speedyblue

You could use a smoke machine with some flexi pipe to make a stack of smoke wherever you want it. Would only work as a stationary shot though. I remember on one of those worlds worst drivers shows about people putting diesle in petrol engines and making a lot of smoke. Not something to try on a newer bike though. Any smoke bombs I know of are small and unstable at best.

I'd be interested to know what else you have.

One is slightly possible, but extremely difficult, the other is downright impossible. I bypassed mine because of the difficulties.

Do a search of the forums. I started a thread with a very similar name (possible 'spring availability in Oz') and found out a bit about what was on offer, and peoples opinions. It should help. Also, replace your shocks too. It makes a million times the difference. Check the other thread that's running. Good luck with it all. Scott

I got them from xshocks.com They use paypal for payment. Shox.com don't accept OZ credit cards, so payment is a pain with them. xshocks don't answer their emails though. I called them and found out what I wanted straight away after waiting about 2 weeks for no reply to the emails. They are in california. Shipping was resonable. They only ship by air. The set of 4 shocks cost me $450au delivered to my post office box.

I went the Tokico HP's. Got them from the US and they were cheaper than KYB's here, or anything else here for that matter. I also got Suspension Technique springs from the US, because they were a little stiffer than what's on offer over here. They did cost about $50 more than the kings all up I think. Only swapped the front so far though, so can't give a full opinion on them yet, but pretty happy so far.

Hmm, mine went in without a hitch. I replaced mine with PU bushes and with all the grease on them, they slid straight into place. My bushes were exactly the same size as the originals, but blue. I took the whole rod out to replace them, so I don't know if this makes a difference. I still have the old rubber ones on teh floor in the garage, so I can measure them up if you want. This was for a 240Z though.

How did all this go?? Any luck?

I gotta get me one of them

Two opptions available. One, undo the big nut on the back of the stub axle and remove the stub axle. Two, grind off the backing plate once it is unbolted. Then you may have to also grind the caliper bracket to get it on. But the best option is remove the stub axle, and replace the bearings while it's apart. Who knows how old they may be.

Take it off the car, cut out the slots, then put a string accross the ends, like a big bow and arrow set. Make sure you measure how wide you want it to end up, or it still won't fit right. I think if it breaks it is pretty rough.

The radiator hangs about 1.5 inches. Lowest thing in font of the tyres, but still higher than the subframe. So you could bottom it out on a gutter if you aren't carefull. I've had no problems though. Rear brakes will adapt but you need the hard to find adapter plates. Search for R30 Skyline in these forums and there is a part number somewhere. The front calipers can be used with 300zx discs for a vented disk setup. The Diff can be used. The electric mirrors will fit, but the curve where it meets the door is slightly different and can be seen at close distances. Have fun with it. The power gain with the L28 is good.

I think prices were around $70-80 from Z shops around the place, but I got mine from Chloe at half the price. Check some of the US sources cause Chloe is no more.

The offset of the wheels will affect the size you can run. Zero offset and the tyre will rub on the guards if they are too big. I ran 235's all around and had to roll the rears. I'm now running nissan 6 spokes and the 235's fit on the back no worries (12.5mm offset), but on the front there is about 5mm from the tyre sidewall to the spring perch. If you add a set of G-flares, you could run some big rubber on the car with a zero offset wheel.

Import a 265 hemi (Chrysler) from Australia. 4.3l, 6cyl 300hp from the factory with tripple webbers. Heaps cheaper than a hi-tech Jap six, and too much torque for a light car in the wet.

Yep, know the feeling. Even the 2nd hand option is pricey. Lucky for me I only needed a few, but still cost a bit.

Are you talking about the Factory 280zx 6 spoke ones. I got wheel nuts 2nd hand from AllZparts. Cost $7-8 each, plus shipping, which wasn't much. Nissan wants $25 each for them, and they have to order in from Japan. Ridiculous!!

I like the look of the lotus ones. Might have to photoshop them on to the Z for a look. Don't like the 11mm offset though. My past 2 sets of wheels have been 0 offset (set of jellybeans) and 12.5mm (280zx 6 spokes) Having the extra 12mm really fills out the guards nicely. Currently my tires, whilst wide, don't quite fill it all out. But I guess I no longer have rubbing problems, so that is a positive.

I've just taken the Radius arm (compression rod) off and there is only one tube on there. They are Noltec bushes. I read your post in the other discussion on replacing bushes where you mentioned the two inner diameters, but nothing more was said. Now it is all apart is seems fairly clear what's going on, especially if there are two different diametre rods, but at first I couldn't see how both sleves would fit in the given area. Anyway, I'll take more piccies, put it together and add it to my other post as part 2 ot the suspension upgrade. Cheers Scott

I'm about to start putting in some new bushes, but the radius rod bushes have two metal sleeves in each pack. Both are the same OD, but have different ID's. What is the go here. My Haynes Manual says nothing on the subject at all. If I can clear this up, I can get started. Thanks guys Scott

The black insert May just an original one. The casing is EXACTLY the same as the Tokico one. Welds, end shape and all. The pedders one is white and has rounder ends and the such. I now have the bump stops, so they will go on in the next day or so. Till then, I will avoid large bumps like the plauge, but with the car the same height and stiffer springs, I don't think i will suddenly start bottoming out the struts. I just re-measured the guard heights. When I first installed them, I could grab the guard and bounce the front end a bit, but now after two days, the springs have settled and It barely moves if I do the same thing. The body roll is a bit tighter too.

