Guest 240hybrid Posted May 25, 2003 Share Posted May 25, 2003 I was jacking up the 72 I picked up a couple weeks ago and noticed that the driver side wheel was dropped much lower that the passenger side and what should properly be. I looked at the suspension and the strut cartriage was coming up out of the strut sleeve/housing about 3-4 inches. It seats back in place when lowered back down, but Im still curious about it. Anyone every seen this before? Whats to be done to keep it from doing this and is it a problem to worry about? by the way I posted some pics of my 73 240ZXT and the 72 240 this post pretains to. Thanks Chase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted May 25, 2003 Share Posted May 25, 2003 I was jacking up the 72 I picked up a couple weeks ago and noticed that the driver side wheel was dropped much lower that the passenger side and what should properly be. I looked at the suspension and the strut cartriage was coming up out of the strut sleeve/housing about 3-4 inches. It seats back in place when lowered back down' date=' but Im still curious about it. Anyone every seen this before? Whats to be done to keep it from doing this and is it a problem to worry about? by the way I posted some pics of my 73 240ZXT and the 72 240 this post pretains to. Thanks Chase.[/quote'] Are you saying that the cartridge can slide in and out of the housing ? If so, then your gland nut must have worked loose. Yes - this would be a bad thing - you would want to fix this immediately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 240hybrid Posted May 25, 2003 Share Posted May 25, 2003 I'll check and see if the gland nut is hiding under the boot protecting the strut piston rod. Seems that this is the case and would be nice to fix it cheap and quick, I dont need to spend too much $ on the 72 right now. Oh yeah, my pics are in my album.... http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/album_personal.php?sid=1fb6784be6cc3346ab3cda18ad3cc1d8 Thanks Chase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 240hybrid Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 It was raining today so didnt get a chance to look at that gland nut. I'm almost postive thats the problem though. Hopefully. I redid my album with larger pics too.... http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/album_personal.php?user_id=3158 Chase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruxGNZ Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Yup, sounds like the gland nut. I can only imagine what kind of noise that is making while you drive it . Just watch that you're not holding your suspension to the car by the brake lines when you jack it up, that's a lot of weight for that line to hold. On my pass. rear suspension, the gland nut was tight and the suspension was fine, but over a 100 miles or so I started to get a clunking noise and couldn't figure out what it was at first. It got louder and louder the longer I drove it driving me NUTS! I just couldn't find the time to work on it untill a few days ago. Turns out the strut cart. was bouncing around inside the strut tube. I have no idea how the heck that happened. Had to put another washer on the inside of the strut tube to make it tight again. Nothing lossened (sp?) up... still scratching my head on this one. Paul Felker and I were talking and he mentioned that the bottom of the strut tube is slightly convex and with the weight of the car, it just bent the few washers down inside the strut tube allowing for the strut cart. to move up and down. Sorry to steal this thread... but has anyone else had something similar to this happen? I guess it could happen, there is about 600 lbs. on those washers while the car is at rest, who knows what they encounter while I'm driving it. !M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 On my pass. rear suspension' date=' the gland nut was tight and the suspension was fine, but over a 100 miles or so I started to get a clunking noise and couldn't figure out what it was at first. It got louder and louder the longer I drove it driving me [b']NUTS[/b]! I just couldn't find the time to work on it untill a few days ago. Turns out the strut cart. was bouncing around inside the strut tube. I have no idea how the heck that happened. Had to put another washer on the inside of the strut tube to make it tight again. Nothing lossened (sp?) up... still scratching my head on this one. Paul Felker and I were talking and he mentioned that the bottom of the strut tube is slightly convex and with the weight of the car, it just bent the few washers down inside the strut tube allowing for the strut cart. to move up and down. Sorry to steal this thread... but has anyone else had something similar to this happen? I guess it could happen, there is about 600 lbs. on those washers while the car is at rest, who knows what they encounter while I'm driving it. !M! Yes, this has happened to me before - on the same strut (passenger rear) even. I think that several things could cause this - the gland nut can back off a bit, whatever spacer you are using can deform, or the strut cartridge could have been a bit off center in the housing when the gland nut was first tightened, then worked it's way back to the center. How is it that you know the gland nut didn't loosen? The only thing that I can think of is if you had it screwed all the way into the housing. I usually try to adjust my spacers such that the gland nut is a couple of threads from the bottom when it is tightened. This way I know that I have positive retention on the cartridge, and didn't just bottom out on the housing threads. Also, the washers inside the strut housing do take alot of punishment, but they do not support the weight of the car - the strut housing takes that load. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruxGNZ Posted May 26, 2003 Share Posted May 26, 2003 Whoops, it was late or very early however you look at it . Yes the strut housing takes the weight of the car (motioning my hand over my head with the sound of a plane ). I know that the gland nut didn't back off, because I tightened it down and it was about 1/16" from bottoming out on the strut housing, so I gave it a extra turn just for the heck of it untill it stopped. When I looked at it, the gland nut was still bottomed out on the housing. I think like you say, the cart. was off center a bit and moved a little. The cart. did have 3/32" of play in it, that's still quite a bit though. !M! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 240hybrid Posted May 27, 2003 Share Posted May 27, 2003 No its not hanging by the brake line, I was replacing the flexible lines when I noticed the differnece in height, and didnt have any problem with the lines. Kinda helped not having as much junk in the way, since it was hanging lower that it should've. Well it was the gland nut and I took care of it, but what a fight it was. I had to unbolt the strut rod from the strut tower and let it down to get enough play so that I could get the damn gland nut to thread. Getting the strut piston rod back into its little hole in the strut tower wasnt any fun either. The wheel hangs where it should now, so I guess it was all worth it. A job well done, thanks for the info. guys. Chase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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