generic coilovers?

[detobias]

cool ; Really looking forward to the Ride Report !! :)

[Christ]

Someone at some point tested a few of the eBay coilover sets... I think the Honda set ended up about 300# or so. You can simulate in your mind from there... the Honda coilover springs are all equal length, and they're about 9 inches tall, 3.5 diameter.

[turbo minivan]

^ someone said mine were 400-450? wow! maybe a little much!
well there all in now and it sure does look lie it will be stiff! i can barely bounce the front end! the back is softer as it should be, but its still gona ride hard and AWSOME! ha ha!

[Christ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbo minivan ^ someone said mine were 400-450? wow! maybe a little much! well there all in now and it sure does look lie it will be stiff! i can barely bounce the front end! the back is softer as it should be, but its still gona ride hard and AWSOME! ha ha!

I really wouldn't think 400# to be much of a stretch, honestly. Those springs are usually cut from basic stocks that are just wound to a specific spec... they usually don't have any kind of actual progressive dampening or true suspension characteristics in mind when winding the spring stocks.

The biggest complaint with coilovers is that you can't set pre-load on the springs while they're lowered.

That's another time that the lengthened strut bearings come handy... once the strut is at max length again, you can set pre-load on the springs.

[Swampwing]

Just for the fun of it. Here are two photos of the same car with the ONLY difference being the first photo has Koni rear struts and the second one has Monroes. The exact same photo position came out a little less clear so I chose a clearer one, even though it is the other side. Also, keep in mind the car started out with 2 degrees of negative camber in the rear static.

Which one do you think handled like crap with the same springs? The best springs will not make up for a strut doing something it was not meant for.

Sorry they are not of a Dodge, but I like rear wheel drive for the track.

[turbo minivan]

^ duly noted, but again, i can live with what i have till i have 1000$ to burn on konis that couldn't be better spent on something else. im not looking to full out auto-x or road course this thing. its just a fun suspension for the street.

[Swampwing]

I thought that was a pretty cool discovery when I was chasing some handling problems. Nothing like moving 4 degrees of camber (-2 to +2?) from just turning.

Forgot to add. The springs were the same stock Fiero springs with about 1.5 coils cut off them. I still run the "hacked" springs 4 years later with no issues since I switched to the Konis.

They are expensive new, but I bought all 4 out of a junkyard Fiero with excellent pressure for $37. It always pays to look over yard cars. You never know what you can find.

[turbo minivan]

^ ha ha! its true! i found a full greddy electric boost controller, and a full crane cams ignition system at the J-yard for 15$. it was a happy day! ha ha! they both work great!

[turbo minivan]

well, i drove it today with its new coilovers.
WOW! even with crazy feeling spring weights the car seems to ride quite nice. a bit stiff like any car with suspension, but still very nice! it corners like mad from what i can tell (still kinda snowy here) without putting it in the ditch. but, over all, im VERY impressed with my 100$ coilovers on my sensatrack struts!!!!

[detobias]

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbo minivan what im mostly concerned about is the collars inner diameter, and if it will slide over my struts. different kits come with different spring heights (fronts and backs) but i dont want to order a kit and have the collar come with a 1 7/8" inner diameter when the front struts are 2". ya know? what were your sleeves inner diameter?

YEAH !

I got two L-body rear shocks here,
a Monroe Formula GP with OD ~38.5mm;
and a GLHS Koni with OD ~40mm

what was that Civic kit collar ID ?
what was the Talon kits collar ID ?
I'm lookin at these:

S HONDA CIVIC EG 92-95 SCALE COILOVER LOWERING SPRING:eBay Motors (item 220423242843 end time Oct-24-09 19:35:54 PDT)

hey look L-body specific kit!
Ground Control Coilovers: No Limit Motorsport

[thisseytisga]

i just bought and installed the ground controls on my glhs, w/ the konis, they work really nice. and i gotem for379 and free shipping.

[85CHRGRon17"]

Quote:

Originally Posted by turbo minivan well, i drove it today with its new coilovers. WOW! even with crazy feeling spring weights the car seems to ride quite nice. a bit stiff like any car with suspension, but still very nice! it corners like mad from what i can tell (still kinda snowy here) without putting it in the ditch. but, over all, im VERY impressed with my 100$ coilovers on my sensatrack struts!!!!

I was wondering how much adjustment you get with the generic kit....I'm looking to lower the front of my L body, while deleting the squishy sag in the rear. I'm not to worried about a stiff or rough ride. At the same time I would like to achieve some performance gain when is comes to cornering... This car is not going to be raced but, I would still like to be confident with my suspension under hard cornering. Or would my money be better spent on the ground control coil overs?

[TonaChris]

A member named Garrett from winnipeg did this to his daytona with the civic kit. He did front and rears. He did a how to of it and it used to be on this site somewhere. If its not on this site anymore, I know for sure its on "the other forum" in the how to section.

[seth959]

does anyone know if it would be more/less difficult to install the coilovers on a spirit?

[thisseytisga]

Quote:

Originally Posted by seth959 does anyone know if it would be more/less difficult to install the coilovers on a spirit?

it took me 3 hours to do all 4 corners on my S. and that was cleaning and scrubbing the konis added to that. the spirit isnt going to be hard either, these cars are easy to work on. but owning one you should already know that