I chose this point to clean all the crud out of the bearing using the spray cans full of degreaser. Took no time at all. Then pushed in some grease and spun it to get it all in there. Dropped the spring into place over the strut, then the top perch, then bearing then the top bit. The strut poked through the hole enough to put the nut on. I tightened it up. The spring was captive just. Squished about 5mm from full length. One thing I noticed when I pulled it apart was there was no bump stop. Since I didn't have any, I put it all back together with out one, a little worried about it all. There was then another great effort required to swing the whole assembly back into place, but after about half an hour I was putting the three nuts and screw washers back on, securing the whole thing to the shock tower. I added brake lines and a wheel, but left the sway bar till I did the other side. The other side was a little different. For one thing, the strut lock nut thingy was round with little keyways in it for the "special tool" The pipe wrench had a little difficulty biting into it, but eventually I got it. That was the other thing, I got it undone myself, with a medium effort. Low and behold, there was a new looking white pedders shock in there. Now the other corner had a plain black shock that was utterly shot, but this corner has a newer shock that was still in good condition, but with the older style locking nut. Go figure. I measured the height again after re-assembly and discovered the ride height had dropped by an astonishing 5mm. Hmm. I guess my springs really were sagged a little. Got it all together, including bleeding the brakes (crutial step) and took it for a spin. First, hit the brakes hard. Nose dive still there. Then weave erratically about on the road. Body roll still there but limited. I have a 24mm front sway bar fitted. On hard weaves at about 40kph the tyres (195's on the front) were starting to wail a little and the total roll was about 2-3 inches, ie 1-1.5 inches each side. The rear springs are way worst than the fronts, really mushy so they could be contributing a fair bit. Drove to work the next day and really noticed the difference. It now goes over speed bumps and other lumps like a car, rather than a 30 year old bucket of bolts. Thats so much better. Pushing it around a corner with a very bumpy, uneven surface is way better than it used to be. It used to skip along the top to some degree. I can't wait to do the rears, but first I will fit some other goodies, like new radius rod bushes, lower control arm bushes, and while I have it dropped out, add some bump stops. All in a better than rubber compound, which have now arrived in the mail.

Part one: Front Springs First I measured the height of each corner, from the centre of the wheel to the bottom of the guard. The measurements I came up with were: Front left: 360mm After: 342mm Front right: 365mm 345mm Rear left: 345mm Rear right: 340mm New stuff: 4x Tokico HP's and a set of ST springs, lowers an inch. Then the work began. I jacked the car up under the subframe and removed the wheel. Notice how clean the floor is. First step was to disconnect the sway bar. Easy, 14mm socket on the rachet drive. Then was the brake line. 10mm open ender. The only nut that would undo was the one on rhe caliper, so It came off. The brake line also connects to the strut. I used pliers to pull the retaining clip, then wriggled the line loose. I had to be pull the hard line back through the hole in the bracket bracet. No other way around this. I then pulled the cap off the top of the strut and cracked the nut while it was bolted in place, just to make it easier later. 17mm socket with a short extension i think. I then used a 14mm socket to remove the three nuts and screw washers that hold the whole assembley in place at the top. Wiggling it around dropped the studs through the holes, but not very far. The radius rod holds it all in place. By pushing down on the whole thing with my foot and jiggling it all, i couldn't get to come out. I took the nut and bushing off the rear end of the radius rod (17mm) but the lower control bushing stops any twist that would allow it to come out. It still wouldn't lower enough to come out. Eventually I put the spring compressor on and squished the strut down enough that with the use of more foot power it came out of the little box area that the strut fits into. Then it was simple to take the already loosened nut off the top of the strut. This allows the top piece to come off, which is the top spring perch, an old cruddy bearing and the top bit with the three studs that hold it all to the strut towers. The spring comes out also. At this point I was quite worried, because my new springs were about 3-4 inches shorter than my current ones. The floor is alse a little dirtier by now. The strut lock nut was a large octagonal thing, that was much larger than my shifter so I used a pipe wrench. I soon discovered I'm still not strong enough for stuff like this, so a length of pipe was added to the handle. Still wouldn't budge, so I used the secret weapon, a strong bloke named Phil. My father is very good at persuading tight nuts and bolts to come loose. He had the strut out in about a minute. Placing the new strut beside the old one, they are exactly alike, casings and all. Just the old one doesn't absorb much shock any more. I slid the new shock into teh tube, where it was a tight fit. I then pulled it out and added a little ATF, slid the strut back in, where it stuck about an inch proud. I spent the next 5 minutes pushing gently on the strut, extruding all the excess fluid. Very tight fit. New octaganol nut on top, tightened to approx 80lbft. The bar was about 2 foot long, and about 20kg (44lb) force applied by guess. Not quite an exact science but it works.