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Willdat's this wasn't supposed to be a project Honda Beagle


Willdat?

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Fitted Konis tonight, like @chris r said they bolted straight up, in fact I've had more trouble with bike tyres than I had swapping suspension over - it actually would almost be worth swapping them in and out each WOF if you were that way inclined. I've only done a lap around the block  with all 4 shocks wound all the way to firm, felt hilarious, definitely less body roll. Height wise the rears look like I can get about stock + or - 50 mm in height. Fronts are hopefully capable of the same. Really need some C spanners to have a proper play.

edit: Figured out I had them wound all the way to soft, crikey, slammed on firm is going to be interesting. C-Spanners are on the way.

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Managed to wind up another 5 mm into the front - full firm is actually amazing handling on seal, and full soft is tolerable for general driving. I've popped adjustable camber arms in the rear (arguably the nicest item on the entire car...). Will be going to a guy who likes unusual cars in the next few weeks for a wheel allignment and some advice on springs, I'd really like another 25mm-50mm of height in front, but that's more about aesthetics/general rock dodging than necessity.

Took my little brother for a drive, doorts sooo nicely, but still pretty slow. I wonder if @chris r still has that braced DOHC ZC block? Quite keen to build up a turbo engine and gearbox slowly over the next few years...

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12 minutes ago, Willdat? said:

Managed to wind up another 5 mm into the front - full firm is actually amazing handling on seal, and full soft is tolerable for general driving. I've popped adjustable camber arms in the rear (arguably the nicest item on the entire car...). Will be going to a guy who likes unusual cars in the next few weeks for a wheel allignment and some advice on springs, I'd really like another 25mm-50mm of height in front, but that's more about aesthetics/general rock dodging than necessity.

Took my little brother for a drive, doorts sooo nicely, but still pretty slow. I wonder if @chris r still has that braced DOHC ZC block? Quite keen to build up a turbo engine and gearbox slowly over the next few years...

Turns out r its a sohc block but ill dig out the info 

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I doubt you'll be able to go higher without having top-out issues. Remember that droop travel is just as important as bump travel when traveling over bumpy surfaces. I'd advise adding spacers above the shock top hats if you want to raise the ride height without losing too much bump travel. 

It's also a good idea to remove the springs and run the shock through its travel to see when the bump stop kicks in and how much clearance there is for the wheels and tyres at full bump.

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9 hours ago, Truenotch said:

I doubt you'll be able to go higher without having top-out issues. Remember that droop travel is just as important as bump travel when traveling over bumpy surfaces. I'd advise adding spacers above the shock top hats if you want to raise the ride height without losing too much bump travel. 

It's also a good idea to remove the springs and run the shock through its travel to see when the bump stop kicks in and how much clearance there is for the wheels and tyres at full bump.

I understand what you're saying in MTB world I would have called droop travel 'sag', a little bit easier to tweak just with air pressure! I'd seen top hat spacers on budget 'lift' kits but had figured they might be a bit primitive for here. The fact that @cletus has liked your post fills me with some confidence that they might be certable. Are there any guidelines that you know of for design/materials? Cert is on the cards before next WOF so would like to it once, correctly.

edit: would something like this be ok? 50 mm is probably on the excessive side, but could that style of spacer be legal?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/HRG-Engineering-Honda-Civic-88-00-CRV-97-01-2-lift-blocks-kit-RD1/263626959047?fits=Model%3ACivic&hash=item3d616428c7:g:feMAAOSwtida3L2r

I hadn't thought about checking wheel clearance, last event (with stock suspension) my front jacking point touched the ground..

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Jacking point touching the ground is pretty extreme! 

IMO you're better off using spacers and having enough bump/droop travel than trying to raise the ride height with spring rates. Also makes it nice an easy to slam it in the future. 

That style above looks ok. You'll need to ask @cletus about legality though. 

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1 hour ago, Truenotch said:

IMO you're better off using spacers and having enough bump/droop travel than trying to raise the ride height with spring rates. Also makes it nice an easy to slam it in the future. 

Cheers, seems really sensible to me too. Have chucked a question in the cert thread.

Alternator failed this weekend which kind of made me pause and think about whether I'm missing the point with this car. Perhaps I'd be better off in a WRX and maybe be a little more competitive, but then I thought about how this really is the one car to rule them all, for this stage of my life.

I can't think of anything else that could tow a boat up to St Arnaud (with 4 people and tramping gear).

Enter in an Autocross event and do pretty well despite average driving.

Doort with the best of them >5000rpm, and make me smile because it's different.

Oh and that I can afford...

And finally a car that I can 'almost' fit in with around here, it's not my dream car, but it's a pretty sweet compromise.

IMG_2018-04-23_09-50-23.jpeg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Crikey - least productive afternoons work on a car I've ever had! First fitted extractors - unfortunately 2:1 section fouls on the transfer case. Followed by pulling the alternator out - as far as I can see I'll have to pull a driveshaft to get it out. Or does @chris r have a clever tip?

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1 minute ago, chris r said:

Umm bash them with a hammer?

Re alternator. They come out up the top but your alb system is in the way.

Im 99% sure it won't go out the bottom 

Haha yeah - the stainless extractors are not really hammerable - they seem to want to take aroute straight over the transfer case! - The stock lower 2:1 section works but the cast iron doesn't take too kindly to hammer action. 

Definitely not coming out the bottom, passenger side is pretty close...I could pull the crank pulley to give me a little more room - here's someone else attacking a CRX.

Alternator07.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pulled driveshaft was the solution. Have ordered some of these

 file.jpg 

and these

 ef-proplus-04.jpg

to sort front suspension. Honda Rescue garage can supply a 6" lift kit if I ever feel like getting silly/making something completely undrivable...98FE49BE-6C2A-4463-BDE6-BD1C394AE432_zps

@cletus pointed out a really simple way to see if the spacers were going to work - just unbolt the strut from top mount and see how much movement I could get without fouling - was an easy 45mm so have gone for 1.5" to be on the safer side.

Extractors are fitted, feels like it pulls better to redline as the SOHC cast manifold was restricted.

Once these parts show up I just have the ABS removal to make the vehicle completish...

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1 hour ago, SiRge said:

I always thought it'd be easier to put in like Accord suspension into shuttles to lift them. Same eye type etc and fork at front, except much longer. (Just need to swap top hats)

Definitely easier - civicwagon.com has plenty of info on this, the lifting wasn't the only end goal though - was really after adjustable height with a leveled (Beagles run kind of nose down) starting point.

I've sent this away to One Stop Cutting Shop to be cut out of 5 mm aluminium as center caps for the wheels.

image.png.7af15c2f50cbe6b2f15bab781d383ce2.png

Not quite as cool as the stock ones but quite a lot cheaper at $15+GST each.

1994TAKECHIPROJECTRACINGHARTDSPECSUPERLA

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  • 3 weeks later...

jkthloq3.d3l.jpg

Result of center caps from one stop cutting shop - not sure if I want to shoulder or counter sink the cap screw...


s5gu11o3.02v.jpg

Parts are fitted.

zsvsccln.t0v.jpg
 

Strut spacers have levelled car out perfectly - this is with both ends as slammed as they can go...

Just need to sort out what I'm doing with ABS and then cert.

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