I went into my mechanic today to talk about some options I have been looking at and what his thoughts on them were, and about replacing my RTA bushings…
Anyway, he has not had any experience installing konis or GC springs.
In the interest of labor to install them he asked if they were a complete shock and had the ‘rotator cup’ attached to the top of the assembly. The only thing I have read on here about that is about tophats, which as I understand are to give a little extra travel and ride quality for dumped cars.
I did a search and diddnt find any threads with ‘rotator’ in it. If I were to order the Koni/GC kit from weksos, and possibly the camber kits, what else is involved in this install that I am missing? Is he going to have to use the rotator assembly from the existing suspension or is this a part of the kit?
So the stock suspension has some form of tophats as well?
He had described a flat plate with three bolts coming out of it to mount it.
I am still in the learning process about the various components that go into the shock itself. I told him that the GC’s were in essence a coilover in the way that they acted on the koni, offered similar adjusability.
As far as labor goes he said it would cost a bit because he (assumed he would have to use the rotator from the stock suspension on koni/gc before it could be mounted. As I understand it, since real coilovers have the spring fixed to the strut, there is no need for an end to be attached to prevent the spring from coming off of the strut. If the kono/gc does not come with them in the kit, will the stock ones need to be used or does the setup negate their need?
It is a little hard for me to figure this out from photos and I have no ability to see these parts in person because of their limited availability in canada.
I did my buddies RTA bushing and took no more then 2 hours or so including getting it on the lift and taking it off. First time doing it and very self explanatory if you have a RTA bushing extractor.
I did the full suspension and exhaust on my car in a day and a half which included rasing and lifting to get the suspension to just the height and camber I wanted it at. That also included taking the right rear trailing arm assembly off and having to weld a nut onto one of the bolts that stripped out so I could get a breaker bar on it and remove it. And half a days time running to 2 different stealerships to get 2 different bolts that stripped…
This was my first time doing this too and did it by myself with no books or instructions. So if you know what you are doing, and have done it many times before, knock 6 or so hours off if everything comes off and ubolts with zero problems. 20 year old car, not likely to come off easily…
Time installing - 10 hours
Time adjusting - 2 hours
Time driving around in traffic - 4 hours
Altogether = 2 full days
-Cat back exhaust which was a major PITA and took me and 2 guys
-Front and rear sways
-front upper a-arms with camber adjustment
-rear lca’s
-rear camber kit
-full coilovers w/ tophat’s
I had access to this at a most awsome price of $6 a hour:
What you see when you walk through the roll up door:
2 different presses for bushings or wheel studs or whatever needs pressed:
Various styles of lifts which is nice:
Mount and balance area:
Welding and bead blasting area:
The mother load of tools that are included in the $6 a hour price
Teg when we did the RTA bushing’s
the gc has a threaded sleeve that fits over the koni shock and on the body of the shock there are 2 places to put a snap ring to add to the adjustability of them, then there is the nuts that go on the threaded sleeve that support the spring
the top hats bolt to the top of the shock piston. the springs rest on the bottom of the top hat and the top hat is what bolts to the body of the car and the bottom of the shock bolts to the control arm
my car is rust free and has spent its entire life in hawaii so i did not have all of the problems with the rust, bolts breaking, and bolts stripping. mine was a striaght forward install no problems
sorry i did not mention that before
it willmost likely also take more than a hour to do the alignment
your mechanic thinks you have a rotating mcphearson strut up front, on those cars the strut is attached to the knuckle and turns with it. our cars have forks that mount our suspension to the lower control arm, no rotating involved.
that should clarify what he was talking about.
he doesnt want to press and decompress springs all day, it would be another hour of labar taking the old shit apart and swapping it over.
Is it really necissary to put top hats on if you are only planning on lowering from 1.5-2.5", and can they be added later?
Its starting to look like this is going to cost quite a bit as I need to have the RTA bushings replaced at the same time.
My mechanic suggested that if the car is only being lowered 2", then it would not be necissary to add a camber kit as it has enough adjustability to support that. is this possible? then add in the kit later on when I have the money to buy a decent one at a later date?
The mechanic is a 13 year+ acura certified mechanic who I think knows these cars pretty well but its nice to be able to get this info from other people who have done this work them selves as well! I found the guy through buying a car and he doesnt charge me a lot of labor, some times does the work under the table.
