Ground Control coilover issues

[codyethridge]

Had my struts sectioned (only have the rears installed at this point) such that a BZ3012 Tokico cartridge fits in the tube perfectly with no spacer. That's a 240 front strut cartridge. Put the suspension together and with 10" springs, and the collars turned up as far by hand as possible - I still have only about 1.5" of clearance between a 15" wheel (with a 225/50/15 tire) before it's going to hit the rear wheel well. The guy who sectioned my struts was given the measurements from John Mortensen's writeup - but he just fit the tube to the cartridge with NO internal spacer in the tube. Says he compared measurements after the fact and they worked out. Also stated that he only took out like 1.5" of the strut tube - which from what I've read - is correct.

 

Did I do something wrong? Even at full droop, the rear control arm is almost parallel to the ground. I had thought that by wrenching up the spring adjuster - that would buy me some more clearance, but in looking at GC's website about the coilover spanner - it says that some setups don't ship with it for a reason. My setup (that I bought off a member in this forum) did not come with the adjuster wrench, so I have to assume that either A) I tighten them by hand - and that's all that they want you to do, or it had the wrench and the original owner nabbed it.

 

I have a feeling when I set the weight of the car down on the wheel - it's going to dig straight in to the rear wheel wells........

 

Suggestions?

where can i find John Mortensen's writeup ??

[2eighTZ4me]

Sorry - it's Jon Coffey's writeup.

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/38589-strut-sectioning-faq/

[RebekahsZ]

I'm sorry you are having such a tough time. I recently talked to MiKelly, who has a huge build thread in the Members Projects forum. He lowered his 280z just by using camber plates without sectioning his struts at all. Look at his pictures. Perhaps that is an option for the rears when you re-do them. Don't know what insert he is running. With my 240z, I ran 8" front and 10" rear springs when I had stock insulators and my seats were near the bottom of my collars. When I switched to camber plates, the car was too low even with the seats all the way at the top of the collars. So, I bought 10" front springs and 12" rear springs and now the seats are about 2" off the bottom of the collars for my autocross slicks (26") and 1" off the bottom of the collar for my drag slicks (28" with a rake). Springs are pretty cheap from johnc (if he's still dealing') or from Speedwaymotors.com. Another interesting bit of experience is that the tokicos have a lot more droop travel. I needed droop limiters (really just in front) with Tokicos, but I don't with Koni -1347-RACE shocks. The droop is a lot less with the Konis. I use my hands to adjust unless I try putting a good bit of preload on the spring, then I use a spanner from Summitracing.com. I have to remove my wheel to do any adjustments, just not enough room for me to do it otherwise. I installed Torrington bearings between my spring and lower seat this year thinking it would make adjustments easier...it didnt. With preloading, sometimes the seat moves and sometimes the collar rotates. I wish I had welded a little "tooth" onto the collar ring (or whatever you call the ring that you weld to the strut body) and file a notch in the collar, so that the collar wouldn't spin on the strut during adjustments. It takes two hands instead of one. Another point: greasing the threads on the collars hasn't made adjustments any easier either-the grease just attracts grit. It was easier and cleaner when the seat was metal to metal on the threaded collar. I "dick" with my rear ride height all the time. Front stays the same due to the need to adjust toe-in after every ride height change. Rear goes up when I want to get my redneck on! A high tail makes the rearend very twitchy/tail-wagging-the-dog at the autocross-I drop it on down for that. Once you have your sectioning done, droop is a combined function of strut tube length, strut ROD length and internal shock design. Your spring seat adjustment won't affect that. Your spring only enters the equation when the car is on the floor and loaded with the vehicles weight. You won't really know where you are ride height wise until you put the wheels back on and set it on the ground. Sorry so long, but that's my 15-year coilover saga. And oh, I bought my tubes already sectioned to proper length from a retiring ITS racer-they are not welded exactly straight, and that was a major source of pain during the koni conversion. Konis fit very tightly into 240z tubes. Turned what should have been a weekend job into an all-winter job. Hope some of this book is helpful.

[RebekahsZ]

Hang in there. You will LOVE your coilovers. In fact, I would trade my V8 and my left nut for my coilovers-they MAKE a Z worth having.