DIY: Front 1988-1990 Civic struts.

[Legend_master]

So I was reading through Vectors thread on his b18 swap. His suspension setup was brought up, and helped lead me to a way in which we could run the civic struts without having to do any major modification. The problem up until now was that either the top hat had to be re-welded, or the lower piece of the strut must be modified (as I did in this thread) . With the setup Vector is running you would only need parts from a hardware store.

Whats required
1. 1988-1990 Front Civic struts (87's might work, but I can't verify that)
2. 8 - 4" carriage bolts that are 1/2" thick.
3. 4 - 86-89 Front Accord Top hats.
4. 9 - Primary Nuts that fit the carriage bolts.
5. 9 - Secondary Nuts that fit the carriage bolts.

Step 1: First you must remove the studs from all 4 top hats
Cut and press out the hat studs, drilled out the holes so the carriage bolt fit nicely(didn't have to do anything to the fenders of the car), most carriage bolts i believe are flat on the end... so they wont obstruct the rubber washer to much... i had to cut some rubber away from the washer to make it fit properly.. but once i did it worked like a dream. Make the holes on the two bottom hats slightly bigger, because the bolts used are square after the thread ends.







Little note from Vector on this one

its easier to cut the threaded part off instead of pressing the whole thing through... i broke a vice trying it that way initially.

Step 2: Mount the lower top hats to the chassis
Don't use any of the strut bushings, or washers that hold the strut to the top hat. Use the carriage bolts to hold the top hat in place. Use one of each kind of nut on the top of each carriage bolt.




Step 3: Installing the second top hat
Place one of each kind of nut onto the carriage bolts, then place the top hat ontop of those. Now you must place 1 more of each kind of nut ontop of the top hat. This is how you adjust the hights for the strut travel. These bolts need to all be even.




Step 4: Mounting the strut
You can now mount the struts in the same manner as you would regularly. The only difference would be that you are mounting the strut to the top-top hat and not the bottom one.

Here is how Vector installed the struts.

put the top hat on.. put 2 nuts again on each bolt... flanged first then secondary.. do not tighten these.. as you will need to adjust the suspension once the shocks are in.

this is kinda a tricky part... i disconnected my sway bar to make this easier. i had my car on jack stands so i had the jack free...you will have to disconnect the upper control arms.. i just undid the 2x 17m nuts and let the arm fall out..
might not need to do this if your sway bar is not connected.. I'm not sure as mine already was.

so put the shock and spring in... no need for spring compressors here just keep the jack under the lca so it doesn't drop and pull the cv apart.. and seat the spring... make sure the shock shaft goes through the hole of the bottom hat... jack it up alittle so it stays there. go up top and put the washer and bushing for the bottom of the hat.. jack it up some more so it pokes through the top of the hat enough to get the top bushing and washer with nut on, nut the uca back in, you are done for that side, repeat for other side, reconnect sway bar and put front wheels on.. take off jacks... tighten shock nuts and set the hats to the desired level.

Warning: if you jack up the lca to much.. it can cause the car to become unstable on jack stands....i tightened up my shock nuts when the car was siting back on the ground. also.. i dont know if there are any side affects of the shock fully extending rapidly, idont know if it will damage it over time or not .. I've been pretty abusive with my oem shocks with this mod since the cars been back on the road and it still feels as stiff as the day i conjured this contraption.

This thread will be updated as I work with vector a little more. I already asked him if it was ok to make this thread, so we are all good there . Thanks again to Vector, and this really helps open a window for front suspension options.

[ghettogeddy]

so u wouldent even need to raise it up that hogh but what about an inch

[Legend_master]

so u wouldent even need to raise it up that hogh but what about an inch

About an 1 1/2". You could also do the lower pitch fork mod, and allow you to lower the car even more. Also if you did my mod, vectors mod, and the pitch fork mod you could slam the hell out of the front .

[Cheeseburger]

wicked!

[Vector]

the idea of this mod was to use oem shocks with drop springs... and now its evolved into something much more useful. you can offset the shock by how much you lower the car... reason for this is so that over time you dont destroy your shocks in a matter of months.. as far as it knows.. its riding stock.

so you put in 2.5" lowering springs in... you bring the hat up 2.5" measuring from the top to bottom centers before put it together. bam... the shocks in its supposed to be comfort zone..

[MessyHonda]

man that look good...does that mean we could get civic konis? and do the mod.....my front end is good right now but i will need better shocks down the road.

[ghettogeddy]

but now we can use civic adj struts so ur basic strut mod turned into a big thing lol

[ghettogeddy]

looks like ud be able to use a strut bar still as well

also after thinking about it it could help with strut bars for carbs without the civic box install

[Vector]

glad i could help... i swore to myself when i found this site and started working on my 3g that i would make something useful for you guys..

looks like ud be able to use a strut bar still as well

yes.. only if you run it in between the nuts to the fender... and nothing higher. or stuff WILL break.

