Went out to my car that is on jack stands this morning and the rear brake was hanging really low.. upon further inspection .. anyone seen this before

 

 

 

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Nope. Glad it happened in the garage versus in the twisties!

Oh wonderful the 280z insulator is pretty much NLA


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I am sure I have one for you...

Yes, that exact same thing happened to me. My car had been on jackstands for a while, and one day I noticed one of the struts hanging lower. That's what it was.

I suspect many of us have this problem, or are about to have it. What causes deterioration of this rubber part? Heat? Well not engine or exhaust levels, just ambient exposure based on where you live.  UV exposure? Nope, pretty dark up in there. Mechanical stress? That thing is in compression a huge amount of the time and under tension almost never. So what's left?  Front ones might be prone to some twist and eventual tear if your steering bearings up at the top in there are seized so you are turning the rubber. I think it's just time that eventually lets whatever environmental factors that eat rubber to finally weaken it to the point of failure.  A bunch of my joints are getting prett creaky after 61 years too..

When I got my coil overs done, the company I bought them from insisted I send them my insulators so they could 'modify' them to work with their upper mounts. Turns out they only drilled the D hole out a bit and cut away some extra rubber around the edges, but what got me was, I didn't get the ones I sent back. I marked them. And shortly two of them failed just like this while hanging around in the shop on jack stands. Enough whining today....

Edited August 15, 20186 yr by zKars

I always put some lift on the wheels when car is on jack stands, just enough to make it so the suspension is not hanging by the rubber.  added bonus if the jacks fail there is another line of defense from the car falling on me. if that is not practical I remove the wheels, to take the weight of the rim/tire off.

Edited August 15, 20186 yr by Dave WM

Me too Dave WM.  I never liked the way it sits when you let it down off the jack, kind of "bow legged" looking to me.

Thank goodness I can use drive up ramps now for just changing the oil.  My car is hopefully done now at least for my monthly drive.  Low bar. 

I took mine up your way last week, 800 miles round trip, great ride, AC on all the way, 25mpg. The 5th gear makes hiway speeds fun.

3 hours ago, siteunseen said:

Me too Dave WM.  I never liked the way it sits when you let it down off the jack, kind of "bow legged" looking to me.

Thank goodness I can use drive up ramps now for just changing the oil.  My car is hopefully done now at least for my monthly drive.  Low bar. 

I rode near by you last Saturday. I was getting kids back to college. If I had thought about it sooner I would have seen if you were around...

Nothing pretty but they look solid.






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These rubber pieces peel out and can be replaced.  Might actually be under what I circled, those look bigger.  Courtesy Nissan had the parts a few years ago.  They'll give an extra 1/4" of lift.  I think it's why old Z's tend to be tail droopy.