Hey all. I just bought a 72 240 and I just love it. They only problem I can see is that the front end seems accessively high. It is at least three inch's off of the front tire. The rear is only about one inch. Could the springs have been installed in the wrong locations? (rear in front and visa versa)

By the way, the springs are Tokico's

Thanks.

Try pushing you the rear part of your car down twice and let go. If the car gives an extra bounce or two, your shocks are dead. Or you can change your tire size.

If those are 16"s, you can try this setup. (not sure of the width of your rim x 55 x 16 for the front and X x 50 x 16 for the rear. You can check this website out if you need some help with tire choice. http://www.rims-n-tires.com/info_specs.jsp Chances are your shocks are dead cause I highly doubt the owner switched them intentionally and I'm not sure you can actually do that to the suspension. Hope this helps you speedgato..car looks really good. Love the rims

No, the suspension is stiff as hell. Upon further inspection is seems that I may have all rear springs in there. They all have an "R" marked on them. I will need to order just the fronts I guess. Thanks for the help. Yeah, the wheels really make the car don't they?

Then I guess you've just solved your problem. Haha! Don't know why the previous owner did that kind of setup.Different strokes for...you know the rest. If you have the time try removing both the front and rear springs and compare them. Not sure if the "R" stand for rear or right side? Maybe the other members who know better about the suspension setup for the Z can help you out but yes, the rims do make the car! I love it. Are they the Panasports? The rear rim looks more incised than the front? I have something similar to those but still having them reconditioned.

Ezra

Before you buy springs, more research is needed. First, it is not unusual for an early Z to sit a bit high in the front. And so the fender gap may not be the same in those conditions.

Also, the pictures make it look as if the front tires are lower profile than the rear. I'm not sure if that's true, it might be an optical illusion. But if it is true, that will make the appearance even worse.

Factory springs don't use letters as identifiers - they used colored daubs of paint. Typically, there were different springs for each side in front, and a third part that was used on both sides in the rear.

Since your springs have an "R" on them, they apparently aren't factory. But without knowing who made them, there's no telling what the "R" means. Might not mean rear.

If it were me, I'd probably look into getting a whole matched set of springs so that I knew for certain what I had, and that all four were compatible.

Park your car on a flat surface and measure from the top of the wheel arch to the ground. Also the condition of the shocks has no impact on ride height. The springs determine the ride height. You can also count the number of coils on each spring. Some have more coils front to rear. The only way to know if your springs are wrong is to take them out and measure the height of the individual spring.

I always thought the front wheel wells/arches were slightly higher then the rear. If you look down the body line of your Z, doesn't it appear maybe a bit higher?

Even with his body side molding on the car the front arch looks taller, no?

Vicky

What Arne said...

i actually heard the having the front about 1" higher in the front is better for auto-x...... anyway, my cars are the same.

...snip... Not sure if the "R" stand for rear or right side?

Ezra

FYI, The R does stand for "Rear". If you can read it, the attached pic shows my front Tokico spring. It reads an "F" after the part number. Hope this helps!

I believe Tokico says their springs lower the car 1" from stock, but from what Carl Beck has mentioned, the US spec spring did leave the front somewhat higher than the back. That is why Courtesy Nissan is now selling Euro spec springs. (Mine arrived today BTW!)

Cheers!

Another possible cause although I hate to bring it up...is the possibility that the PO may have replaced the strut assy with a later model (260/280) which are taller and larger diameter. I am only bringing this up because when I bought my 72 Z it was opposite of yours. The rear end of mine looked like it came from a rallye car. See attached Picture:tapemouth I hope that this is not the case for you.

240 z 2a.bmp

Yipes, what a rake, David! A scary look for a Z car! Please say it ain't that way no more!!!

Speedgato,

Here are some shots of my Z, it has the Tokico blue HP struts and Tokico springs that came as a package deal. The fronts are labeled 5020-F as shown. The rears are 5020-R, but the label isn't visible in the photo of the rear spring. As seen in the other photos, the front is a bit higher than the rear. I've got taller tires on the original steel wheels, they fill up the wheel wells a bit more than yours.