Pennyman

How does your car handle? I talked to Dave Sholtz he said the 240z has too light a rear end and it's hard to keep it sideways. Your opinions? Also, What sort of suspension are you running? Usually drift events are easier with really stiff setups. And what about LSD? Let us know which one you're running! (Can you tell I'm interested in drifting my Z?) First time I've seen a S30 sideways on Irwindale's big bank! Kudos!

This car is just on a whole new level of awesome. I saw it on page one and my jaw hit the floor. I just can't put it into words. It rivals any of the cars I've seen from Japan in sheer style. Superb. What's that little lip in the bottom of the front airdam? That's a nice touch!

If someone is messing with your car and they hear you pump a shotgun, no person in their right mind would continue. That's psychological warfare right there, and that's perfectly legal. Although you don't get the satisfaction of getting them in trouble because they would probably bolt...

Some guy did the same thing to the hood of my 280z. Used the bumper as a step, jumped on the hood, and walked off. All I found was a faint "Phat Farm" dirt smudge in the dent. Never found who it was, but I popped it out and got it fixed with insurance money. I hate those stupid kids...

Nobody? I guess I should have been more brief, but I'm just so excited about this project!

Hey everyone, Went to the junkyard today and picked up myself 4 strut tubes (with springs and control arms, for lack of spring compressors and spindle pin pullers) from a 77 280z for my future coilover setup. I have a 76 280z and the brake cylinder in the rear is the sliding type, while the ones I got at the junkyard from the 77 are the dual piston type. I know the dual piston type is superior, but damn, they're filthy and hardly look worth holding onto. Wheras, My sliding type work well and haven't failed me yet. Is there a way to swap my sliding style onto the new strut tubes? I know for certain I'll have to swap the backing plate as well, which means removing the stub axle, but is this legitamate? I would assume the mounting points for the hardware would be the same, only the backing plate and everything wheelside would be different? Will the brake lines line up? I've heard somethings about the hard lines being in the wrong place. I hope to get this cleared up before I get too deep into this project. Ideally I would upgrade to the cheaper and better dual style, but the ones I got were beat down looking, black, and leaky, so I think I'll stick with the sliding style for now. BTW I payed $133 for the set of 4 with control arms in the rear and springs and insulators, hows that for a price? Thanks!!

Best I could find of it done.

Yeah, and Pt. #BZ3099 should work on the front of a 280z. Only difference would be maybe a little varience in strut diameter, but the gland nut and concave bottom of the strut tube solve that problem as I now know. I believe the amount you section with these struts is about 1.25" as PUSHER stated, and he also layed it out very clearly. For sectioning on a 280z, here's what you need: Pt. #BZ3099 87-89 MR2 rear struts (for front) (X2) Pt. #BZ3013 280z rear struts (for rear, works because of "pegleg") (X2) Cut front strut tube amount "A" to fit new MR2 strut (X2) Cut metal spacer on new 280z strut the same amount "A" (X2) Cut rear strut tube to fit shortened 280z strut by sectioning amount "A" (X2) Pretty strightforward I guess!

I was just curious because my current gland nuts (thread into the strut tube) are circular, with 2 notches on either side. I know this is OEM, but its about as user UN-friendly as possible. I had my gland nuts loosen on me and I had to tighten them up, and instead of using a wrench, I had to use a hammer and a screwdriver to pound it tight chisel style. Lame. I guess I could get some new ones from a parts shop, hopefully they'd have ones with a hex shaped head. I just thought the gland nut was individual to the thickness of the strut shaft, but I guess not. BTW Pusher, how is the fit of the MR2 struts in the front? Do they fit snugly in the tube or do they have a gap that you have to fill with oil or something? Yeah, Ziptied, haha. I love it...

Thanks John for all your input, I'm going to see if there are other opinions as well. For those of you using sectioned struts, would you say the 280z gland nut size is the same as the ones you are using on the 240z? (MR2 front the same gland nut as well?). I heard they were different, which would mean I'd have to buy them seperately, arg. Is there anyone who runs a 280z with sectioned struts that I can talk to? Thanks again for all the help.

