While the line implies point contact (which is incorrect), its path is sound. The line (force) goes from the shock shaft to the washer (although the may transfer directly to the washer), to the lower 'top hat' bushing, to the 'top hat' metal structure, to the chassis. In the Honda exploded drawing this would be part numbers 4 to 8, to 6 to 7 to the chassis. If you are thinking something different, can you draw it on the image?

And the why not, is if it creates more issues than it solves (as speculated in a previous post).

Edit: added more stuff... fixed grammar.....made the world a better place.......

 

Feels like Christmas morning All that is missing now is a seat bracket for the Sparco, and a case of Amsoil for the diff.

click for large size

 

Wow, why can't my christmas look like that...

 

Would it be better? With the upper spring seat attached to the shock shaft, all of the spring force (including the weight of the car) is transmitted through the rubber bushing, instead of being transmitted directly to the chassis through the metal upper shock mount. In the stock configuration, only the damping forces (and gas pressure force) are transmitted through the rubber bushing.

 

John Ward doesn't seem to have any problems with his setup. I am nowhere near my car, so I can't give my own opinion as to whether the bushings are suitable, but according to him they're pretty stiff. If I were to destroy one, replacements are cheap anyway.

James Yom

 

The contact between the top hat's metal section and the chassis is closer to the studs than the shock shaft. The load is a shear across the top hat's section until it meets the chassis.

[QUOTE=Orthonormal,Jan 14 2010, 11:33 PM]
Would it be better?

 

The stock S2000 bushings have a lot of metal in them. The same bushings in a CRX are all rubber. I've mounted my shocks like John and have had no issues yet and I don't expect any.

Also, I choose to run 2.5" springs simply because of their popularity and abundance on the used market. I like to test spring rates... a lot.

 

Brian - are you only running tender springs in the rear? I had them on all 4 corners when I had the aftermarket springs on my car. The front's don't absolutely need them, as with the front bar connected the spring doesn't uncouple with a wheel in the air, but it's still nice to have them to locate the springs when you take the car off stands.

Definitely need them in the rear though, I could see the tender spring extend when I had one side in the air for tire changes.

On the spring loading discussion, I'm curious how those with aftermarket springs and no upper perch are making them work with the OE hat. I machined some spring isolators out of Al on the lathe to do it on mine(mainly so it would be easy for me to swap back to stock ride height without moving the lower perch). I don't see how it would be possible to seat the spring correctly if you didn't.

You can see the isolator in this pic, and you can also see the tender spring doing its work, this is with one side in the air:

 

Why can't you just move the lower spring pearch up higher to compensate, in place of the tender spring?

 

I put them on all 4 corners on my civic, but I was thinking only to put them in the rear on the S2000.