I am trying to put the stock suspension on my 1990 Civic DX hatchback. The first set of springs I used were all sorts of crazy and Im not even sure what car they were off of, but it was suspected to be off a 4 door EF. This second set of springs I got are from an 89 CRX. Maybe Im looking at this in a wrong way, or maybe I do just have the wrong springs. These springs are going on GR2's, if that makes any difference.

One spring has about 2 fingers worth of space in between each coil and is a smaller diameter at the top, and is the least stiff when pressing down. These I assumed are the front springs, and that the smaller diameter of the spring would typically be on
top.



The other is a smaller diameter, slightly taller, with more coils and about 1.5 finger gap in between the coils. On one end the coil is flattened. These I assume are the rear.

The "rear" springs seem to fit fine. They are centered and dont overlap or anything.
With the "front" springs, the bigger end of the spring overlaps the perch on the shock. If it is flipped over, the smaller end of the spring fits nicely, but then the spring is off center.





Front with small end on perch


Front with big end on perch


It seems the part numbers for the Civic and CRX all cross reference. Are there differences in the springs between a hatchback, CRX, and four door? I dont know anything about Hondas. I come from the Nissan world and it definitely seems to be much more simple back there.


Modified by supermegaawesome at 11:48 AM 5/28/2008


Modified by supermegaawesome at 12:10 PM 5/28/2008

 

88-91 civic/crx should all have the same stock springs.
unless 88-89 and 90-91 are different. [please correct me if im wrong]

but why use stock springs for after market shocks?

 

my car actually came with gr-2's and stock springs and i must say until i get something better they are great. They ride smooth as hell and are stiff enough for the normal/average daily driver.

 

Im having some difficulty along these same lines. Im trying to go from egay coils to stock springs. The front springs are giving me a headache just like the OP posted. It seems the bigger end doesnt fit in the tophat and sits crooked and when I tried to install with the big end on the strut it came off the strut.

 

The spring on the left looks like a rear spring. The spring on the right looks like a front