What is the Shortest Oem Strut?

90-EE

I'm looking to lower the wagon over OEM parts.
What is the shortest OEM honda/acura Strut? Are the Crx's shorter than the wagon?

Right now I just have Skunk 2 Coilovers on it, and it gets perfectly low in the rear, but its about 1.5"s too high up front, and its bottomed out on the strut.

What would be the best struts to throw on it?

1988rt

89 honda accord?

danz

i ran 86-89 accord front struts in my ED hatch, they are shorter for sure.

you need to use the civic top hat but it all bolts right up. even the forks/wishbones fit.

Mandalore88

everyone is correct on the fitment of 86-89 struts. most people don't know they are the same as 88-91 prelude front struts.

most people run into problems in the rear on the wagon, not the front. As it is identical to any other EF civic.

simplest solution is to do what people call "flipping their coilover sleeve" because the top is threaded all the way, whereas the bottom usually have any threads. after that you can also remove one or both of the height adjusting locking collars.

if you have any questions shoot me a PM.

90-EE

Thanks for the info guys!
Right now I'm sitting on mudflaps on the rear. And i haven't Cut the cups off the struts yet.
But with the front I'm bottomed out on the strut body.

I'm making some top hats right now, to give me a little more stroke. And I made me a set of drop forks that I haven't put on yet. So I'm thinking between the two, I will get low enough.

But if not, then it time to get lower/shorter struts.

This is how low i want to be! Dont have the money for the wheels, but someday...

http://www.stancenation.com/2011/01/03/ ... es-part-1/

SOOOOO SICK!!!!!!

Mandalore88

so you customized a set of forks or you custom made your own drop forks? pics?

OneSweetWagon

Ditto ^ ^ ^

stampern

So, which strut is best to run in the rear, mine are bottoming out way easier than the fronts. I know the accords are the shortest for the front, what are the shortest we can run for the rear?

stampern

So, to end all of the confusion I went to the junkyard and measured the few struts I figured would bolt onto our cars. Here are the measurements

Front Struts (measured from top of fork to top of strut body):
85-89 Accord - 8.125"
88-89 Prelude - 8.125"
89-91 Civic - 9.5"
90-93 Integra - 9.5"

Rear Struts (measured from center of bolt to top of strut body):
89-91 Civic - 13.25"
92-95 Civic - 13.25"
90-93 Integra - over 14" - for some reason I didn't write it down right
85-89 Accord - 15.375"
88-89 Prelude - 16.5"
96-00 Civic - 12.875"

So the verdict is that the Accord front struts are the shortest and the ek civic rear struts are the shortest but need modification to fit.

I just installed a set of both on my wagon with tophats. Rides great. I recommend not going over a 1" tophat on the front if you use the accord struts.

Any questions PM me.

SiWagon

Thanks for digging up this info.
If the accord frt struts are a 1 3/8" shorter.Why are you using tophats?Unless you're going real looow.

stampern

I did it mainly to just keep from damaging the strut when I bottom out. It rides really nice. And I'm almost tucking tire in the front, so I'm a litte low.

AintGotNoSol

I need someone to clear this up for me. When you say "shorter strut," Do you mean simply that the perch is lower? Or do you mean that the whole shock body/internals are also shorter, allowing you to compress the strut further before bottoming out?

Thanks.

stampern

Well, the whole strut is shorter, but the main part the bottoms out is the strut body to the bottom tophat because you've lowered it so far, so a shorter body won't bottom out as easy when lowered. Has nothing to do with the perch.

AintGotNoSol

Check. That's what I was thinking (hoping). Anyone ever have issues with the internals bottoming out in the shock body?

stampern

You can still bottom them out depending on how low you go, but it's harder with the shorter body.

AintGotNoSol

Thanks. I don't plan on getting stupid with it. Maybe 2 to 2.5 inches.

stampern

Tophats in the back make a world of difference. I only did 1" in the front cause the struts were so short, and 1.5" in the back.

allen_v

so in order to run the shorter accord struts with the oem civic top hats, do you also need to use the accord fork or can you use the oem fork from the civic??

stampern

The accord struts will slide right into the stock civic forks, you don't have to change the fork.

allen_v

^^nice, thanks.

another question: when running accord front struts is it a MUST to still run extended top hats?

stampern

no, you don't have to, I did just cause I didn't want the strut to bottom out as easy. I'm working on checking the EK struts cause I think they are shorter, but will need some modification to bolt onto the lower control arm on the EFs.

stampern

So I just went to autozone and measure an oem EK rear strut - they are about 3/8 of an inch shorter than the EF struts. But they need modification to fit. If I can round up a used one I'll post the differences. I'm thinking about modifying one to fit my wagon since it is a hair shorter. The 2001+ struts are different and won't work I don't think without some mods or welding. I might look in to it though since they are way shorter. I'll keep you guys updated on what I find.

danz

have you put any thought into the spring perch location?

stampern

Spring perch doesn't have any effect on the strut bottoming out when lowered.

AintGotNoSol

stampern wrote:

Spring perch doesn't have any effect on the strut bottoming out when lowered.

Well, it does if you lower the spring perch enough to bottom out. I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean here.... To me, spring perch location has a direct relationship to the strut bottoming out. One of the most common methods of lowering is to add adjustable height coil-overs. Height is adjusted by raising and lowering the spring perch location.

The "bottoming out" effect occurs when you run out of space between the top of the strut body and the top hat mounting location. If you were to lower the spring perch, this distance would decrease. If you raised the perch, this distance increases.

I'm not sure what the previous poster is getting at with changing the perch location, this will not increase the available amount of travel before bottoming out occurs.

stampern

I'm saying when you are lowered far enough to where you strut us an inch or 2 from bottoming out, your only 2 options are to get a strut body that is shorter or raise the car up which most guys don't want to do. So I'm trying to find a shorter body strut, spring perch can be adjusted on almost any strut using coilovers or being creative.

danz

sounds like you should go out and buy a set of fully adjustable coilovers. then you can adjust the strut body height by threading it into the wishbone, or out of the wishbone.

stampern

The only other idea I have is to make a bracket or something to use a stock accord front strut in the rear.

stampern

I found a shorter oem strut, but it needs a little modding. I currently just installed a set of 2003 (I think) rear struts. I had to cut off the eyelet on the bottom of them and weld on a fork so they would work with a my stock lower control arms. I rides much smoother in the back now. I'm also running 1.5" tophats in the rear with the 03 civic struts.

Pic below is stock for stock of the rear struts before any modification:


Pic below is after cutting the eyelet off and welding on a fork from a blown da teg rear strut:


Below is a picture of the stock strut with no spring installed. I wanted to see how far the suspension would go down before the tire bottomed out in the wheel well. The stock strut goes through the frame by about a half inch. This is why my car kept bottoming out in the back easily.


This is a picture of as low as the wagon can go on 205/50-15's:

Alphaxomega

What car are those struts from?

stampern

I believe they are from a 2003 Civic - Have to double check from my buddy that gave them to me.