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On the under side of the tophat. Bumpstops engage, rubber bits in the tophat flex, washer hits tophat.
The washer's are larger than the rubber bits in the tophat, presumably to keep the bumpstop from ending up in the trunk.
Thanks to all who have contributed. Made figuring out what is going on possible. It pays to read the entire thread.
Below are some build images.
I found some inexpensive Ground Control sleeves and perches that are too big for Bilstein circlips. I turned down the NB lower perches to keep the same NB circlip interface and slide the GC sleeves over and onto the turned NB perch. Had to make lower circip grooves to achieve Allstar etc. threaded perch height.
Made 1" front and 1.5" rear extended tophats from NB hats.
Bumpstops are NB stock front/rear till I figure out what I need. Without springs I can lift the rear on the bumpstops and the tire doesn't rub, but is very deep into wheel well without coil bind. 6" springs front and rear planned.
Easy tab removal. Clamp in vice and gently twist towards/away from self. Turning new circlip grooves. Up to 1.5 lower Turning NB bottom perches NB perch top view NB perch bottom view Turning down under hat bushing washer Under hat bushing washers turned down NB turned perches and too-big Ground Control sleeves. Before circlip turning. Stock NB hats / bushings with turned lower washers. Milled from bottom to release center of top hat. Inserted a length of pipe for the pre weld 1.00" hat. Welded hats. Bedliner sprayed Post weld tophats. Pipe centers spring Hat in trunk. 1.50" Rear left in place.
Tightened the fronts, no scraping there, went to the backs and the spring is scraping against the 4" sleeves. I can spin the sleeve around on the shock easily, do I just need more tape around the shock/sleeve combo to stop it from doing that? The car isn't even that low
UPDATE - I spent the day tearing down the rears, the aluminum tape was in the very middle of the sleeve/shock, which allowed the sleeve to move and contact the spring. Put one layer of aluminum tape at the top near the sleeves top, and one near the bottom. Put everything back together and no more clunking.
Last edited by HowPrayGame; 01-28-2019 at 05:51 PM.
Since the arms travel in an arc the tophats can impart a little sideways movement to the springs (probably not describing that well). The bushings at the tophat allow for this leaning motion to keep the shock from being bound by these forces but down help the springs much. Some springs can rub more than others depending upon locating hardware and the diameter of the adjuster threads versus the inner diameter of the coils. Some don't rub at all.
Remember, we are using a much smaller diameter spring than stock with a stock size shock and then throw an adjusting collar on it to make the clearance even tighter. It is possible in the above picture to cut down some of the excess threaded section above the spring perch. Adding tape would likely just cause damaged tape.
And be sure the threaded body doesn't contact the inside of extended tophats, if you have them. Most extended tophats don't have room for them.
It doesn't look like the top-hat is contacting the top of the sleeve, paint on the inside of the springs is missing where it would hit around the sleeve area, maruha tophats are scratch free. I added additional aluminum tape between the shock/sleeve, and lowered the rears a bit to match the front ride height. Will see if I need to chop the thread to 3" length instead of 4"
This is why I have been hearing metal on metal contact from the rear right, and why the sleeve was getting scraped.
Spring Isolator didn't capture the spring, will take it apart and see if its still glued or if I just didn't let it down gently enough
UPDATE - Jacked the car up, reseated the spring by hand, will see if that solution lasts. May need a better spring isolator, or helper springs to stop it from doing this.
UPDATE 2 - Went down the road and it almost instantly came unseated. Took the shock out, the isolator had one side come unglued. Putting it back together with Gorilla Superglue this time
Last edited by HowPrayGame; 01-31-2019 at 02:58 PM.
What in the world do people "think" they can use to glue these down? Those are like silicone pieces with some kind of release film. Slicker than goose poop on a pump handle.
What are people doing to get this to work? Seems like a band aid.
I always wondered why people bothered glueing the isolators down. There's litterally 100's of lbs of force on these and there is no way this will locate the spring. You either make/buy top hats with a spring locator built in or you rotate the spring until it's centered on the top hat. And check them every time you jack up the car.
I like the method of drill/tapping the tophat and screwing them on with couter sunk screws. I saw it on a youtube video somehwere about miata DIY billies. Seemed like a smart idea.
I'm too lazy to tap and screw them onto the top-hat, from what I could tell my original glue job wasn't very good. Just set the car back down and the spring is seated correctly on the isolator. I think when I initially let the car down after install, the rear spring wasn't seated correctly. Will let it sit for an hour or so before testing it out. I also put gorilla tape around the sleeve, just in case it still scrapes. The threads that were getting eaten were pretty close to being gone. Can pull the tape off if its all good
Curious to see your results on this. I have all the parts for pretty much the exact setup sitting at my house waiting for the snow to melt so I can work on the car again.
Other than the scraping noise I got over big bumps from the partially seated spring, it rides very well. Much more comfortable than the stock Hard S Bilstein setup. It helps to have bumpstops, I can feel bumps in the road but they aren't jarring. I can take corners pretty fast and have much less body roll than I did before. At my ride height I only scrape on some tiny speed bumps, if I go too fast on them. Can handle Tampa Roads fine. I haven't autocrossed or tracked my car but eventually I will have to, I feel like the 450/300 springs are a perfect compromise in comfort and performance.\
UPDATE - Spring is seated, no more scraping noises. Pretty sure the glue connecting the spring isolator to the tophat failing is what caused the scrapes, as well as missing some tape between the top of the coil sleeve & the shock body
Last edited by HowPrayGame; 01-31-2019 at 06:55 PM.
7” 2.25” springs on NB Koni sports with koni sleeve kit. This is fully maxed out low. Suspension was torqued on hubstands. Car has driven forward and reverse. Front is 5.75” pinch weld. Rear is 5.38”. Looks ok but definitely not low. The konis are a bad choice if you want to go low. They are a good choice if you want higher spring rates without a low ride height.
Last edited by mrmonk7663; 01-31-2019 at 06:06 PM.
Reason: Information
01-28-2019, 02:31 PM
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