4/75 Datsun 280Z; Leaf Green, CA market, 250K miles, Long Term Project 03/2023-

[grannyknot]

11 hours ago, HusseinHolland said:

 

 

Surprisingly, perhaps - it was just a little bit of a squeak and a pop over  bumps. I put the stock springs back in, since I had saved them from back in 2016 I think when I originally did the Eibach lowering spring set. The original Eibach springs lasted 2 years, I replaced those in 2018. They have limited lifetime warranty - this clearly falls into that category.  I don't Track the car or anything. Have to hear back from TireRack.com on that.

 

Don't show Tirerack that pic of the stacked springs, they'll deny your claim.

[HusseinHolland]

4 minutes ago, grannyknot said:

Don't show Tirerack that pic of the stacked springs, they'll deny your claim.

That's not stacked - that's the one spring broken into 3 pieces - the lower portion has a plastic coating

EDIT - I've used helper springs with coil over setups - this isn't that, it's a single progressive rate spring

Edited May 19 by HusseinHolland

[Zed Head]

4 hours ago, HusseinHolland said:

EDIT - I've used helper springs with coil over setups - this isn't that, it's a single progressive rate spring

Still confused.  The black Eibach spring is clear.  But now you've added another picture of what looks like a remnant of some other spring, intertwined with it.  Looks like a single spring plus one.  Two springs.

What's the brown thing?, is the question.

[Zed Head]

16 hours ago, HusseinHolland said:

Surprisingly, perhaps - it was just a little bit of a squeak and a pop over  bumps

And, might as well ask since I'm here, are you saying that the Eibach spring or springs broke?  

Not trying to cause trouble, your writing implies that whatever it is is obvious to you.  But you didn't really say what was going on and there's no broken ends shown for the Eibachs.  The Eibach looks whole.  Might just be me not knowing what I'm looking at but I've seen a few springs.  I had some Tokicos in my car and a set of cut down stock springs.

[HusseinHolland]

8 hours ago, Zed Head said:

And, might as well ask since I'm here, are you saying that the Eibach spring or springs broke?  

Not trying to cause trouble, your writing implies that whatever it is is obvious to you.  But you didn't really say what was going on and there's no broken ends shown for the Eibachs.  The Eibach looks whole.  Might just be me not knowing what I'm looking at but I've seen a few springs.  I had some Tokicos in my car and a set of cut down stock springs.

Apologies.

What you are looking at is the Eibach spring which includes a plastic sleeve they add to the lower 1/3rd.  

The first pic you added arrows to, is one spring broken into 3 parts. The uncoated section is sitting down behind the lower break (2)

\

The other side spring only broke into 2 pieces. You can see the break poking through the plastic sleeve here

Edited May 20 by HusseinHolland

[HusseinHolland]

Eibach will send me new springs. Didn't give me a shipping date, but they will honor their warranty

Removed the vapor canister yesterday - seemed like I was getting some fuel vapor in the cabin - did not have that prior to futzIng with the hoses back there. In all likelihood it was the old sections of hose I had spliced, so I removed the stock 5/8" ID (more like 16.5mm), and put a new section from the feeder I had already replaced, directly to the filler neck. The 1/4 hose I just spliced together for now - just wanted to see if the vapor smells went away with this. They seemed to have. I may ultimately put the canister back, I'm undecided on that. It's physically in very good shape. Or maybe I should just sell it, there's probably somebody out there who wants to keep their 280Z in factory condition... 

 

Edited May 28 by HusseinHolland

[Zed Head]

On 5/18/2024 at 5:23 PM, HusseinHolland said:

The original Eibach springs lasted 2 years, I replaced those in 2018.

Thanks for the update on the springs.  I didn't know that they came with a plastic coating.  Also didn't know that you could buy them from TireRack.  Also didn't know that they were so fragile.  Are you saying that this is the second set that failed?  

At least they're still an option.  There was a company that came out with new springs a few years ago but I think that they might have folded already.  Can't remember the name but htere was quite a bit of discussion about them back then.  Eibachs had a reputation for unpredictable ride heights.  Many of the Z's that used them ended up looking like Gassers.

[Namerow]

8 hours ago, Zed Head said:

There was a company that came out with new springs a few years ago but I think that they might have folded already.  Can't remember the name but htere was quite a bit of discussion about them back then. 

