duragg Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 (edited) Did my research, gathering my parts and today began the coilover buildup. So far I have rear strut tubes, rear ZX disks, 27 spline stubs, Toyota 12w fronts. Still looking for bare front tubes so I can build and swap. Ground Control 300f/250r will be here Tuesday, Tokicos per the stickies and some half-ass camber fixers. Die grinder around the weld pile. Hammer time Slip n slide Not even time to drink beer on this round. Edited July 7, 2012 by duragg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaito Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 (edited) Cool man, looks like a good start. I sandblasted all mine and put some crappy paint on them. Word of advice if you like your ride low, I couldnt get mine low enough and also have enough strut travel without having to add camber plates. Also section your front struts to fit the cartridges without a spacer (carefully with measurements.) Again this is if you want to be low and have travel. Good luck. Edited July 7, 2012 by kaito Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 I am planning to follow the John C and the Dirty S30 instructions. I am not worred about being totally slammed as this is more of a functional fast street car with future race application. Q: How do camber plates change how low you can go or impact strut travel? You mean you just wanted to be so low that the struts bottomed even with sectioning and the camber was all wrong? Q: Are the cheesy Camber top insulator things pointless? What about the lower adjusters? ROPOS is on a budget afterall and a POS is still a POS. Q: No spacer? So I need to cut with reference to my BZ3099 and BZ3015 inserts such that they fit in the sectioned tube and the cap will lock them down without anything stuffed in the bottom? The existing ride height is fine, just soft and lame. The goal is wide staggered deep-dish with ZGs before the big Z-event in Phoenix in October. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaito Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Camber plates change the height of the car without affecting strut travel because they replace the stock upper isolator mount that is 2 inches thick. The rear top isolator is even thicker on 280zs. Regarding the cheesy msa style camber adjusters, I can't say from experience but I personally wouldn't use them. Plus I has heard that they will snap off the threaded part of the strut insert because they don't flex like the stockers do. That's just what I read though. Regarding your question on sectioning, just follow Jon and the dirtys30 thread and you will be fine. I did mine wih the parts and instructions from 3t and I wished I had followed the mentioned posts. Good luck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSM Posted July 7, 2012 Share Posted July 7, 2012 Still looking for bare front tubes so I can build and swap. 240z 280z? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 240z. Picked up S12W front calipers and rear 280ZX rotors and calipers today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 I'm sorry, what is a ROPOS? I have been very happy with both EMI camber plates and DP camber plates. They bolt rightin with no cutting or welding. On the tubes: I have always been good at cutting things either a hair too long or a hair too short. If they are too short, some inserts have a little cup on the bottom that can be ground down but some inserts don't have that little cup. If you cut your tubes a little long, you can throw a couple of fender washers in the strut tube to tighten things up. If your inserts lack a cup on the bottom, i'd cut them a few mm long. Use the tokico gland nuts with the tokico inserts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted July 8, 2012 Author Share Posted July 8, 2012 (edited) ROPOS is a rusted out piece of siht. Not really, I fixed the rust, but the name stuck. What is wrong with the stock 240 gland nut? In all my reading of all the stickies I kinda glossed over the gland nut stuff. I get it now, re-read again and now I see. Edited July 8, 2012 by duragg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted July 8, 2012 Share Posted July 8, 2012 Yeah. Shape of the very top of the insert body varies from brand to brand and from application to application. So, the manufacturer may have a gland nut specific to their insert. I quickly glanced at the gland nuts the last time I changed mine and decided that there was no difference. Boy, was I wrong. With the original gland nut the tube had spcae in it and I could shake a lot of side load play no matter how tight I made the gland nut. Swapped to the propped gland nut and all that play went away. I don't do anything right the first time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted August 12, 2012 Author Share Posted August 12, 2012 I now have: Front and Rear strut tubes ready for cutting. Maxima rear disks, Toyota Front Rotors 27 Spline stub axles Purchasing Ground Control 225/250 Coilovers. Tokico BZ3099 and BZ3015 adjustable inserts (With top lock ring). Rebuilding all the remaining suspension bits such as: (How is my List???) Inner and outer wheel bearings front and rear and seals Front Z31 vented rotors for S13W calipers front MSA front street camber kit (pn: 23-4188 which has the bearing in it too) MSA rear street camber kit Front Ball joints T/C rod rebuild stuff Spindle pins, nuts and parts. Tie Rods L&R Stub axle nuts What am I missing for a pretty comprehensive rebuild?