Springs and Shocks

[Jezza_hr]

I know many of you have changed the springs and shocks on your hachi's at some point, but since i'm new to the proceedings I thought I would come to you for pointers.

The rear shocks on my hachi went kaput before I bought the car (at first I never really knew, I just thought the scraping was down to the panhard rod) the car is currently bottoming on nearly every bump in the road and when you live in England the speed bump capital of the world its not nice hearing the under belly of your car scraping ever so slightly on what we pay road tax for

Now if anyone has any good suggestions on rear shocks and springs (it would seem they were cut short too) for general road use (and maybe track day use on the odd occasion) then I would be most obliged. If we could make this a sticky it could also be quite a good reference. Thanks in advance

[robokill]

Tokico is a good and cheap solution for something simple I prefer Koni tough.

It depends what you want if you want to be able to adjust etc pick something that will range in the price of 350 euro's something simple is less than 250 euro exlcuding the springs

Springs are hard to get the right ones. The only right spring i have are mountet on the car of Ivan :-) Propably the only springs i had that are like 6 kg.

Most road springs are great around 4kg with a stiff adjustable shock.

[Ivan141]

I have tokico HP shocks, bought them on ebay..they are cheap and sporty, but not as serious performers like Koni's or other more expensivce shocks. For street driving a nice and firm 6kg/mm front 4kg/mm rear should work quite well I think. You usually end up bouncing around on uneven roads a little, it's a compromise you make for driving a lowered car without wider fender flares. I expect my car to be able to corner HARD without any scraping..regular 3.5kg/mm front springs where not up to the task (40mm lowered).
For springs you could buy many brands, though few of the ones I have seen will have rates that high (most stop around 3,5 kg/mm). If the front springs are to your liking just buy a set of rear lowering springs to get the back end up to non-scraping heights.

[JonT]

I'm running Fensport progressive springs and KYB's. Not perfect for the track, but it does mean i can drive the bumpy Scottish roads and still have the wheels in contact with the ground sometimes.

[zzgasoven]

Without wishing to hijack the thread, does anyone know the length of a standard rear spring is? I'm sure my car has been lowered at some point, and the rear sits at a slight angle. Pictures to follow. I want to find some new (or newish) standard springs, with people lowering their cars there must be a whole pile of them somewhere....!

I've got Bilsteins all round, they're certainly not new but I don't think they're shot. Pretty hard to tell if they're any good or not because most of the bushes need changing.

[Ivan141]

My old stock springs also made it hang in the rear a bit...maybe they are stock.

[jamiemirror]

2 zzgasoven:
Today I will measure the unsprung rear springs and will post here (I just measured 300 mm unsprung height - old rear spring - don't know if the brand new one will be taller).

Recently I dissasembled the front struts in order to shorten the housings and use AE92 front strut inserts. But I extracted (from the housings) the old strut inserts (dampers, shocks) in two pieces ! Why ? Is this normal ?

[Mux213]

Jamie,

I never took the stock ones appart since mine already came with konis but from what I've read the stock shocks on an AE86 will be removed in parts.

I should take my spare ones appart soon so I can tell you

[zzgasoven]

Thanks for that Jamie, will go and measure mine now. Spent all day changing the NS door/front wing and chasing rust! Had a good look at my front springs, they're definately aftermarket ones so chances are the rears have been changed too

Thanks again!