[Legend_master]

glad i could help... i swore to myself when i found this site and started working on my 3g that i would make something useful for you guys..

Lets not forget the rather simple b18 swap

[Vector]

Lets not forget the rather simple b18 swap

yea it only took a few months to figure that i had a perfectly good mount point free on the car that i could use easily.. thats gonna be a awesome to try to explain that one .

[AccordB20A]

heres one for ya... i have koni yellows all round from a ba5 lude in my accord.. fronts lower car like 30mm but the rears are way longer, they actually raised the car at the back so it looks funny, if i did this mod on the back and used it to compress the spring to get more lowering would it work?? or would that stuff the shock having it hardcore topped out all the time??

[Legend_master]

heres one for ya... i have koni yellows all round from a ba5 lude in my accord.. fronts lower car like 30mm but the rears are way longer, they actually raised the car at the back so it looks funny, if i did this mod on the back and used it to compress the spring to get more lowering would it work?? or would that stuff the shock having it hardcore topped out all the time??

He did a different mod in the rear, but it is similar. We are going to make a thread completely separate for the rear.

[2oodoor]

innovative idea
how do you tie in the cross bars with that rig to stabilze the strut towers?
The hardware is rough looking but, well it gives me an idea to maybe make a cross bar with tubes welded in the ends to create the space.

[Vector]

innovative idea
how do you tie in the cross bars with that rig to stabilze the strut towers?
The hardware is rough looking but, well it gives me an idea to maybe make a cross bar with tubes welded in the ends to create the space.

what like a strut tower bar?... should bolt on exactly the same as it would with the stock hats. only diference is... if your making your own now you can make it thicker since theres alot of thread to play with... another thing to.. for the rear brace.. as you can see it will be dificult to get it to sit flat on the against the wheel well as its uneven.. so i'm contemplating that if you make the end pieces out of 3mm thick steel or thicker.. shouldnt be a problem.

only thing i'm questioning tho.. is do we really need it?.. does the body on these cars flex that much when hard cornering is needed?.. if so i will go out right now and make one for my car lol.

[Vector]

heres one for ya... i have koni yellows all round from a ba5 lude in my accord.. fronts lower car like 30mm but the rears are way longer, they actually raised the car at the back so it looks funny, if i did this mod on the back and used it to compress the spring to get more lowering would it work?? or would that stuff the shock having it hardcore topped out all the time??

you would virtually have no suspension travel in the back... i dont think its a good idea... if you used diferent springs with those, then you wouldnt have to compress them that way and you'd probably could do use them no problem. pulling on the strut for that long cant be good for it anyway.

[BITESIZE]

Does the hood still close?

[Vector]

Does the hood still close?

yes

[2oodoor]

only thing i'm questioning tho.. is do we really need it?.. does the body on these cars flex that much when hard cornering is needed?.. if so i will go out right now and make one for my car lol.

Yes when you put it to the limits, which you never know when that is going to be !!
Ive seen photos of SCAA racing and dirt track, rallys.. where the whole corner of the cars is lifting off the ground from the turns, dips or what have you. Of course some of those could be BECAUSE the tower are tied together.. lol
Things like the bars and roll cages really make a difference in the ridgidity of the unibody and helps you tune the suspension for more consistency.
I like this thread and the ideas, it is a lot easier to make the subframing to make these strut parts work than it would be to make the struts themselves..(duh) and when they break you can just put the new one in without all the fab work again.

[Legend_master]

Yes when you put it to the limits, which you never know when that is going to be !!
Ive seen photos of SCAA racing and dirt track, rallys.. where the whole corner of the cars is lifting off the ground from the turns, dips or what have you. Of course some of those could be BECAUSE the tower are tied together.. lol
Things like the bars and roll cages really make a difference in the ridgidity of the unibody and helps you tune the suspension for more consistency.
I like this thread and the ideas, it is a lot easier to make the subframing to make these strut parts work than it would be to make the struts themselves..(duh) and when they break you can just put the new one in without all the fab work again.

That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw his idea.

[BITESIZE]

The only draw back is, it looks like crap. I guess you could make a plastic housing to go over top of them.

[Vector]

i race the car on a consistant basis, i'm not to worried what it looks like as long as it moves..

[MessyHonda]

The only draw back is, it looks like crap. I guess you could make a plastic housing to go over top of them.

who cares what it looks likes i would that that over blown tokicos any day.

[Vector]

i'm gonna clean up the hats and repaint them... that will make it look nicer... i wouldnt want to cover them up.. i like it when people go "wtf is that" haw

[Legend_master]

THanks to vector we have pics now .