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 You'd want new rear outer control arm bushings if you're doing spindle pins. I'd go to PU for the rack bushings and steering coupler as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted August 13, 2012 Share Posted August 13, 2012 I would discourage you from fooling with the spindle pins and outer bushings. No bang for the pain and agony. If you do pull the spindle pins, ask around and find out how to replace the spindle pin with a long grade 8 bolt. Spindle pins suck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted August 13, 2012 Author Share Posted August 13, 2012 My replacement suspension already has the spindle pins out. I have LCA and Tubes with no pins in them, so I am starting from scratch. I could be tempted to clean and reuse the bearings if they spin good. Expensive. Tj Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 19, 2012 Author Share Posted October 19, 2012 BZ3015s arrived today... ") BZ3099s UPS says tomorrow. Ground Control C/O UPS says mid next week. FYI: Mike at Import Replacement Parts was super helpful. Did all the legwork with G/C and tokico to verify a few items. And they have Tokicos in stock (Tokico has a supply chain problem). www.importrp.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasonmreiss Posted October 19, 2012 Share Posted October 19, 2012 Well they don't have bz3099's....grrrrr, at least that's what they tHey told me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 24, 2012 Author Share Posted October 24, 2012 I must have gotten the last set. Mike at www.importrp.com has emailed me just about every other day to make sure I got all the shipments. My Bz3099 arrived yesterday and the gland nuts fit my Datsun struts. Yay. G/C finally mananged to pull the parts off their shelf and supposed to arrive today. TJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 24, 2012 Author Share Posted October 24, 2012 Yummy... Guess I shouldn't have thrown away the top-hats from my spare struts, or the bearings for that matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 26, 2012 Author Share Posted October 26, 2012 Fronts sectioned and ready for welding. I used a friends Band-saw which made quick work on the first 6.5" cut. Did some measuring and pulled 1.5" off the top section-Good fit. Made identical cuts on the second tube, perfect fit. Actually much of the above statement is false. A large amount of buffoonery preceded discovery of a rusted spacer in the bottom of one strut. The Left strut was cut a bit tall leaving the gland-nut almost dogged down before engaging the insert. Few passes in a lathe fixed that-Good fit. Flush with success from the first kill I cut the second Right strut dimensionally identical to the first- ~ERROR~. The insert sat proud by about 1/2" out of the tube. There was a bunch of old CracK and welding slag in the bottom which prevented the insert from going all the way down. Chipping, cleaning and some grinding on the thick flange on the bottom of that insert fixed it and both look perfect now. Manana I will cut the others and have Tony-Balony weld em up. He is going to spin up an aliminum insert to locate the 2 sections and align the gland hole perfectly. I shouldn't give him so much ****. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jasonmreiss Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Tony baloney...........that is all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duragg Posted October 28, 2012 Author Share Posted October 28, 2012 Tony Balony finshed all welding. Had to do a bit of cleanout of the strut ID to get a good clean fit. But all done now. Next is all the other stuff which I see I still need: Front: Bearings for my front insulators (Lost my others...) Bump stup limiter things? Bearing seal Toyota vented rotors and new pads for my Calipers Ball joint Decision on what to do with my spare LCA and TC rods. Rebush at a minimum? Rear Wheel bearing seal Outer bearing I guess... gonna reuse all the others, but the 27 spline stubs I am switching to are naked. Lock nut. Spindle pin and hardware All bushings for the new LCAs. Guessing thats about all I need left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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