The way your mechanic describes your tophats, it sounds like he is thinking of macpherson struts and their tops. They rotate, and I believe they have 3 studs on the top.
The GC tophats bolt the shaft 22mm higher than stock. This puts the optimal dampening section of the shock travel 22mm higher on the suspension, or allows you to lower the car farther without getting out of the range of the optimal dampening section of the shock. Its a good thing, and worth it especially if you plan to “dump” your car. I ran for ~5 months on stock tophats, then moved to the GC tophats, definite improvement in suspension feel. Better reaction times in the suspension. I have the GC coilovers, and Koni yellows for suspension right now.
I would not recommend using ES bushings (Energy Suspension) in your Rear LCAs. They tend to bind, and make the rear suspension higher sprung. I have ES bushing for everything else, and they are great, just a bit squeaky.
The easiest way to get them (Rear LCAs only) out is use a torch. Just burn the old ones out. It won’t hurt anything, unless you get the metal red hot. But that would take awhile for that to happen.
Might want to find a mask to wear if you do that, the rubber smells bad and can’t be good to inhale, especially in that quantity.
dude. wow. wtf…your 13+ year acura mechanic told you that there’s enough camber adjustability if you “only” lower it two inches? that’s odd, because you can’t adjust the camber with oem components…thats why they sell camber kits for our cars…
i agree with operator, it sounds like he is maybe thinking you have a different model car or something with a different strut setup…that’s gotta be it.
As long as your car isn’t rusted to shit (you’re in victoria so it shouldnt be too bad) its really quite simple. I swapped all 4 of my shocks and springs out myself in half a day and had never done it before.
As the other posters suggested get GC tophats, or have a machine shop alter yours. Should be able to get them done for way cheaper than GC charges. Just cut each one, weld in a short piece of pipe and…bobs your uncle. I have a picture of them somewhere, feel free to email me and I can have a look for it for you.
[QUOTE=japanjay;2098203]I did my buddies RTA bushing and took no more then 2 hours or so including getting it on the lift and taking it off. First time doing it and very self explanatory if you have a RTA bushing extractor.
I did the full suspension and exhaust on my car in a day and a half which included rasing and lifting to get the suspension to just the height and camber I wanted it at. That also included taking the right rear trailing arm assembly off and having to weld a nut onto one of the bolts that stripped out so I could get a breaker bar on it and remove it. And half a days time running to 2 different stealerships to get 2 different bolts that stripped…
This was my first time doing this too and did it by myself with no books or instructions. So if you know what you are doing, and have done it many times before, knock 6 or so hours off if everything comes off and ubolts with zero problems. 20 year old car, not likely to come off easily…
Time installing - 10 hours
Time adjusting - 2 hours
Time driving around in traffic - 4 hours
Altogether = 2 full days
-Cat back exhaust which was a major PITA and took me and 2 guys
-Front and rear sways
-front upper a-arms with camber adjustment
-rear lca’s
-rear camber kit
-full coilovers w/ tophat’s
I had access to this at a most awsome price of $6 a hour:
What you see when you walk through the roll up door:
2 different presses for bushings or wheel studs or whatever needs pressed:
Various styles of lifts which is nice:
Mount and balance area:
Welding and bead blasting area:
The mother load of tools that are included in the $6 a hour price
Teg when we did the RTA bushing’s [/QUOTE]
About 15mins from the house. The guy that had the white gen3 was just a local guy on team-integra that emailed me about getting the hook-up. I said cool, and he drove down from lynwood area. Also just recently got access to a powder coating area with an oven that is around 6’x4’x10’ or so. Plenty big enough to do whatever I need. All I have to do is get the powder, unless I want to use the three colors they have.
[QUOTE=Zenmachine;2098675]Should be able to get them done for way cheaper than GC charges. Just cut each one, weld in a short piece of pipe and…bobs your uncle. I have a picture of them somewhere, feel free to email me and I can have a look for it for you.
[/QUOTE]
Yep seen this done before. You just have to get them exact, and not angled out or anything. Good welds would be nice too. I went the GC TH route myself. They are not that expensive, and if your going for a CO setup, might as well buy good quality instead of making it. Reminds me of cutting coils.
