I recently replaced my stock shocks and springs with koni shocks and eibach sportline springs. After installation, instead of getting a 1.8 drop, i got a 1.8 lift! im talking about a 4 finger fender gap. so i called eibach and they told me to trim the current bump stops an inch and a half and preload the springs. i was thinking of replacing the stock bump stops with energy suspension bump stops. if i do replace the bump stops, would i still need to trim them? or are energy suspension bump stops already pre-cut or shorter than stock bump stops? as for preloading the springs, i wouldnt know where to start. and pictures of where exactly the bump stops, washers, and rubber bushings are positioned on the shock assembly would really help me out. im not really sure if i put everything back together correctly.


Modified by flipinxgeez at 12:00 AM 10/15/2007

 

For one thing, bump stops have no effect on ride height whatsoever.

Now, go look at the Koni shock install stickied at the top of this forum, look at the process and see if it looks like what you did, or if you left anything out.

Of course you need to tell us what car this went on. Also, if you could jack up the car, remove a front tire and a rear tire, and take a pic of the front and rear spring/shock assembly and post it up, I and some others on here will be much better apt at helping you figure out if you installed something wrong or not.

This pic shows the order that everything goes on, shown disassembled here:



I'm running stock GS-R springs in front with the Koni spring perch on the lowest setting, and my car is at least 1" if not 1.5" lower than stock in front.

 

Well the car is a 97 civic sedan. ill post up pics when i get home from school. After looking at the Koni Shock Install, it looks like i did everything right. Except I didnt replace the stock metal collar with the one supplied by Koni because I wasnt supplied one. But other than that, everything else looks like I did it right.

 

**Awaits pics**

Is this a lift on all 4 corners? Just the front? Just rear?

Sounds interesting, I would say something was wrong during the assembly.

 

sorry for the delay on the pics and sorry the pics arent as clear as they should be, but its the best i could do at work. the lift is just on the front. im fine with the rear

here is the front fender gap:




here is the rear:




Here is the front spring/shock assembly:




Here is the rear spring/shock assembly:

 

From taking a quick look i cant see any MAJOR Flaws in your setup.

The best i can do is say that maybe your front Assembly hasnt been installed far enough into the Fork?

There is not pic of the Assembly going into the fork so i'm not sure.

 

ohhh you got Koni Specials (Reds) not the Sports (Yellows). I'm not sure if those have height adjustment like the Sports do or not.

But yeah can you get a pic where the bottom of the front shock goes into the fork?

Also why did you not install the factory dust covers? The shocks will wear out faster with the piston rod exposed to dirt, water, etc.

 

i think you got the springs mixed up. try putting on the ones you have in the front in the rear and the rear in the front.

 

doubt it. Switching the springs front to rear would make the front sit extremely low, and the back look really high.

 

i just thought to throw it out there cause when i was helping my friend install a set of springs on his ek coupe we mixed up the front and rears. and it came out exactly like OP car, front lifted rear dropped. just thought i could help.

 

I guess the EK might have longer springs in the back or something. EG/DC has longer front springs and shorter rear springs. If you install them on the wrong end, you end up super-slammed up front and lifted in the rear.

 

yeah ill take pics of the shock fork. Now that i think of it, it might be the problem. We installed the spring and shocks on a lift so maybe the brake line bracket and shock fork arent as high as they should be. and as for the dust covers, they kinda got stepped on, so i have to go to our local honda junkyard and find some.

 

If these are like Koni Sports where you had to transfer the brake line brackets from the original shocks, there should be little bumps near the bottom of the shock that stop the brake line bracket from going any higher. The bracket should be pushed up fully against those, and then the fork should be slid up and seated fully against the brackets, with the tab on the rear side of the bracket fitting in the slot on the fork.

 

Is that spring perch installed the correct way? I would assume if it was flipped upside down from how it is now, it would lower the front some. I could be completely wrong here, as I used GC sleeves on my Konis and don't know how a normal spring installs on them.

 

OH DANG!!!! That's exactly it!!

I can't believe I missed that earlier. Yes, the front spring perch is installed upside down. Common mistake made with Koni shocks. My friend made the same mistake with on his 98 hatch. When we took them out and flipped the spring perches over, the front sat perfectly.

If you look at your stock shock's spring perches, you'll see how the front springs sort of fit "over" the perch, with the actual flange down lower than the middle part.

The way you've got it now makes it sit about an inch higher than it should be sitting.

Look at the pic of my Koni shock at the top of the thread. That's how the perch should be installed.

 

oh snap!! it all makes perfect sense now! but just to make sure, since the back sits fine, i shouldnt even bother with it..right?

 

Yes the back is fine. There is no way you can install the rear perch upside down and have the spring sit properly on it. The front perch is the only place where that can happen.

But yeah, the rear is installed correctly.

 

how about an "after" pic?