Numbchux
08-16-2007, 04:12 PM
Well, in my search for suspension options for my car, I turned to BE/BH legacies. since full coilovers for them work on EA82 Subarus, I figured other aftermarket options would work aswell. So, I bought a full takeoff set of BE suspension (both front struts, both rear shocks, all 4 springs, rear tophats, and front upper spring perches (but not top hats) from a member here to experiment with. I found that the differences were too many to make that work well.
I continued to search, and found Miata stuff looked very similar, so today a box arrived. all 4 shocks from a 1990 Miata, also takeoffs from an upgrade project.
Here's the set of 4 miata shocks, rears on the left, fronts on the right. the only difference is the length, all other dimensions (including spring length....notice the lower perch placement) are identical.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3080-1.jpg
it looks like the Miata Fronts will work well for me.....but then I got to comparing the Miata Rears to the BE rears...and found this (Miata on left, BE on right):
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3072-1.jpg
there are 2 problems that one would encounter to put miata rears in a BE/BH. first, the lower mount. miata's use a 2mm narrower bolt. meaning that the metal sleeve in the bushing would have to be bored out that much.
and the threads on the top that go through the strut top are 4mm narrower (this pic is of the BE top on the miata shock):
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3079-1.jpg
but a clever man could come up with some sort of sleeve to snug that up.
the springs are the same diameter, although the lower mount on the miata doesn't have the notch for the coil:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3073-1.jpg
and the overall length is about an inch shorter, so these would only work in a lowered situation.
pretty much any suspension option under the sun is available for a '90-'97 Miata. So if you can find subaru application fronts, you can probably find the same thing for the rear in the Miata world.
That said, since I need the fronts, anyone want to split a full set of AGXs?
I continued to search, and found Miata stuff looked very similar, so today a box arrived. all 4 shocks from a 1990 Miata, also takeoffs from an upgrade project.
Here's the set of 4 miata shocks, rears on the left, fronts on the right. the only difference is the length, all other dimensions (including spring length....notice the lower perch placement) are identical.
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3080-1.jpg
it looks like the Miata Fronts will work well for me.....but then I got to comparing the Miata Rears to the BE rears...and found this (Miata on left, BE on right):
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3072-1.jpg
there are 2 problems that one would encounter to put miata rears in a BE/BH. first, the lower mount. miata's use a 2mm narrower bolt. meaning that the metal sleeve in the bushing would have to be bored out that much.
and the threads on the top that go through the strut top are 4mm narrower (this pic is of the BE top on the miata shock):
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3079-1.jpg
but a clever man could come up with some sort of sleeve to snug that up.
the springs are the same diameter, although the lower mount on the miata doesn't have the notch for the coil:
https://sl-i.net/FORUM/images/imported/2007/08/PICT3073-1.jpg
and the overall length is about an inch shorter, so these would only work in a lowered situation.
pretty much any suspension option under the sun is available for a '90-'97 Miata. So if you can find subaru application fronts, you can probably find the same thing for the rear in the Miata world.
That said, since I need the fronts, anyone want to split a full set of AGXs?