tron_

Andy, you're really making a name for yourself with the awesome customer support. Whenever a friend asks about coilovers, I always tell them to check AMR out for the best stuff on the market

Andy@AMR

Well were trying our best with our busy schedule. We don't have internet at our new location yet so I'm still at home trying to reply to all our e-mails, and pm's. We are simply blessed to have some great customers which allow us to do what we love to do.

We'll continue to bring out some nice suspension parts. Not trying to reinvent the wheel here, just want to develop solid products.

For those who are asking, spherical bearing top hats, extended top hats, oem style top hats..doesn't matter..we have them, if we don't we can make them. It's that simple. It's not products we push cause we don't want to, I simply have not gone out of my way to make it known. I figured sooner or later someone would figure it out or spread the word. We rely on pretty much word of mouth for our business. If I advertised every lil project that we have done for our clients, we'd have a very freakishly long list haha, and it would most likely be even crazier here. I just figured if any of these projects are worth a damn, people will find out about it, and ask us to make it.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Austin

Andy,

Would it be possible to see a picture of how your spherical bearing top hats are designed? I went searching on your site, and it doesn't have any references to the top hats on it. I'll need to replace mine in the future, but it's not a need at the moment...I've been spending more time crewing for an endurance team than actually driving my car recently.

Andy@AMR

Well you can simply look at any Macpherson setup we make. Evo X, Subaru, Saturn, etc...all use spherical bearings. All our camber plates, spherical bearing mounts for that type of suspension use a spherical bearing due to the nature of the design of the suspension. You will not find pictures of double wishbone suspension setups on our website with a spherical bearing mount as that is very uncommon. The top hat would look no different than a top hat we make for your application other than we would machine the center to house a spherical bearing rather than a rubber bushing Sr.

The only time a customer ever purchases a top hat with spherical bearings to be used on a double wishbone suspension have been all race cars running some form of coilover which used the factory top hat...many were running either Koni Yellows or Bilstein shock. I typically will not sell or make a spherical bearing top hat to be used on a double wishbone suspension if the customer is not racing his car as it is a waste of both my time, and the customers money. They are pretty much useless for this type of suspension especially for a daily driver for those reading this. I believe it is Tein, and many of these overseas companies who has marketed these "pillowball mounts" upgrades as being useful for double wishbone suspensions.

In your case you may need them, and I will be more than happy to work with you as it would be a piece of cake for us to do. You need to get back to driving my friend!!!! If you have us make a set for you, you will need the spring plates as well which are made for 2.5" ID springs. The spring plates allow for proper articulation of the top hat.

Austin

Exact reason I was curious as to how you produced yours. I've seen shafts of shocks start producing unusual wear/bluing due to the side loads generated and the lack of articulation on the shock/springs combination. You can't just install a spherical bearing in the top hat and call it a day!

About the driving...yeah, I agree! However we came in 3rd overall in the NASA 25 hour race! This year we have 50+ hp, better fuel economy, an actual fuel rig instead of the damn 10 gallon dump cans, and working on changing the brake setup.

jdmspoonitr

iTrader: (1)

AMR hats arrived. Pics below.

jdmspoonitr

iTrader: (1)

Here are the spherical tophats from AMR. I still have a few things to work out before I can install them. The Koni 8041 Race are designed for oem tophat thickness, so I am still trying to figure out a safe way to secure the AMR tophat in the proper location.

The koni shaft has a lip to support a washer, bushing, sleeve combination that keeps the shaft from passing through the tophat. With the spherical setup I am not sure if using the washer and sleeve is a safe way to keep the shaft from pushing through.

Essentially all of the load on that one corner would be pushing on that washer. I might have to think about it a bit more to see what I can come up with.





Here is a clearer pic of how I have them assembled for now. Again I will have to check with quite a few people before I am comfortable even trying to install them like this. If it is safe, I might need to mill down the sleeves so that they aren't quite so long.



Currently this is how i have it assembled:

Sleeve - fits into spherical bearing and threads onto Koni shaft
Aluminum hat
Washer
Koni 12mm sleeve sitting on shaft nub
Shock

Davidss

Pro Parts USA just came out with spherical bearing top hats. I just picked up a set:


http://store.propartsusa.com/street_.../i-580208.aspx

jdmspoonitr

iTrader: (1)

Yah I saw those. 500 a set though is pretty steep for some tophats. I still am not sure how to assemble the koni setup with spherical tophats. You need to sandwich the tophat so the shaft doesnt move. My washer method was the only way I could rig it, but it doesn't seem safe.

Andy@AMR

That doesn't look right. Where is your spring plate.

How it was done here.




If you have any questions please pm us or send us an e-mail.

jdmspoonitr

iTrader: (1)

Since the 8041 race has very little limited travel once loaded, I am not sure if I can use the spring plate and still allow for full travel of the suspension.

Andy@AMR

I will pm you, cause either way it is installed wrong. Thank you for the reply.

speedjunkie_g35

Never though top hats could be referred to as sexy but those are some sexy beast Andy!!!

Andy@AMR

Well you know we take great pride in the quality of our machine work, and product quality. Thank you for the compliment, I'll let my guys know. If anyone else needs a set let us know. Making custom top hats, and other parts is no problem for us.

grumblemarc

iTrader: (4)

These look like crap. But they're red!

jdmspoonitr

iTrader: (1)

Yep the AMR tophats are extremely well made. Once I test them out with the Koni setup I will report back and do a separate post. Should be installing within a week.

waner80

hey Andy can you pm me a price on a set of front and rear extended top hats for an eg 1 inch all the way around?

Andy@AMR

Sure thing.

EFSedan#6

iTrader: (3)

I know, back from the dead....

What Koni setup?? GC/Koni shocks??

Andy, I just ordered a set of Koni Performance Street Coilovers, P# 1150-5006-1. They come without top hats. What information would I need to see if your AMR top hats would fit the Koni Coilovers? I can only assume they have the same dampener size as the Yellows??? Unfortunately they wont be here for 6-10 weeks so any help would be great!! I would like to use your products on my car.

Andy@AMR

We can fit you with top hats for all 4 corners. Just fill out our online order form here with what you need, and we will make a top hat solution for you. Thank you for the support!
http://amrengineering.com/order-online

speedjunkie_g35

I was upset that I was unable to buy some AMR tophats for my CS-II as I am a old geazer who has them up as high as possible so I am afraid I would damage the valving of the shocks. Next coilovers I but will be AMR, I promise!!!

Andy@AMR

I know you posted this 3 years ago, and I randomly found this thread searching for something else, but just an update. CS-2 top hats are now available for those not looking to reuse the old steel oem top mounts. Our replacement machined aluminum top mounts are made to replace the oem top mounts, and can be used for setups that require the oem top mounts such as Tein Basics, Tein SS, Progress coilovers, Koni, as well as KW.

If you do not have, or don't want to reuse the oem top mounts, our aluminum mounts are the way to go.

https://amrengineering.com/product/a...ment-top-hats/