The Maruha hats will work wherever stock hats worked previously. They literally look OEM in every way, except being taller.

I'd go a touch higher on the spring rates, but that becomes personal preference more than anything.

 

Spring Isolators: Energy Suspension Coil Spring Isolators 9.6103G

I attempted to mount these to the Maruha top hats using 3M 90 High Strength contact cement, after first cleaning with brake cleaner. It did not seem to really hold in place.

Now I'm concerned that the springs will move them off-center, and the top of the shock will crunch the Isolator, rather than pass though it to the bump stop.

Questions:
I noticed that someone above mounted theirs with screws. What other choices of mounting are used? Is my concern valid? Are there other / better top pieces (like the really big one that is well bonded to the NB top hat that FCM supplied?)

Side comments:
1) FCM used a short little sleeve that had no squared-off area to interface with the circlip. Only an internal tapered interface. Seems to have worked fine.
2) FCM had an o-ring between the sleeve and shock body to keep the sleeve from rotating when adjusting the perch. Nice feature. I cut off the Altstar sleeve such that there was no room to put the o-ring. If I were doing it again, I would leave 1/4" or so above the second sleeve ring (internal fit to shock body) to place the o-ring.

What I have done is 425 Front @ 5.5" to pinch, and 275 Rear @ 5.7" to pinch. 1.063" solid roll bar in front. Similar to FireinDC's set-up. Hard to bottom out. Seems neutral, but have not had it on track (Oct 20). When crossing road crown, or roughness on one side only, car wants to change direction a bit, making me think I have a bit of toe-out on the front.

All for now.

 

Just leave the coil spring isolator as is. I have Maruha hats + isolators.My 5 cents.

 

I cleaned the crap out of the isolators because they are covered in mold release. Then I used some silka polyurethane caulk from HDR. EZPZ.

 

I have Maruha coilovers here, that use OEM-style top hats but typical 2.5" springs. They do have an aluminum ring to used to locate the spring on the top hat. I can measure it up for you if you can have a couple made locally.

 

I will see how things hold up.

This approach is what I was looking for. Do you mean Sikaflex?

I don't think so. Just a picture of the assembly would be fine.

 

Yeah, that's the stuff. The sikaflex formulation is way easier to apply than the loctite formulation. But basically, just polyurethane caulk. Bonds like a **** and more or less has all the same material properties as the isolator.

 

Here you go; not the best ones, but hope they help. If not I can take more (suspension is still in my storage room)

 

I’m picturing no elastomer between the spring and hat. Just the Al piece. Then the OD of the Al piece is large enough to be held in position radially by the flange of the hat.

 

Exactly.

 

Then yes, please measure OD. I may want to make a washer to take up the area between the urethane pad and the flange.

 

Sorry for the terrible quality but here's my diy attempt. Set of used na hd billies from ebay, new 5x racing threaded sleeves, 9k front 6k rear main springs, helper springs and isc top hats.

 

So i have been running my setup for a while daily driving it and was having the issue of the rear springs clanging around and making awful noises. It was getting worse and I just assumed I needed the isolator to be screwed in and trim the sleeves. After living with it for far too long I finally took it all out and was greeted with this. These are ISC top hats. Has anyone else seen this happen before? I put my oem nb top hats back in and it rides and sounds a million times better than with the ISC top hats.

 

Was it a clanging sound or a high pitched squeaking sound? When I first did mine, there was an awful squeaking sound, and when I bounced the car up and down I could see the shock moving up an down relative to the tophat. I added a bunch of washers to the top so there was more compression on the bushings, but I could see how it would cause that problem were it allowed to continue.

 

It started as squeaking just like you said if you pushed on the car while it was on the ground, but very quickly turned to a clanging sound

 

It looks like the springs were moving around (evidenced by rubbing on the coil over sleeves), which can cause a clanging sound but its not likely to actually damage much. However, the wear in the shocks/tophats is terrifying to me.

 

Those parts are now junk and need to be replaced.

--Ian

 

Dude, that's not good. Your rods were moving up and down "sawing" on your tophats. They weren't tight enough. Lots of scrap metal there now.

 

I agree. What can I do to make it tighter in the future? Do I just add more washers? is it unreasonable for me to keep using those shocks? Do I need new shocks?

 

Yes. That shock shaft is massively compromised.