heavy85

Ends are already cut off, air hammer is a joke, and the locking pin came out just fine with a couple decent whacks. Despite the fact that I've tried them all with exception of penetrant and the fact that a 10 ton press while heating up to a nice glowing cherry red didnt work I dont see a way short of somehow drilling them out? Any other ideas? Thanks Cameron

What zlalomz said - I've had good luck with them. Cameron

My brother now has my old GTI which has since been run into a couple times. The last one pushed in the right rear corner - kind of folded it under a couple inches. He chained it to a dumpster and rolled the car forward until it jerked the rear end of the car back up. Took a couple of rolls but worked and with the factory fender flair covers on you cant even tell. So if your in a pinch and are lacking a Jeep a dumpster can work. Cameron

Ok I know this has discussed to death but I still need help ..... So it all started on a not so cold day in November. Winter projects stated - section struts, swap 3.7 for 3.9 gears in LSD, install electric fan, install wideband, few other misc things ... a lot of cleaning (sidebar I think I need to find a better way to clean parts as I spend more time scrubbing and cleaning than anything else it seems), many choice words, some cutting, some welding and two months later and I am just about to get excited. The struts are sectioned, new spring perches welded on, painted, new Konis, new ball joints installed, LCA relocated & crossmember painted, tie rods rebuild, etc. So I decided two things - 1) the front crossmember is the backbone of the whole car and there's not much to it and 2) time to finally get around to the dreaded spindle pin. I've tried a homemade puller similar to the one on the board, gear puller, beating, heat & beat all with not luck. So today I took it to a shop to have them pressed out. Started with a 10 ton press with no luck so next added some heat and press. Still no luck. Got the F'er cherry with press and STILL NOTHING MOVED. They suggested I drill out a good chunk of the center of the pin then try the heat and press again. So any suggestions? PS - odd thing is this is a California car with very little rust or corrosion. Thanks Cameron

That explains it as the other post said the change happened between the very early (as in the early '70) to the '71 and later design. Thanks Cameron

I just read in a thread that said only the very early 240's had the tranny mount with the two vertical bolts while that later ones has the round bushings with the fore/aft mounting bolts. Thing is mine is a '72 but it has the 'old style' vertical bolts. Just curious but does anyone know what gives? Thanks Cameron

Come on admit it - probably even made the sound effects didn't you... It's OK

Is the Autopower harness bar just straight across or does it curve back to provide seat clearance? I'm also wondering if it would be best to skip the harness bar and just weld a tube between the towers? Thanks Cameron

I'm in the process of putting the LSD from my 3.7 into my 3.9 and am wondering which shims to use? Should the shims stay with the housing or with the diff? I'll have to measure once together just thought one way probably had a better chance of just dropping without requiring to adjust shims as many have said they do. Thanks Cameron

John - any idea what those costs to ship ... say to central Illinois ... maybe 62521 for example? I always figured it would cost almost as much to ship as it would for the bar but if not I just may get one in the short term for all the reasons listed above. Thanks Cameron

I've never had to lift them so I can't guesstimate but it's very obvious from just swinging the doors shut that the doors on a guy a works' 280 are MUCH heavier than the one's in my '72 240. It doesn't take much poking around to see why the 280s are heavier than the 240s. Cameron

Yes that's the bushing but the only ones I have are the ones that came with the Koni's and those are the one which I confused about. I have the EMI camber plates but previous had Tokicos which are set-up to work with the plates without a bushing. Now back to the original questions - since my suspension is completely appart where it would be a royal PITA to measure can anyone who has measured before like to give a recommendation for how much to section for the new Konis? The FAQ says 2" and 2.25" but also says to measure first and also that's with the old Konis. Since the new ones are 0.57" longer closed length with 0.39" longer stroke I'm thinking I should go another ~0.25" shorter but really dont think it matters that precisely? Thanks Cameron

Mom'sZ - What gland nut did you use as I found out last night that the ones I have (were used with Tokico's) are just barely too small in diameter to fit the Koni's? Also, which direction is the bushing suppose to go? As JohnC pointed out in another thread the top is threaded all the way down but they provide a (sloppily fitting) bushing to allow them to go into the bearings in camber plates. Problem is that the bushing has a shoulder and is only about half as long as the camber plate bearing is thick so it's not obvious which way it's suppose to go - I'm not at all impressed with the way this bushing was engineered. I'm guessing the shoulder goes on top? Ohh and FYI they are still very tight fitting to 240 strut tubes as I had to grind some of the paint off near the bottom of the struts to get them to fit. Cameron

