BUSHINGS and Struts

[Guest tony78_280z]

I went with the KYB struts from SUMMIT. The huge frickin nut that holds the strut into the housing threads all the way down, but does not snug up to the housing. I inspected the struts, and they are a little longer than the stock. The huge frickin nut is snugged down all the way onto the strut and it is held firmly in place. It looks like it'll work, and I'm not too worried about it, but it is kind of odd. Anyone else have this situation?

 

SUMMIT part number ENS-7-18102G Includes the bushings for the rear sway bar, but not the front. (It does include the endlinks for the front sway bar though.) My stock rubber front bushings don't look too horrible. I've run out of funds, and Need to get these wheels back on the car ASAP. Later (always later) I may track down some Polyurethane front sway bar bushings. How long will these old rubber busings last as the weakest link in the Polyurethane chain?

 

Another note: I was rather upset when I found out my bushing kit was missing some parts. The front and rear bump stops and the tie rod end boots that were listed on the above link didn't arrive. I called SUMMIT, and they said it would be shipped strait from ES asap, and I should recieve it by the middle of the week. I'll update when and if they arrive.

[JMortensen]

Put a spacer under the strut insert. Something as simple as a flatwasher will work. The gland nut needs to be tight against the top of the strut, otherwise you'll have a big clunk, and the top and bottom of the strut will get the crap beat out of them as the strut slides up and down inside the tube.

 

EDIT- You want it spaced so that when the gland nut is TIGHT there are still one or two threads showing between the nut and the strut tube.

 

The bushing kit doesn't include front sway bar bushings??? That doesn't sound right...

[mom'sZ]

if it's the energy suspension kit, it does not include the front sway bar mounts because there are three different sizes of stock sway bars. You need to check the size of your front bar and order them separately. I think they are cheap, like fifteen bucks. Anyhow, if you need to get the car on the road, use the stock ones now and switch them later when you get them. They are easy to switch out compared to the control arm bushings for instance. The bump stops and tie rod end dust seals should have come with the kit. I used the bump stops that came with my new struts (Koni). The ones that come with the kit are shorter (by about a half inch) then the ones that came with my struts, so they would provide more suspension travel for lowered cars. They also seemed to be made of a harder material.

[phantaz]

not to thread jack but Moms'z do you have part number for your KONI kit??

 

and i ran into the same prob with swaybar bushings ..had to order them seperate.. they were 19.99 about a year ago from summit for the poly 1' 1/4 bushings and i think the same for the other sizes

[mom'sZ]

My Konis are the 8610-1437RACE. They are made to use in sectioned strut housings but I installed them in unmodified housings with spacers underneath instead for now until I have the chance to section the housings. All of this information along with what other manuf. have available is in a sticky at the top of this forum called 'calling all racers... strut advice' or something like that. Price from shox.com was about 150 a piece. Car is almost ready for some shake down autoX runs and then on to driver's school for comp licence.

[Guest tony78_280z]

Project Update

 

Took me 2 weeks, but I finally Got the front end back together... finally.

 

Problems / Situations with the front:

1. Without a vise, Strut tubs are easier to install when fastend to the tire/rim. Tightening the gland nut while the assembly flops around on the ground is rediculous.
   
2. Glands nuts are frickin huge, and I had to hit harbor freight for a pipe wrench that would clamp down on it. ($10.00 for 4 of them, not bad. I also got spring compressor from Harbor Freight for like $8.00.) The gland nuts are tightened all the way on the strut tub housing, and there are no threads showing, but there nut isn't seated completely on the housing as appears when stock. Since the struts came with two different gland nuts, I can assume that these struts fit differently on different type of tubes. These nuts are snug and I don't have any doubts that it'll be fine for the life of the car.
   
3. Payed Midas to drive out the sleaves in the control arms, that took a day. He said he used an air chizzle. My cousin has one of those "At the farm" So maybe I'll make a trip to see him and do the rears there.
   
4. SUMMIT took forever to get me my tie rod boots and bump stops. That delayed the project by almost a week. I still haven't gotten the rear bump stops. Part of the reason I haven't started that phase yet.
   
5. Needed to replace both lower ball joints and both Tie Rods. These I ordered from Autozone (cheapest) and it took 3 days.
   
6. Needed to replace both metal brake lines to calipers. Old lines bent and busted while trying to remove them
   
7. Somehow, probably while flopping on the ground (see above) The brake caliper bolt hole's threads got destroyed. I had to order a rare 12mm 1.25 tap from NAPA, that took 2 days.
   
8. NAPA sold me standard not metric brake lines so those got stripped out. Carquest had what I was looking for, but about 12 inches too long. It has a neat spiral before plugging into the caliper.
   
9. Needed to replace 1 bleeder on drivers caliper. It was chewed up, but I had to goto several autoparts stores in three different towns before I found an AUTOZONE had one. And it basically cost me a days work. AUTOZONE didn't charge me for it, so that was kind of nice. I think the guy could read frustration on my face.

Finally got it back together. Brakes are kind of squishy still. I think I'm gonna need to take it to a pro, but It'll wait until I get the rear suspension finished so it can be bled ONE LAST TIME. The brakes do work, but just not as firm as it should be.

 

I haven't test drove it too far yet. I did notice that it steers alot easier (Ball joints and tie rods) But As far us the ride quality, I probably wont notice anything until I get the rear done.

 

I'm sure I'll be posting questions about work on the rear soon, so stay tuned.

 

Get This about SUMMIT

I placed two orders at two different times (Two different pay checks basically) One was for all four Struts, and one for the suspension kit.

 

Packages arrived in the following order

1. Bushing Kit (minus missing parts), SUMMIT stickers & 2 SUMMIT Catalogs
   
2. 2 front struts, SUMMIT stickers & 2 SUMMIT Catalogs
   
3. 2 rear struts, SUMMIT stickers & 2 SUMMIT Catalogs
   
4. Tie Rod boots (missing parts), SUMMIT stickers & 2 SUMMIT Catalogs
   
5. Front Bump stops (missing parts), SUMMIT stickers & 2 SUMMIT Catalogs
   
6. Still waiting on rear bump stops. It is comming from ES its self, so I wonder if it will include some ES stickers or one of their catalogs.

That is 5 packs of stickers, and 10 Catalogs.

[JMortensen]

Easy way to loosen and tighten the gland nuts: With the strut still on the car, take the top three nuts off and pull the control arm down. Then take the spring off. Now put the strut top back on and stick the strut back in and put the 3 nuts back on. Now you have the strut held top and bottom and the spring is out of the way. You can really crank down on the nut to get it loose or tight. Then pull the strut back out, install the spring and reassemble. Should work the same way in the rear if you're not there yet.

[Guest tony78_280z]

I think I ran into a snag already, and I didn't even start disassembling the rear end.

 

I'm missing a gland nut from my KYB strut box. This could potentialy be my fault, I opened the box, and perhaps it fell out and got lost.

 

Any advice on how/where to go about getting another gland nut? I hate to buy a new strut for just this nut. I tried kyb's home page. Don't recal seeing anything like it in the summit catalog, and the stock glad nut on the front looked nothing like the one that came in the box, and was installed in the front.

[JMortensen]

Get in touch with KYB. Everybodys struts have slightly different dimensions. Unless you can verify that someone elses nut fits correctly, you need a KYB gland nut.