Prologue:
As some of you may remember, some months ago, I was trying to sell my car. This in itself is a rather lengthy story, but in the end, I got to keep it (and no, AMERIKAN did NOT buy it).
Anyway, I know I’ve sort of been MIA. But what have I been up to since then?
ACT I:
Somewhere down the road, I ran into these:
I decided to play with them because #1 they’re a tubular design instead of a piece of stamped sheet metal and #2 it’s OEM (because everyone knows I just looove OEM).
They only came with 98+ JDM ITR’s… and they wound up being 1-2mm shorter than my stock ones. Why is this? .J. and I assume it’s because of the 16" wheels and 215/45/16 tires.
Conclusion: I didn’t need anymore rear negative camber, so this was just a pointless experiment. The bushings did seem to be a bit stiffer than my 2000 U.S. ITR ones though.
Most of my suspension bushings are pretty new thanks to the 5 lug, so I didn’t see the point in getting a whole set.
Look how fat these guys are.
And look at the havoc they’ll cause.
After the install (which actually took quite a bit of muscle), the only thing I noticed was how f*cked up my caster was! Grrreat! Steering didn’t feel different at all!
Then I sat back, thought about it for a minute, went back, and cranked down the damn radius rods to something like 3 times the factory torque at the cross member. Caster improved and steering became more responsive… more feedback.
Conclusion: Exactly what I was looking for and only like $15 for the set.
So I had this idea… why not try to fit an aftermarket EF rear sway bar onto my car?
Test subject: SusTech 22mm adjustable rear sway bar (painted baby blue for some strange reason)
Looks pretty darn similar to the DA 19mm sway bar.
Problem #1: Too bad the frame rail brackets didn’t even come close to fitting (when looking at this next picture, pretend you’re lying on the cold garage floor, looking up from under the car).
Regardless, I threw the bar on to see how it’d fit.
Problem #2: On both sides, the bar rubs against the rear shock bodies. The whole bar is just a bit too long.
I suppose you could attempt to use some 89-91 Civic rear LCA’s, but you’d still have to deal with Problem #1 (and it isn’t certain this’ll take care of Problem #2). I decided pursuing this project any further was not worth it. I’m already happy with the stability and how the car rotates with the DA ST sway set in road racing scenarios. It probably doesn’t rotate enough through slow turns to accommodate Auto-X guys.
Conclusion: I wasted my time. Hopefully this’ll save you some.
Nissin makes Cup Noodles… and Japanese brake components.
You’re looking at a JDM ITR 1" master cylinder and brake booster. In my car.
So let me break this down so there are no more rumors or speculation. I’ve been rolling on my 5 lug for almost two years now and I’ve kept my stock 15/16" master and booster. No matter how much I bled, there was still a bit of initial mush in the pedal before you feel the clamping force of the big brakes. If you’ve read my stupid 5 lug article, I say that all non-ABS/ALB DA’s had a 15/16" mc and all ABS/ALB DA’s had a 1" mc. Seems easy enough… just get an ABS/ALB mc if you have the 15/16".
Here’s what you didn’t read. Both of the flare nuts on the hardlines going to the master cylinder on a non-ABS/ALB DA are 10mm. The ABS/ALB one is a 10mm and a 12mm. My suggestion? Remove the entire hardline going from the proportioning valve to the rear port on the mc. Take it to a machine shop and have them do a quality reflare. If you do it at home with a cheap kit, chances are, it’s going to leak like crazy.
Or do what I did. The JDM ITR booster and mc bolted right up. You NEED the booster since this master cylinder and the stock DA one have different bolt patterns. The rear hardline bolted right into the master cylinder… it was aligned perfectly and was 10mm (if the mc was USDM, the port would be on the reverse side). The front was almost that easy. No reflaring necessary. You could do it one of two ways.
Use a small pipe bender (like I was going to do) and have the hardline come around from the other side of the master cylinder. With proper bends, you can get it to line up perfectly and be just the right length (and look seeexy).
Do what I did. Pull the hardline out of the first bracket on the firewall. That generated enough slack to basically put the flare nut right into the port.
Conclusion: 1/16" difference doesn’t seem like much, but the difference in pedal feel was literally night and day. Any slop before the calipers bit down vanished. As soon as you put your foot down, it’s biting down hard. I actually had to relearn how to heel/toe downshift because the brake pedal now requires a different feel for modulation. This’ll definitely screw me up at the next track day. This is how full Type R brakes are SUPPOSED to feel.
Was it worth it? For me, yes. BUT the install was one of the most painful things I’ve had to do on my car. Some people will tell you it’s impossible with the motor still in the car. Others’ll say it’s totally do-able. I say it’s only possible if you’re a closet-contortionist with baby hands who loves masochism. And your shock tower WILL get scratched up. Along with your arms and hands. If you’re going to do this, I highly suggest you do it while your motor is out. If you have your stock brakes and your motor is still in… don’t even bother. It’s totally not worth it.
Ryan-
Great post, one of the best I’ve read, and unfortunately no one else is going to unless we move this back to the GD temporarily. Lets bump it back here once it hits page 5 or 6 of the GD and people come across it natuarally with out having to search for it. I never come in these forums unless I want specific info and this post generates too much original thought for people who have thought about some of these issues on their own.
indeed this needs to be seen in general discussion… no one will see the glory of Ryan’s hard work… hmm i’ll links it me thinks… unless it gets put back some how…
ryan, i was disappointed that the ‘kspeare’ wouldn’t have written in iambic pentameter. everything else was brilliant! glad you kept the car because we need more people like you on ‘our’ side. thanks for taking the time to post this up.
i’m in agreeance with .j. that this should remain in general discussion then archived sometime later.
Nice writeups! One item from my own experience, though: I have a Mugen EF rear sway on my DA. Like the ST bar, it’s a little wide, but I don’t get any interference with the dampers. It’s also wide where the D-bushings mount, and the bushings are kinda riding where the bar bends, but it works for now. I’ll get a custom bracket made at some point.
About your master cylinder swap- do you think that the difference you felt can be entirely attributed to going up to a 1"? Maybe just having a brand spanking new everything simply works much better than parts 10 years old? I’m not doubting you, just wondering! Anyone ever swap their old 1" for a new 1"? Notice a difference?
Ryank-good writeup, and i have a question. i just finished the es install (all 4 sides including trailing arms) a couple of weeks ago-big difference. i also added spc adjustable upper ball joints in front as mine were fried. my car is stock. i went in for an alignment and below are the before and after alignment settings. Fronts only, as rear lined up fine.
before front:
camber- left:-.2 right:-.5 spec:-1.0 to +1.0
caster- left:-.3 right:+1.0 spec:+.5 to +2.5 toe- left:+1.27 right:+1.24 spec:-.08 to +.08
after front:
camber- left:-.2 right:-.3 good
caster- left:-.4 right:+.7 OUT OF WHACK!!!
toe- left:-.02 right:-.01 good
Caster is out of line. Shop said is not adjustable, but now i am not so sure. the one thing i noticed in doing install is that es bushing for radius rod is significantly bigger than stock-obviously my left front caster is wrong. would tightening the radius rod bolts more on the left help move the caster on the positive end of the scale. also, if i were to try this, WOULD IT SCREW UP MY OTHER SPECS??? anyone?? i did crank these down as close to spec as possible, but this part of install in front was actually a PITA with the bushings being ALOT larger than stock. anyone’s help would be appreciated.
Nice artilce (or whatever you call it).