I think maybe you're referring to Vogtland (Germany).  If so, they're still very much in existence, although it appears that they may no longer offer a kit that applies specifically to the 240-260-280 Z's (they do offer kits for the 350 and 370 Z's, as well as the Altima and Sentra).  The Vogtland kit that was referenced in CZCC for the 240-260-280 Z was PN 552-204.  The free heights were 12.5" F / 11.5" R and the spring rates were 152 lb/in F / 170 lb/in R.  They were constant-rate springs and the F and R rates fell about mid-way within the F and R rate spreads of the Eibach progressives (133 - 183 F / 154 - 212 R). 

For reference, the Tokico single-rate springs for the Z (NLA?) had free heights of 11.25" F / 12.0" R and springs rates of 185 F/ 200 R.

If you contact Vogtland, you may discover that they still have some of the Z kits in inventory.

p.s. Looking at your photos, I'm wondering whether the plastic sheathing on the lower part of the Eibachs might be contributing to the breakage problem by acting as a moisture trap and promoting corrosion.  Lower part breaks first due to surface rust etching, upper part then gets overloaded and fails next.  If you get another replacement set from TireRack, you might consider injecting some anticorrosion spray underneath the sheathing.

Edited May 22 by Namerow

[HusseinHolland]

10 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Thanks for the update on the springs.  I didn't know that they came with a plastic coating.  Also didn't know that you could buy them from TireRack.  Also didn't know that they were so fragile.  Are you saying that this is the second set that failed?  

At least they're still an option.  There was a company that came out with new springs a few years ago but I think that they might have folded already.  Can't remember the name but htere was quite a bit of discussion about them back then.  Eibachs had a reputation for unpredictable ride heights.  Many of the Z's that used them endedup looking like Gassers.

Yes, this is the 2nd set that failed. I've used Eibachs on a range of Volvos, and never had this failure. This Volvo P1 chassis (C30/S40/V50) is shared with Mazda3 & Ford Focus (From Ford's ownership period (approx 2000- 2013), so perhaps the larger market reduced product quality, I dunno. 

I do have the Eibach spring set on the Z as well...

[HusseinHolland]

2 hours ago, Namerow said:

 

p.s. Looking at your photos, I'm wondering whether the plastic sheathing on the lower part of the Eibachs might be contributing to the breakage problem by acting as a moisture trap and promoting corrosion.  Lower part breaks first due to surface rust etching, upper part then gets overloaded and fails next.  If you get another replacement set from TireRack, you might consider injecting some anticorrosion spray underneath the sheathing.

I have body cavity wax spray, so I'll do just that if the replacements they are supplying still use the sleeve, good call.

Edited May 22 by HusseinHolland

[HusseinHolland]

Back on the fuel vent lines today. The main reason for gas smell was that I used the incorrect grade line for the 1/4"  vent hose into the cabin. Still, I decided that I like the minimal fuel hose into the cabin, so I ran a new single 5/8" SAE J30R7 reinforced hose from the U-bend on the tank to the filler neck. Added a heat shrink sleeve where it passes into the cabin, to make it snug in the grommet. Plugged the smaller vent pass thru.

New vent line to charcoal canister is now run underneath, so I plugged the factory grommet at the forward end of the rail. Had to use a universal grommet, I couldn't find a Volvo one in my collection in the appropriate size.

Cut the original vent hose where it comes through the frame rail and added a quick connect. Nitrile line goes from there to the tank.

added EPDM sleeve

Pressing male QC fitting at tank end of nitrile line

Female 90º QC off tank is connected using a section of the original Z vent hose from inside the cabin . These fittings can be reached for disconnect from between the rear panel & gas tank, and thru the louvre vents in the rear panel on the 75. 

 

 

Edited May 23 by HusseinHolland

[HusseinHolland]

On 5/21/2024 at 1:51 PM, HusseinHolland said:

Eibach will send me new springs. Didn't give me a shipping date, but they will honor their warranty

So, they (Eibach) sent out ONE spring to replace these(!) Now I'll have to wait another week or two to get this resolved...

updated the vent tank setup - posted in the Vapor Tank thread

Been sick for a week now, so some days I haven't done much of anything. I spent a little while placing the outlets along the south wall, and figuring out conduit. The east end (left side) conduit will run upward to connect to the 240 outlet going on the center post between the garage doors. The west end will connect to the new conduit runs coming over the west wall behind the press. Need to finish the bottom plate in the soth wall area before I can put the inner wall back together, and then run the new electric in the conduit.

got another small bench grinder from a salvage emporium in upstate NY - paid $20 for it. Just needs a little cleanup.

 

Edited May 28 by HusseinHolland
typo