Another Suspension Rebuild

[Namerow]

How did you get your Z up on the elevator pads?

[KenFirch]

How did you get your Z up on the elevator pads?

Oh, those? I’ve got hydraulic rams under my shop floor, so I just hit a button to raise and lower the Z. You should see it when it goes 6 feet high for those oil changes!

Kidding! [emoji16]. It was on jack stands, so I just had to jack up each corner a few inches to slide a concrete block under each tire. [emoji106]


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[KenFirch]

After adjusting the toe-in, it actual tracks pretty good.  I'll be curious to see how close I got it when I take it to be aligned.  I forgot to tighten the rear strut top nuts, which made quite a racket during its first ride.  And the engine developed a miss while sitting for 3 months, probably pull the plugs tomorrow and take a look.  Or it could be the crappy California gas.

Did I mention I picked up some new wheels from Z Car Garage?  😉

[AK260]

Next dumb 2 questions... 1- Did you use a 6 + 3mm rubber washers because there wasn't a 9mm rubber washer? 2- I presume the metal washer is oriented away from the mustache bar?

No such thing as a dumb question (except the one not googled) :p

Yes exactly why I used 6+3.

The metal washer has very small dip in it making it slightly concave, so the sticky outy bit points away from the bar.

Ps.
Loving the alignment toolage!!! I used news papers under the wheels to help them slide about an did mine by eye. At the shop they found it had 5.4 and 5.2mm toe in. Too much toe but amazing how close you can get by eye or indeed what the eyes can see! Oh and I paid £120 ($167USD) at my local Nissan motorsport specialist, but they really know their stuff. So I feel your pain on the price of doing something so simple. It doesn’t take many alignments at that price to justify buying a half decent alignment tool. [emoji848]

[grannyknot]

3 hours ago, AK260 said:

It doesn’t take many alignments at that price to justify buying a half decent alignment tool

This is the diy alignment tool I bought after years of toe adjustments with the string method, https://www.wheelalignmenttools.com/product/2-wheel-alignment-system/

The tool allows you to measure and adjust toe, caster and camber, pretty happy with it.

 

Edited August 7, 2021 by grannyknot

[AK260]

This is the diy alignment tool I bought after years of toe adjustments with the string method, https://www.wheelalignmenttools.com/product/2-wheel-alignment-system/
The tool allows you to measure and adjust toe, caster and camber, pretty happy with it.
 

Oh wow! Thank you for sharing!! There are many out there but it’s great to see one with a personal recommendation from someone who knows their onions! [emoji106][emoji106]

[KenFirch]

7 hours ago, grannyknot said:

This is the diy alignment tool I bought after years of toe adjustments with the string method, https://www.wheelalignmenttools.com/product/2-wheel-alignment-system/

The tool allows you to measure and adjust toe, caster and camber, pretty happy with it.

Ordered!  I'd rather put $ toward this than give $ to someone for an easy no-brainer job!  Thanks!  

[KenFirch]

I'm liking that TenHulzen alignment tool!  Measured toe-in I had set with a couple straight edges clamped to the wheels.  Came out at 64 5/8" in the rear, 64 9/16" in the front, net of 1/16" in.  Going to leave it there.  Steering wheel is a spline or two off center, think I'll remove wheel and recenter instead of adjusting tie rods.

So, here's the before picture from May, stock springs (I think), worn struts, etc:

Here's the after picture, Eibach progressive springs, Koni Yellows, new bushings, mostly rubber.  After about 80 miles of driving.  Not much of a drop as I was expecting, looks the same to me. 😕

I measured from the ground to the top of the outside wheel well lip before and after, tires are 195/70R14's:

   Before:                   After:                          Camber:

RF:  26"                      26"                             -.40

RR: 24 7/8"                24 5/8"                      -2.05

LF: 26 1/4"                 25 7/8"                      -.50

LR: 25 1/4"                 25 1/8"                      -2.15

BUT, I've gotta say the Eibachs and the Koni Yellows are a great pairing together.  It's like driving another car.  I'm running them about 1/4 turn from the softest setting for now.

[grannyknot]

Looks like you have the Eibach rear end squat too, it seems to happen a lot with the Eibachs but not with everyone. I inserted a 1/2" urethane spacer between the the top of the spring and the spring perch on the car, that evened the car out so it was level.

 

[KenFirch]

I think I’d rather lower the front an inch or so.
I’m not a fan of ignorantly cutting coil springs, but has anyone done that? I was wondering how much a half coil would lower the front. And increased camber wouldn’t hurt either. Don’t want to do the coil over route.

[Jeff G 78]

1 hour ago, sfm6s524 said:

I think I’d rather lower the front an inch or so.
I’m not a fan of ignorantly cutting coil springs, but has anyone done that? I was wondering how much a half coil would lower the front. And increased camber wouldn’t hurt either. Don’t want to do the coil over route.

I don't have a huge problem with cutting coils, but you must do the math and understand what you are doing.  Cutting coils increases the effective spring rate and in your case, cutting the fronts to level the car will increase the front spring rate while the rears stay the same.  This will change the ride frequency and could cause the car to be pitchy.  Raising the front spring rate will also change the front to rear handling balance. 

I cut the coils on my 260Z race car.  Stock coils on the late 260Z coupe are 100 Lbs/in. front and rear from what I remember (it was 12 years ago).  I cut 2 coils and then added custom length jounce bumpers from a ~2000 model year Sentra with a measured 55 lb/in rate.  I cut the length so they were in contact at curb height so they act as spring aids.  With the coils cut, the car dropped 1" and the new spring rates including the jounce bumpers went up to 200 lbs/in.  I fine tuned the handling by playing with different length jounce bumpers and the result was fantastic handling.  The car is well balanced and easy to drive at the limit.

You are better off shimming the rears via rubber, delrin or aluminum under the spring or on top of the spring.  It's the perfect application for 3D printed TPU (rubber) as you could get just the right shape for the spacers.

Edited August 20, 2021 by Jeff G 78

[siteunseen]

I have 1 round cut out of my fronts with stock struts. The previous owner did it but I like it and the stance is nice. Handles good. Not too rough through the steering or the seat. Cheap way to lower one I've always heard.