Jounce / Rebound Bumpers

How do you decide where to put your jounce / rebound stops? I have to think that Mazda limited suspension travel based on the torsion bars. The shocks have a lot more travel than the stops allow.

do you mean bumpstops? they're there to keep you from; a: bottoming out too hard, or b: overextending your front suspension. you always want your shocks to have more travel then your actual suspension does, so you'll never bottom out or overextend your shock and destroy it.
i don't know if i answered your question or not, but i gave her a go...

Suppose you're designing your own suspension, as many do here, and you can choose your shock and spring length. Is there a point where the travel should be limited based solely on the control arms?

The reason I'm asking, is because I'm doing a coil-over setup on a 4x4 suspension. The rebound bump stop is clearly based on the maximum shock length. However the jounce travel is stopped well before the shock runs out of travel. I'm theorizing that Mazda limited the travel to protect the torsion bars. Maybe too much angle and they start to degrade?

i don't know the exact numbers, but your ball joints will max out if you lift so much.

thats also assuming you dont pie cut anything to gain more travel. i guess that doesnt get you any more travel just changes the range of motion.

Any progress pics so far !!! Very interested !!

Well, as of this weekend, the coilover setup is in! I'll have to take a few pics...

Here's a preview. I intend to do a full write-up after I have a chance to evaulate them. Truck needs a trans for that though...

Building coilovers (stock shocks, ebay coilovers, QA1 springs):




Making a spring perch out of an exhaust clamp:


In vehicle:

did you put the 4x4 suspension into a 2wd - or just remove the axles from the front in a 4x4 !! - I never would have thought of making my own coil overs !!!

That's 4x4 suspension welded onto a 2wd. Still working on the front diff!
Coilovers are SOOO much cheaper this way. I paid $40 for shocks, $40 for the sleeve kit, and about $70 for the springs. The only downfall (so far) is that I had to fabricate a spring perch to keep the coilover sleeves from falling off the shock body.