JMortensen

Steering rack is different. I think that's it... ???

Just as an aside, my friend put a freshly rebuilt 2L Toy turbo diesel in his 87 4x4. It has a solid front axle swap is lifted, dual transfer cases, and 35" mudders. Weighs in at 4500+ lbs. He took on a LONG road trip and got 26 mpg, not loaded per se, but with luggage. The point is there are diesel parts available from Toyota and they came in the pickup trucks from 87-89 I think and that might make it an easier swap. There definitely isn't any aftermarket though, so you kind of have to be inventive about modding it. IIRC he was hoping to get 180hp when it's all said and done. EDIT--put a big honkin air dam on the front. That will help a lot with the cd.

Dale, the short of it is the bar would be stronger with aluminum bushings.

I'm no artist, but here's your drawing. The picture is obviously not to scale. The idea I have is to rotate the bar back a bit so that the end sticks up higher over the tie rod. This would give more clearance to the tie rod, and hopefully the two won't hit at full bump. Then cut the bar off at an angle so that I could get maximum welding area. Cut a .25" slot into the end of the bar, and weld it on so that it hangs over the control arm vertically and parallel to the control arm. Then use Cary's double shear lower mounts made with a couple pieces of angle iron to attach the bar to the control arm.

Option C is the most durable, but is heavy. Especially the calipers up front. I'd say go with A, or if you hate drums as much as I do, B.

I was planning on the same ride height I had before, but with more travel. I can't tell you exactly what that was because I always measured on the coilovers themselves. I ran them all the way down in front, and 1 inch from all the way down in back. It was pretty damn low. I used to run it at that height and it had a lot of nose dive and a lot of body roll, which is why I got a little obsessed with raising the TC pivot. I am hoping that I can run the same height, but by moving the pivot points I'll get rid of some of that squishyness. I think I still might have to up the spring rates a bit too. Here's a pic: I was thinking about the frame rail and I think I can notch it and put a piece of angle iron in there and then build up the sides to strengthen it. The floor I think is just going to get a serious beat down. If nothing else I can vent some frustration.

If you have a solid mount, that weight is just ballast. Throw it overboard.

I don't know if you can rebuild them or not. I seem to recall new ones being more like $250, but I just check and black dragon has them for $150. I guess that means I'm asking too much in my classified. Oops. If you want to make an offer...

I guess I was focused on other things.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think the bumpsteer spacer might provide some of the necessary clearance. I know with my slotted crossmember I can raise the LCA inner pivot about an inch from where it was before, so that should mean that I can lower the outer pivot 1" and end up right where I started bumpsteerwise. About the strut attachment, people keep suggesting this here and other places, but I must be missing something. I know Vic's car is FA-AST, but that tie rod has to be binding on the swaybar. Looking at mine I need a little more clearance than I show in the pics above. Probably have to have about 1.75" between the bar and the tie rod which is about 10x what Vic has got in that pic you show. Even with that amount of clearance it's binding at full bump on my car. When you get it to that point and you've got 10" springs like I do then the length of the end link goes from 6" long down to about 3" long. So then I'm thinking what's the point? I still feel like I'm missing something. As an aside, I think I've given up on bending the 1" bar. I just don't think my little press is going to do it. I might tweak the 3/4 a bit if needed, but I don't think that one needs it as much, if at all. Thinking more and more that the answer might be to weld a bar stock end on the swaybar at an angle so that it sits parallel to the control arm. Wouldn't have the double shear effect, but if it doesn't bind that's still going to be an improvement, right?

Yet another issue on this suspension modification. I got stuck on my front swaybar so I decided to set up the rear and start checking things out there. My car has camber plates and sectioned struts and stock control arms. If yours does too, you might want to pay attention. Lots of interference back there... First thing I noticed was that my stitch welded control arm hit the front diff crossmember. The issue here was about 1" from full DROOP. That's weird because a stock Z should have a lot more droop than mine. Don't know if this is an effect of the poly control arm bushings or what, but it surprised me, because the stitch welding didn't add but maybe 1/8" to the control arm where it is hitting. This was fairly easily fixed with a cutoff wheel. I just clearanced the crossmember about 3/16" and that was enough to allow full movement. Next problem isn't so easily fixed. The driver's side control arm hits the floor big time, about 1.5" before full bump. It hits right on the flange for the frame rail that I've already stitch welded (DOH!) and also just on the floor. It looks like if I make room there it will hit on the frame rail on the side too, because as it is now it only has 1/8" or so clearance there. I'm thinking sledge hammer would be a good tool to use in this case on the floor and the frame front frame rail, then maybe section the side frame rail. I don't know. I gave the pics a green highlight where the contact is occuring. One other retarded thing I did was to cut down my bumpstops. Well, turns out that the strut bottoms about an inch before the gland nut hits the bumpstop. Another option to "fix" this problem would be to put a bigger bumpstop in. I know I ran these things pretty much bottomed out before with a full length strut and the camber plate up top so I think I really needed to section the strut. The question is now what? Limit the travel with a bigger bumpstop or beat the crap out of the floor to allow more travel. I'm kinda wondering if my next problem is going to be that the subframe connectors hit the ground before the strut bottoms...