Ok, I've searched and searched. I haven't come up with any definite answers. I hope this thread helps more than me. I'm pondering getting coilovers, and it seems like sectioning the struts is the best way to keep everything set up right. But the majority of the info regards the 240z ONLY. I have a '76 280z, and we all know that the rear strut tube is one inch taller then that on a 240z, AND the OD and ID of the tubes are different. The larger outer diameter is not a problem, you just simply order a 280z coilover kit, but it's the ID i'm concerned about. Because of the different ID, the trusty "240z fronts in the rear, and MR2 in the front" will not work, correct? So what struts to you use to make up that difference? Of course you could find some 240z strut tubes and swap them onto your 280z, but that's not really feasable, especially when there's 10 280z's in a junkyard for every 1 240z (even more rare by the minute too). I read that the extra space in the 280z strut tube can be used to insulate, by pouring oil into it, but is this really necessary? I also read that the gland nut does a fine job of holding everything down, so the extra space in the tube doesn't matter. What's the concensus on this? We'll start with this. There are other issues I haven't seen covered regarding 280z coilover conversions, but this is a good start. Thanks for your understanding!

The whole idea behind this mod I think, is to keep suspension travel while eliminating the large size of the insulator. In order to do this, you cannot move the upper spring perch upward, because with the load of the car on it, this would in fact reduce suspension travel! So you have to keep the upper spring perch in the same location or lower, and by lowering the spring perch you move the tip of the strut shaft upward, which won't work because the top is threaded only so much, and you still need to get that upper retaining nut on it to keep the assembly together. The only other solution I could figure was this: Let's take the front end as the example. Pry off those plastic strut hole caps and look in. The retaining nut is recessed into that hole. If you could shorten the insulator so that the retaining nut came out of the hole and was flush with the 3 strut assembly bolts, you'd lower the car by that much without affecting anything else! Only problem is: I measured this distance, its a whimpy 20mm. Any more and you'd have to drill a hole in your hood bracing for the tip of the strut to go into when you close the hood. But for the rear it should work, there's no hood to hit there, it would just protrude into the interior. Sorry if this is a little vauge to understand...

I found this thread http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=96762&highlight=strut+isolator and I want to do the same thing. I guess the only difference between the front and rear upper assemblies is the bearing in the front needed for smooth steering action, while the rear simply has a spacer. I wonder if there would be some way to modify this while still using the stock (or a modified) OEM spring perch...

New life into an older thread! I'm very interested in this. I know that to keep the suspension from self destructing, some form of flex has to be built into the upper section of the strut assembly. I want to upgrade my suspension, but I don't want to go all out at this point because my 280z is just my daily driver. I was planning on getting AZ z car springs (don't lower too much, but very stiff) and Illuminas, but from what I've seen this won't lower the car very much. I was wondering how to somehow eliminate or modify the upper insulators to reduce the size of them, but still keep some of the insulating/flex qualities using a monoball setup or something similer. At this point (as a poor student) I'm not in the budget for EMI camber plates, nor similer bolt-in equlivelents. I was simply trying to figure out a way to lower the car by taking advantage of the parts which seem to alow me to do so: the large strut insulators. Would you reccomend picking up a set of OEM insulators and modifying them to make them shorter? Or starting from scratch and fabricating some sort of monoball insulator eliminator? Thanks!

I just found this kit online. You could probably do some of the 7" lens modification and make it work. http://www.hidplanet.com/package.html Tell me what you think...

I'm planning on getting a set eventually, once I get some springs and struts on my 280z. I want to use them on the street, without flares, so I figure 15x7 will work, I'll measure the backspacing on my 14x7 mags and use that measurement for the new wheels to make sure they fit. Probably will end up the same size as the wheels mom'sZ is getting... Just thinking out loud, I like these wheels a lot...

Yeah, he's been working on that car for a while now. He fabbed his own coilover setup by sectioning the Z31 struts and welding on S13 adjustable coilovers. There's so much more on there than meets the eye. Those wheels are custom too. Took the centers out of 2 piece Wats and put them on wider rims. He's now in the process of rebuilding the motor and upgrading the turbo. That car makes me weak in the knees every time I look at it.

Does it burn rubber? Prepare to whoop some @ss at every stoplight, haha!

I'm learning autocad right now, and I'll tell you, it's a pretty deep program. There's probably 3 different ways of doing the same thing. Once you spend some time on it though, you learn your way through. Your project sounds pretty interesting, but learning autocad will certainly be the longest part of it.