2nd Gen struts in a 1st Gen

[79cord]

Probably a silly idea, but I was reading one of my OLD magazines from the launch of the 2nd gen Accord and they were commenting about Honda having shortened the frt struts for the new model, & revising damper rates but keeping similar spring rates much the same as the old model... Which got me wondering if it would be possible to swap in the later struts to bring the frt down an inch or so cheaply.
Obviously things might not fit or might not even have changed... & I believe the frt geometry was also revised slightly for the new model, along with 'offseting' the springs slightly on the struts, which Honda had first applied to the rear struts for '79 Accords in an attempt to reduce 'stiction' loads on the struts.

I might... get to a wrecker on the w/end to check but since some of you guys have both... & they would be sitting on the road to give sensible compressed lengths, I thought I would see what anyone elso thought.

[Ichiban]

it seems my 1g sits rather low compared to my 2g. I'll have a look at the struts sometime and see how close they are.

[2ndGenGuy]

I thought that struts only dampened the bumps. Where shocks actually support the car. I thought that it was springs that controlled ride height in these cars...

[79cord]

I was thinking of strut assemblies inc. springs & dmapers actually. Shock absorbers (inside struts) generally dampen ride but can sometimes be use to control ride height, though yes springs & their strut platform heights are a bigger factor in ride height.

[2ndGenGuy]

Oh ok I see what you mean. Maybe I can get some pics for ya tomorrow of the different assemblies. (On the car of course). I could pop a wheel off of my 1st gen and my 2nd gen and take pics of each. But yeah they're pretty similar looking how they mount up, 3 bolts at the top, and pinch bolt on the bottom. Don't see why it couldn't work.

But if the 2nd gen weighs more, and sits lower, maybe it will come back up to the same height if you put those back in the 1g. I guess the only way to know for sure is to find out.

[79cord]

Well I had a chance to check out some Accord Struts today & it seems they changed to bolt pattern at the tops of the struts, going to a smaller PCD diameter with the new model So I guess that rules out this idea pretty quickly. Though it still surprises me a little that they stayed with the original concept - when you look at the Preludes & 2nd gen Civics they used a number of ideas that were abandoned for the 2nd Accords.
Also spotted a Honda/Rover Quintet -the near Accord sized 5-door hatch that shared its platform with the 1st Prelude -ours were Built in Japan by Honda but sold through Rover since there wasn't that big a gap in the market below the Accord for it to fit...Thought it was surprising was that it was still being built in Nov '84 with the EL engine !
My main reason for being there was to check out some Suzuki,Diahatsu & Subaru Kei cars in search of frt Discs & 12inch wheels for the Z...which probably means going to 4x100 as well or maybe even 4x114 (not many cars use 4x110 either)!
Before I did though I hunted through the Honda .jp factbook for some pictures of the 2nd gen frt suspension layout & stumbled accross some of the crazy stuff they had available there for the 2nd gen: Sunroofs, 4whl discs, ALB, self-leveling suspension, Automatic Air-con......

[2ndGenGuy]

Well I had a chance to check out some Accord Struts today & it seems they changed to bolt pattern at the tops of the struts, going to a smaller PCD diameter with the new model So I guess that rules out this idea pretty quickly. Though it still surprises me a little that they stayed with the original concept - when you look at the Preludes & 2nd gen Civics they used a number of ideas that were abandoned for the 2nd Accords.
Also spotted a Honda/Rover Quintet -the near Accord sized 5-door hatch that shared its platform with the 1st Prelude -ours were Built in Japan by Honda but sold through Rover since there wasn't that big a gap in the market below the Accord for it to fit...Thought it was surprising was that it was still being built in Nov '84 with the EL engine !
My main reason for being there was to check out some Suzuki,Diahatsu & Subaru Kei cars in search of frt Discs & 12inch wheels for the Z...which probably means going to 4x100 as well or maybe even 4x114 (not many cars use 4x110 either)!
Before I did though I hunted through the Honda .jp factbook for some pictures of the 2nd gen frt suspension layout & stumbled accross some of the crazy stuff they had available there for the 2nd gen: Sunroofs, 4whl discs, ALB, self-leveling suspension, Automatic Air-con......

Self leveling suspension? Thats a new one for sure! Very cool! Must have been literally Japan only and in no other market.

I thought that the Rovers were only sold in the European market. I had no idea they were down in Australia too. Crazy stuff. I have a digital dash for the 2nd Gen Accord. It's for an automatic hatchback though. It's got some orange lettering and everything. I figure if I got it working one day, I'd switch out my dashboard to orange everything. But that's another feature that I have yet to see documented at all.