Haven't been active much on the forums, life throws ya a curve now and then.... Anyway with that being said, have been pondering this for a while, have read thru many a posts and will still even take into account suggestions as this lil adventure continues. My 98' has AGX's with B&G springs on it, luv the look but the ride could be better in my opinion, for the 02' was considering going with Eibach's and AGX's. Have seen a few attempts at different builds, seemed like each one had alot of good points, thought I'd take the parts that I liked and construct a setup. This will be an ongoing project. I already had the AGX's, took them down to a friends house and using a dremel cut the weld at the strut flange, then ground it down. Still have to do some band sanding to it yet.
Don't know how many hours I've scoured the net and on here to come up with a feasible upper mount solution. Contacted a place in FL about fabricating one, but the more I thought about it, why reinvent the wheel. So I took a new strut mate to the machine shop and we sat at looked at it... This wasn't quite what we had it mind.
After attempt to press the rubber mount out and failing miserably, we put it on a lathe and presto.
Here's a better shot showing we were able to retain the proper angle for the strut.
There is a slight taper on the cut, plan is to weld a piece of 3/16 sheet metal with a cup incorporated into it, how big a cup will be decided by the bushing size. Depth I wouldn't expect to be more than 3/4" to 1". The hole diameter I believe is around 3". Also decided to go with the Strange Coil Over setup because I like the double lock setup compared to the allen set screw setup. Also like the location of the bearing setup, these are at the top, rather the bottom. After checking assembly, didn't care on the height of the cones used, so decided to incorporate larger bearings with the adapter we were planning on making.
Well, I went down to the machine shop today and we finished them up except for welding the spring adapter to the upper mount plate. Here's what was machined up for adapter.
As some of others have done prior and currently, recessed the upper bushing mount.
Upside down picture showing the bearings and how they would fit.
Picture of adapter mounted onto the strut without the stock plate. Will be using a different nut, found this to do for the time being.
This picture shows what assembly will look like once welded together. The adapter and stock mount plate will be even.
Picture from underneath, with the adapter being 1/4" thick, it allows no interference between the bearings and stock plate. Roughly 1/8" of room, hopefully will be a better area and not as much dirt/etc exposure to bearings.
And finally an assembled picture, taking the plates down to another friend to get welded.
Came up with a plan for the rear strut mount, very similar to the front, but have to make up a new plate also. Spring is a QA1 12" 350 pounds. These won't go on for abit as I completely replacing all the brake/suspension parts on the front.
Originally Posted by Bio248
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