "idea" of added caster, as the EG/DC chassis has the least I've ever seen. But since I only street drive, reducing tram-lining would be my only motivation. I would also think that adding caster results in an increased steering effort at all speeds as well as a strong tendency for the steering wheel to center itself (not so good for manual steering). I figure this is due to the increased lifting effect of the inside tire as you steer. Is this true?

It is also interesting to note that increasing caster by moving the UCA ball-joint back, also reduces the wheel-base and moves the front wheels further rearward in the wheel well. Obviously the White-Line kit would have the opposite effect. This in and of itself also has an effect on vehicle handling & stability (how much I don't know). By using a combination of the White-line kit, and your UCA caster kit, you can attain a variety of caster settings as well as wheel-base lengths. Great stuff to keep in mind when experimenting at different tracks...

 

Wheel base won't change enough to notice. Even with +4.0* of caster, my front tire is maybe, and its a very strong maybe, moved a total of 1/2" back. Its just enough that if you look closely, you might be able to tell that the tire is not completely centered in the wheel well.

We are only talking about a 3* change on a (wild guess) 12" arm, after all. Additionally, the wheel won't move the full distance the ball joint does, lever arm effect and all that.

I should mention this. before anyone else flips their UCAs for caster, you will be giving up some suspension travel to do so. The UCAs are not symmetric (hence caster changes from flipping), and neither are the inner fenders/shock towers. The stock UCAs tuck up into the space well, and flipped they will hit sooner in the suspension travel.

I never flipped the stock arms, so I don't know what the difference in total travel is for them.

The SPC UCAs I'm using lose some travel over stock (like any camber adjusting UCA), because of their larger size and taller ball joint, and then I gave up another 1/4" to 1/2" or so of UCA travel with the flip. My shock towers are dented from occasional impacts. Eventually, they will work their way into the engine bay. This is not something that everyone will be willing to allow to happen to their car.

 

Dual rear sway bar on a 6th gen accord.

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread/2018213