OK ... so I just got the new RACE Koni's, I'm about to section my struts, and MY ENTIRE SUSPENSION IS APPART. I've read many posts as well as the FAQ on the subject but being that my suspension is completely appart I really dont want to put it back together to measure. I realize that ideally you would want the strut to be in the middle of travel at nominal ride height and that is how you should determine how much to section. I'm also in the process of relocating the LCA pivot up but not sure how much there either other than the standard 3/4-15/16" - again everyone says measure to figure it out. I'm moving the LCA pivot to move the roll center back up so I can lower the car some more without the LCA starting to point up. At this point I'm not worried so much about bump steer just improving the roll center & camber curve so I'm thinking I would want to move the LCA up as much as possible. My goal with the project is to maximize the handling characteristics for autox & some street duty. So since many of you have probably already crossed this bridge any recommendations on how much to section the struts ... well and for that matter exactly how much to move the LCA (for the sake of allowing it to be lower without getting into a poor camber curve) since it's tied to the strut length. PS - not sure if anyone else noticed this but the measurements from the casting to the factory spring perch in the FAQ are way off what mine are. Thanks Cameron

I found this out the hard way when I swapped trannies and the new one had the old style fork with the hole in it. Problem was I didn't find out until everything was together and the clutch went to the floor. Only way to fix was to pull the tranny back out and swap forks. On the upside I've gotten to the point I can have the tranny on the floor in about an hour. That's what I'm thinking too - why bother changing over to an adjustable slave cylinder rod? Cameron

Last night I e-mailed Koni about the difference in damping characteristics between the old and new struts. Following is that e-mail along with their response. It appears that the new struts should work just fine without revalving if I read this correctly. Response from Koni: "Cameron, The compression damping did not change from the 8610 1149s. The rebound damping, however, was changed to be more digressive so we could give the inserts a greater range of spring rates to work with than the out going 8610 1149s. I'm sorry that you have been mis-informed. Thanks for writing. Gordon" Original Message from me: "Sent: Tue 12/20/2005 7:05 PM To: racing@koni-na.com Subject: Koni Web Site Contact Comments : I autocross a 240Z and am in the process of shortening the strut housings to run shorter struts and gain back some suspension travel. 8610-1149 used to be the strut of choice for this application but they are no longer available from Koni. I've been told the replacement is 8610-1437RACE but that the compression damping has been doubled. If this is the case the 'replacements' really are not direct replacements and require revalving to work properly in this application. Can you please confirm the damping characteristics of the 8610-1437RACE in comparison to the old 8610-1149 and recommend a strut to use in place of the 8610-1149s." Woo-hoo sounds like we may still have a decent low cost strut available from Koni unless I'm missing something. Cameron

Last night I e-mailed Koni about the difference in damping characteristics between the old and new struts. Following is that e-mail along with their response. It appears that the new struts should work just fine without revalving if I read this correctly. Response from Koni: "Cameron, The compression damping did not change from the 8610 1149s. The rebound damping, however, was changed to be more digressive so we could give the inserts a greater range of spring rates to work with than the out going 8610 1149s. I'm sorry that you have been mis-informed. Thanks for writing. Gordon" Original Message from me: "Sent: Tue 12/20/2005 7:05 PM To: racing@koni-na.com Subject: Koni Web Site Contact Comments : I autocross a 240Z and am in the process of shortening the strut housings to run shorter struts and gain back some suspension travel. 8610-1149 used to be the strut of choice for this application but they are no longer available from Koni. I've been told the replacement is 8610-1437RACE but that the compression damping has been doubled. If this is the case the 'replacements' really are not direct replacements and require revalving to work properly in this application. Can you please confirm the damping characteristics of the 8610-1437RACE in comparison to the old 8610-1149 and recommend a strut to use in place of the 8610-1149s." Woo-hoo sounds like we may still have a decent low cost strut available from Koni unless I'm missing something. Cameron

Buy it now for $38 and free shipping - for 'top' of the line air compressor.... http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-2005-AIR-COMPRESSORS-wholesale-list-FREE-SHIPPING_W0QQitemZ5648484005QQcategoryZ102492QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This may have been discussed before, but wouldn't you need another degree of freedom in the LCA? Something like you see on most any formula car or what Cary is using on his tube car? Basically an a-arm + a toe link that are not connected. Otherwise when you adjust toe the spacing between the rod ends will change but since the upright is a fixed width you end up bending the rod-ends. Cameron

I began tearing into my engine in the first place because I had very heavy carbon deposits on top of the valves. I've been told this happens because of leaking valve stem seals but not sure so I 'upgraded' to these ford seals. I now have about 800 miles on the complete rebuild. I pulled the intake off the other day and noticed the carbon deposits were coming back. I even took the effort to polish the valves to help deter this from happening again. So if leaking valve stem seals causes this then the Ford seals have failed. Now this could obviously be a variety of reasons from user error to worn valves to seal fit to ??? but thought I would relay my experience. Cameron

I like the grey/black look. I need carpet (not new carpet just ANY carpet...) and have been starting to think about what color. At first I just thought black everything but then I got to thinking. My first car was a brown 260 with light brown interior and I remember it felt roomy and comfy. That car is long gone but my current 240 feels well clostrophobic (spel?) and I think that largly has to do with the fact my interior is black and dark brown. I think light carpet would make it feel a lot roomier and more inviting. Cameron