I was taking some rear B14 shocks apart this past weekend, and for some reason, I had an idea about suspension travel. This might only work if you have GCs. Why not take the stock upper mount, and flip it over. Instead of the mount being on the outside of the car, mount it on the inside. The bushing that goes between the upper mount, and top hat of the GC, fits on either side. I'm going to try this this weekend to see if there is enough room in the trunk area for the mounts. Has anyone else thought about this?

Originally posted by eric96ser
Has anyone else thought about this?

Nope, not me, but now that you mention it, it seems like a good idea. Do you have the motivational plate? You would have to try and seal it to keep water out of the trunk.

I don't have the Motivational plates yet. I'm going to try this first. How do you like your suspension? I know the B13 front struts are shorter than B14, but how much shorter are the Motivational struts than B14s?

I'm willing to try anything to get some more travel. IIRC the motivationals are like 1.5" shorter then OEM B14's

Damn these B14's! :o

Originally posted by eric96ser
I don't have the Motivational plates yet. I'm going to try this first. How do you like your suspension? I know the B13 front struts are shorter than B14, but how much shorter are the Motivational struts than B14s?
About 1-1.5" just from memory, I didn't measure the difference, or if I did, I didn't write it down. The rears are the same height as stock. But the ride is sooo much better than the AGX, with less compression dampening and more rebound dampening. I can fly around a corner that has bumps or waves in it, and the car does not get upset by these.

One thing I thought of for your idea: On the stock setup the two bolts hold the upper mount in place, but most of the spring load is distributed from the mount to the car frame. With your change, wouldn't the two bolts support all that force?

Originally posted by eric96ser
I don't have the Motivational plates yet. I'm going to try this first. How do you like your suspension? I know the B13 front struts are shorter than B14, but how much shorter are the Motivational struts than B14s?

The motivational rears are a stock length. That is why he makes the mounting hat to gain back travel. I actually lowered the front using the motivational method but raised the back up to help with rotation on the autocross course. It really seems to help. If you do go with this idea remember the entire weight of the car will be carried by those two bolts on each side. I know that in the front the the GC Camber Plates its the same idea but they use aftermarket bolts that have a higher strength. If it works you may want to get those oem bolts out an put the higher strength bolts in there instead.

BTW: Good thinking.

The bolts would be pointing down, not up. The shaft of the strut would hold everythng together. How would the load on the bolts change with them pointing down, than up? I'm not a structural engineer or anything, so maybe there's something going on that I don't see. I'm going to try this Sunday, and I'll take pictures.

If you have the mount inside the turnk rather then under the car the only thing preventing that mounting form seperating from the frame of the car is those two bolts. In the oem location the mount is on a relatively flat surface and those bolts carry mostly the load of keeping the mount from sliding rather then carrying the entire weight of that suspension point. Think about what would happen if those bolts came lose. The strut shaft is attached to the tophat but the tophat is only being held to the frame by two bolts. This is the same as a Goundcontrol Camber setup so I wouldnt worry about it for test drive purposes but I would look closely at those bolts and see if they can be replaced with some stronger bolts and some nice steel washers to distribute the load on the frame a little better. On my car those bolts were pressed in so they should hammer out pretty easy.

Good point. I'm not even sure if the mounts will fit inside the trunk yet. The only down side is that I have a rear strut tower brace. I'm not sure if if will fit too. I'm not going to modify the car to make this work either.

I worked on the suspension idea yesterday. Good news is it worked. Afrer I installed everything, the lower was 1" 1/8 lower, without touching the spring seat. Here's what the setup looked like before I touched it:
http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/DSC02089.JPG
Pay no attention to the dirty suspension.

The upper mount will fit upside down in the trunk:
http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/DSC02092.JPG

Here's the rear shock installed:
http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/DSC02094.JPG
closeup:
http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/DSC02095.JPG

Here's how long the entire assembly is put together the normal way:
http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/DSC02101.JPG

and my way:
http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/DSC02102.JPG


Now for the bad news. First, you can't use a rear STB, without some modification. Second, the bolts hits the upper perch, and the spring:


http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/DSC02104.JPG
I'm not sure if you can see it, but their's a notch in the upper perch, and the spring had a scratch on it. I have some spare upper rears, that I'll try to press the bolts out of. I'll get new bolts, and install them with the threads in the car. Overall, this looks like a cheaper way to get suspension travel back in the rear. This will only work with GCs though. There's not a place for the spring to sit with normal springs.

I have more pics here (http://www.sr20deforum.com/eric/rear%20suspension/)

That is so cool. You are defianatley thinking "out of the box" on that one. A couple questions.

1 What really matters it that the top of the strut where the bolt thightens down is higher into the trunk. That is what actually gives you the increased travel back. How much higher do you think that bolt was once everything was put back together?

2 What kind of strut bar do you have and do you think that it could be modified to make the Strut bar work. I have a coertesy bar in back.

3 It also looks like you have everything assembled in this order: spring, silver collar, rubber bushing, oem perch flipped upside down. If that is correct then it would appear that the weight of the supension is compressing that rubber bushing causing it to compress. I would suggest some metal washers to take up the required space and then the rubber bushing would go on top between the nut and the oem perch. It has been a long time since I looked up in that part of my car though so I may be wrong.


Thanks for trying this.

So you mean take the rubber washer between the GC top, and the OE top out? I have a Courtesy rear bar also. I'll take a picture tonight of where it hits the upper mount.

On my car the convex part of the silver collar sits into the concave part of the oem perch. I dont think I have a rubber bushing between the two. I would think that the entire weight of wheel would work pretty hard to compress that rubber bushing and just compress it to nothing. In your picture with no weight on the car the studs of the oem perch are a good inch away from the spring collar. In the post you mention that the bolts hit the collar when the weight was on the car. I think that is from that rubber bushing being compressed.

I see what you are saying. Instead of the bushing, use washers. Good idea. I might try that. With the stock set up, I'm using the top bump stop. With the other setup, I'm using the bushing that is between the top mount and the metal washer , the one with all the ribs on it. If the washers will keep the top perch and the spring from hitting the bolts, this may work. I might try the bushing and some washers to space things apart. I'm just afraid that with no bushing back there, there will be a lot of metal on metal noise.

It will be quieter then with the current setup bouncing against the stud. Really the noise is only bad if the parts are constantly loading and unloading from the movement. If you keep them under constant pressure the noise is minimal at worst. I wish I had time to take mine apart and see if I actually have a washer under mine. Mabe I will when I change the tires for my autocross.

What do you mean with the current setup hitting the stud? After I saw the top hat and spring were touching the upper mount bolts, I put everything back to the way it should be. Hopefully, I'll have some time Sunday to try the washers out, and see if those will keep the spring from touching the bolts. I may still use a bushing, just put washers on one or both ends.

I worked on this again Saturday night. I bought some washers at Home Depot, and put 4 of them bewteen the bushing and the top GC hat. I would just barely get the top nut on, there were so many washers. The studs still hit the spring. Unless I can get the studs pressed out, and flipped, this is not going to work. I have pictures, but they are still on the camera.

After talking to Mike Kojima about this. He said not to try this, without a reinforcing ring, the bolts might come through the shock towers. Please don't try this set up

Originally posted by eric96ser
After talking to Mike Kojima about this. He said not to try this, without a reinforcing ring, the bolts might come through the shock towers. Please don't try this set up

Originally posted by 98sr20ve
This is the same as a Goundcontrol Camber setup so I wouldnt worry about it for test drive purposes but I would look closely at those bolts and see if they can be replaced with some stronger bolts and some nice steel washers to distribute the load on the frame a little better.

That is what I was trying to say here.