Just bought a 91 Crx that needs some tlc. I recently replaced both front struts with used oem struts. The oem springs are in good condition. The problem is that the passenger side top portion of the strut has “play” in the top hat. The highlighted area moves around within the top hat unlike the driver’s side assembly. I’ll be taking the assembly apart, but what is causing this to happen (trying to get an idea what to look for)? I’m not sure if there are some missing parts in the assembly or if the strut is bad. TIA

Here is the passenger's side assembly, you can see the upper bushing has gap between the top hat, it moves around and makes noise when hitting a bump:



And here is the driver's side assembly, the bushing fits tightly inside of the top hat, there's no play:







Modified by Nisif at 4:11 AM 1/9/2008

 

most likely a washer is missing... this happens quite often... too often

 

I would remove both driver and passenger sides and compare the two and evaluate what is missing from the passenger side. Good luck.

 

You left out the washer that sits below the bottom side mounting rubber. On a stock shock, the shock rod tapers from the 12mm working diameter down to the 10mm pin diameter and there should be a washer sitting at that taper point that has a corresponding taper in its ID that sits on the shoulder of the rod. That is almost certainly missing so there is nothing to locate the rod to the top hat.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That is almost certainly missing so there is nothing to locate the rod to the top hat.</TD></TR></TABLE>

100% correct.

looks like this

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tyson &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

100% correct.

looks like this
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Great, thanks for the help guys. I'll be taking it apart tomorrow night after work. Here's a diagram from a honda website, is it part #12 that you suggested I'm missing?

 

yessir

 

Nisif,

If you don't find one locally in Dayton, I have several of them in my spare parts bin accumulated over the years and I live in Northern KY (by the Cincinnati Airport). Send me a PM with your address and I can drop some in an envelope for you and you'll have it on 1-2 days.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRX Lee &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Nisif,

If you don't find one locally in Dayton, I have several of them in my spare parts bin accumulated over the years and I live in Northern KY (by the Cincinnati Airport). Send me a PM with your address and I can drop some in an envelope for you and you'll have it on 1-2 days.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Pm'd, guess I should hang out in this forum more often... thanks everyone, you've been very helpful

 

Fisrt post on Honda-tech, just so you know!

I think you'll find that the missing part (if there is a missing part) is number 7, and is the washer with the tapered fitting that sits on the tapered shoulder of the shaft (as in the other photo provided by Tyson). Number 12 is the uppermost bush retaining washer that you can see on the top of the damper under the upper nut.

If you don't have a missing part, your unwanted play could possibly be caused by the upper rubber damper bushes being collapsed or compressed to the point they are no longer adequately locating the damper shaft.

However, some movement in the rubber bush at this point is normal and desirable for a less harsh suspension (the stock bushes are very soft), but, the softer the bush the worse it is for handling response etc. This is because a soft bush at this point effectively softens the initial damper rate in both bump and rebound (more of an issue for stiffer dampers than softer, considering the stiffer damper will have been deliberately fitted for reasons other than a comfy ride, and the soft bush will work against this).

The effective damper rate will be softer until the soft bush becomes more compressed, but the bush will uncompress each time loading is lessened / removed from the bush and then recompress again with the effectively softer 'initial' rate. This happens all the time on less than perfecly smooth road surfaces, and during any transient manouvres, and if the bush is soft promotes poor response.

Fitting poly bushes to stiffen up the damper mounting will improve matters in this regard, as will 'pre-loading' the stock rubber bush by compressing it with a thick spacer (about 5mm thick), which is what I've done on my CB7 for a noticable improvement. Such a spacer should be about the same size as the stock upper washer, fitted under the stock upper washer, and have it's centre drilled to a size that allows it to pass over the crush tube so that it doesn't get trapped between the crush tube and the upper washer (i.e. it must bear against the rubber bush, not the crush tube).

Hope this might be useful or otherwise of interest.

Regards from Oz,
John Learmonth.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johnlear &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
I think you'll find that the missing part (if there is a missing part) is number 7, and is the washer with the tapered fitting that sits on the tapered shoulder of the shaft (as in the other photo provided by Tyson). Number 12 is the uppermost bush retaining washer that you can see on the top of the damper under the upper nut.
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Right on the money, pulled it apart and the bottom rubber bushing #7 that mounts in the top hat was missing. The car will be aligned tomorrow morning, so hopefully all goes well. Unfortunately the driver's side wheel has some obvious "visual" positive camber so hopefully it'll be squared away with the alignment. I'm beginning to hate the prior owner for his work or lack of, maybe it's another missing part ...