What year? I think I have my early 240 booster in the classifieds...

I like the street flares too. Have you seen zlalomz's green car with the street flares screwed on over the fender like ZG's? It looks pretty damn aggressive!

When my friend's booster went bad in his Supra it sounded like a whistle under the dash. A couple days later it was like a duck was living under there. What's probably going on is the diaphragm inside the booster has a tear and you're hearing the air pass through. Sounds like it's time for a new booster.

Hmm... nobody has anything for me, eh? I can't imagine this is "new" territory. I'm thinking the thing to do is bend the end of the bar. I have a Port a Power and it has a tip that looks about right. I'm thinking if I use that tip on my 12 ton HF press maybe I can get it done. That damn press scares the crap out of me though.

Brake adjusters are not there so that you can remove drums. The drums shouldn't be so tight that you can't remove them without loosening the adjuster. That said, a lot of cars are neglected, and the shoes go metal to metal, then you HAVE to adjust the shoes back because the groove that they grind into the drum prevents it's removal. The adjusters are really there to tighten the shoes against the drum. The shoes should be lightly dragging on the drum when everything is correctly adjusted. mom'sZ is right that having the drums poorly adjusted will cause a long pedal throw. Still, if the level in one of the reservoirs is going down and there isn't a leak then your master is bad. If you aren't sure about this, draw a line on the master to mark the current location and check it again in a couple days.

Well, that fits my more pressure = less grip scenario.

Different suspension systems have different leverage ratios, plus an Eclipse is probably 800 lbs heavier than a 240Z. Some suspension setups need MUCH higher spring rates to get the same effect at the wheel (wheel rate). I don't know what the Eclipse is like, so I can't say that this is definitely the difference, but I'd bet that 500 lb springs on that car are like 250's on a Z. http://e46m3performance.com/tech/wheel_rate/index.htm On a Z, once you start getting over about 250 you're getting into race shock (read really uncomfortable ride) territory. And in order to make springs and shocks that are that stiff work in a Z you'll need to beef up the chassis, otherwise the body becomes the spring and then the handling really goes to crap.

I forgot to mention I did figure out how to use the sleeve in the rear. Just put 2 clevises on the sleeve. That way you don't have to move as far up the bar, but you can still be farther away from the end.

I'm feeling a bit lost here. Need some help. I stuck the suspension on the car just to get a look at what I'm doing, try to regain my bearings. I stuck the swaybar on the new rod end mounts and used the old end links. Well, turns out that by lowering the bar attachment point the old end links no longer work because the interfere with the tie rod end. Coincidentally there are little dents in the swaybar, so apparently my old setup needed longer end links in there too. The more I get into this suspension, the more I realize how BAD it was before. It was bound up like a mofo. Anyway, I used my rear end links which on my old bar was about 3/4" longer. Needed to stack a bunch of washers, and I was only able to get it to almost clear. Couldn't quite get it to clear the tie rod when at full bump. So the longer end links give me 3.25" from the control arm to the sway bar, which means that my new end links will have to be something like 3.5" long. I'm looking at this thing and I'm noticing a couple problems: 1. The bar sits at an angle to the control arm. If I was to use the sleeved end, when I adjusted the bar longer it would increase the preload on the bar. 2. My rod end end links are about 2.75" long center to center. I know that the mount is going to add about .25" top and bottom, so I won't have any trouble with threading these things out a bit to get the 3.5" between the bar and the control arm. But it might limit how far I can adjust, because the farther I adjust the longer the end link has to get. 3. The solution to the first two problems seems to be to bend the swaybar, but then that reduces the amount of room I have to use a sleeve. 4. If I was to use the 1/4" thick bar, I could weld it on at an angle so that it would be parallel to the control arm and then I could adjust the hole without screwing up the preload as much. 5. I could change the tie rod around to make room. I have some 1" hex aluminum that I had intended to use to make new tie rods, or I could just take the bend out of the stock tie rod and that would allow a good amount of clearance. 6. I'm getting dizzy and my ears are smoking. Help me think of anything else I'm missing here.

I believe they're the same. Slight difference in the ears where the shifter plugs in, but that's not likely to ever become an issue.

Good to see you John! Where have you been? I haven't noticed newer tires requiring higher pressures, but I've only played one set of new R compound tires before I went to running used slicks. The slicks I'm using seem to like the same pressures consistently through their lifespan, or at least the part of the lifespan they spend with me. The idea though was more for a beginner, when you don't have enough camber you have to jack the pressure up to keep the temps as consistent as possible and keep the tire from folding over, but the more camber you have the less pressure you can run and the temps remain consistent across the tread. You can also get more heat in the tire by running less pressure, which makes it stick better IME. I haven't gotten to the point yet where I've overheated a tire. I've had the track be really greasy when its 105+ out, but the tire temps weren't over 200 ever that I can remember on my car.

Good to hear Pete! Hope your recovery goes smoothly.