Project Cappuccino: Upgrading the Suspension

Silver's versus GAB rear top mount comparison
Silver’s coilovers are all modularly built around a common damper by design. This means we should be able to revalve the damper if we so choose. Swift springs are also an option for all Silver’s coilovers, though not an option we chose due to budget reasons.

Monster Sport Suspension Bushing Unboxing

Now that we’ve got some coilovers, removing a bit of slop from the Cappuccino’s suspension would be a wise idea too. To that end we picked up a set of Monster Sport suspension bushings. These are factory replacement bushings for all of the suspension arms. They are higher durometer rubber than the original Suzuki bushings so they will reduce some suspension squirm while still being comfortable on the street. Keep in mind all of the rubber bushings in this car are now 30 years old so they will have deteriorated over time. Just check out how bad our differential bushings were!

Suzuki Cappuccino Front Swaybar
For swaybars we have no real options. 20+ years ago Suzuki Sport offered a set of thicker swaybars, but they have been out of production since I was in grade school and they are incredibly rare today. When this car was popular in Japan, the Japanese way of tuning was stiff springs and stock swaybars. Our car actually has some aftermarket bars under the car. The rear bar is bright yellow and the front bar has this odd kink in it. The stock bar should be straight. I believe the rear bar is stiffer than stock while the front bar is softer and that contributes to the peg leg action we sometimes get. Unfortunately I have no idea who makes these bars and cannot find any information on them.

We’re not going to go over every single detail of the installation (if you really need that level of instruction, you should probably go to a professional shop and not do this yourself), but we will highlight some key details.

Suzuki Cappuccino Missing Lower Damper Nut
One terrifying thing we discovered during the install was the front passenger strut had lost its retaining nut and the bolt was slowly unwinding. This could have been really dangerous if we hadn’t caught it! We will have to replace the nut and lock washer when we rebuild the suspension. We made a mental note to double check every single nut and bolt while we were under here…
Cappuccino Front Swaybar Bracket Bent & Missing Bolt
And look what else we found! One of the swaybar mounting bolts had backed out too. This was also on the left front so I wonder if they’re related. We were able to bend the brackets into the correct shape and replace the missing bolt. This is why you need to bolt check old cars!
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2 comments

  1. Any way to use an eccentric bolt in the front of the front LCA to get some camber adjustment? Miatas, RX-8, etc do that and it works “OK”

    Reply

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