Rear Suspension Rebuild Thread

[EuroDat]

I second rcb280z. Otherwise you can get seriously bogged down in the "while Im at it" scenario, Unless your planning a ground-up rebuild ofcource. It can be hard to ignore the old line when you see the new ones next to them.

Youdid a great job on bending the tubing. Looks spot on.

Chas

[tlorber]

Ksechler, if you have not yet put the struts back in, you may want to check the strut inserts for play. I still have a slight clunk, and I believe it is coming from the right rear strut insert. I read a thread somewhere about shimming them, and at some point I'll have to pull it apart in order to do that.

[ksechler]

God, I can't even type the title right. It should have read, "Pain and pleasure kind of day".

Typical to how my day is going, I typed most of this post out and my browser crashed and I lost it all.

So I have to do it again. Same story with my work on the car today. Almost everything that I did I had to take apart and do again because something wasn't right. This about sums up the day:

First I manhandled the differential into place. Does anyone see a problem with this picture?

I'll give you a hint. The @#$! mustache bar is on backwards. This is how my stupid Hayes manual showed it. I guess maybe that's how the 240z is but not the 280z. I hated to do it, but I had to pull the differential back out and turn the mustache bar around and reinstall it.

Then I put in the control arm.

And I put in the strut and couldn't get the darn thing to line up with the control arm because the shoulder of the bushing was sticking out too much. So it all came out. I had to trim the bushing slightly which I am sure is not the ideal way, but that was the only path forward so I took it. Then I put the control arm and strut together and installed the spindle pin... backwards. So I took it out and did it again. See the theme for the day?

I finally go it all together and installed on the car.

I don't know what is wrong with me sometimes... But I did manage to get it together.

I still need to torque the bolts once I sit the car down. That's probably going to carry over to next weekend.

Edited December 31, 2012 by ksechler
I'm an idiot

[EuroDat]

Spindle pins; I think the Datsun engineersmade them off ceter just to annoy home mechanics. As for Haynes manual. The bin I say. I had one with a photo of a gear in a tranny and I was sure it went the other way only to realise long after I was right and the manual was wrong.

[240260280z]

A scissor jack can spread the control arm to fit the bushings w/o trimming.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Well look at it this way, you are now one of the premier experts on rebuilding the rear suspension on a 280Z.

Great work and good on you for taking the time to fix everything and get it right. You should be very proud!

[LeonV]

Once you've replaced the outer LCA bushings and put the pin in, you'll be in the home stretch. Good luck!

You're now on the home stretch! Your next rear suspension rebuild will go a lot smoother...

[GreenZZZ]

You should have a solid rear end soon. Might want to read up on the RT differential mount modification to smooth it out even more. Those fuel and ventilation lines look like they are on their last legs, but I haven't figured out how to get them out w/o both the tranny and the diff out of the car.

[ksechler]

Well look at it this way, you are now one of the premier experts on rebuilding the rear suspension on a 280Z.

Yeah because I've done everything twice if not three times before getting it right!

[EuroDat]

Like they say, Practice makes perfect. In your case, it wiil be a perfect Z;)

Its part of hobbying. I think we have all been there somewhere in the restoration process.

[ksechler]

Well, there won't be too many more posts in this thread since I am almost done. On New Years Day, in finished (sort of) the installation. I was able to put the wheels back on the car and loaded it down with an assortment of bags of quickcrete, dog food and a couple of iron weights to simulate 2 - 150 lb passengers. Then I torqued the assorted bushing locations. Some were quite a challenge because of the combination of limited access, a one-handed grip and a high torque specification.

The anti-sway bar is not installed yet and there are no brakes but everything else is done. I will put on the anti-sway bar next weekend. The brake calipers can not be installed until I get my new wheels. So that will get done whenever.

[fuzze]

PB Blast no more ! Mix 50\50 acetone or lacquer thinner with ATF '' automatic tranny fluid '' in a small spray bottle and it will loosen anything and everything that you use it on . I like to use a bit of heat where possible and then quench with the 50\50 mix . This has only failed me once and that is because the stud broke, I welded a nut to the stub , resprayed and turned the stud out . I read about this concoction on this forum and have used it ever since . My drums on my 71 where so frozen that I was ready to trailer my z to a shop and let a pro tackle them , and my savior was this mixture . you will never go back to store bought . If I remember correctly , it was a member from Kansas with I think a blue 72 and it was his gramps go to as well, who wrote about this mix . We just call it the good stuff !

see ya

Chris