pparaska Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 Congrats on the gland nuts! The tubing cutter works great for cutting the tube. But you really need to grind an almost full depth 45-ish degree chamfer on the butt ends of the tube to get a good deep weld. Be real careful to do a good job of welding for strength reasons, and make sure there are no pin holes, as the heat transferring liquid (oil or antifreeze) you put between the cartridge will leak if you don't. (Believe me I know.) And I agree on the disc/wera item issue. I guess you could have a spare cut down set on hand though. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 What problem are we trying to solve by choosing between Rabbit and MR2 (or any other) ready made strut inserts? We are trying to get the right shock valving for our particular 240Z application. In general, rebound damping is what we are most concerned with because that is what most folks use to tune with. Without going into a lot of discussion, as Mike has said, the MR2 inserts have the best rebound damping range for a BSP autocross and ITS road race 240Z. So, if your 240Z has close to a 50/50 weight distribution, weighs under 2,500 pounds, and your front spring rate is 300 lb. in. or under, I would go with the MR2 inserts in the front. ------------------ John Coffey johnc@betamotorsports.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted January 8, 2001 Share Posted January 8, 2001 quote: Originally posted by Morgan: Shocks have nothing to do with braking or holding up weight...... You can call various manufacturers and ask them what the damping rates are, they will tell you. At least I know bilstein will, I assume tokico is as helpfull. Yes, this is true. The springs hold up the weight, and handle the weight transfer. The shock's job is to damp the motion of the sprung mass, and dissipate the energy absorbed by the spring when travelling over bumps, etc. The purpose of the valving is to match the damping to the natural frequency of the suspension. Is it valid, however, for the sake of this discussion, to use axle weights for a comparison criteria when comparing struts from different intended applications. The reason is that the amount of energy that needs to be dissipated by the strut is directly related to the mass attached to the spring/damper system, and the natural frequency of that system. An assumption was made that the natural frequencies are similar in both vehicles. I believe the point that scca was making was that he believes that the MR2 rear suspension's natural frequency is higher (stiffer) than that of the front of a GTI. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to this, but the GTI was the 'sport' version of the Golf, so it's hard to say which was stiffer (the Germans generally like firm rides). As far as asking Tokico - they were less than helpful when I made these same inquiries a couple of years ago, when I was doing this swap. Maybe things are different now. It's always worth a try. Okay... I'm done now... . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavyZ Posted January 9, 2001 Share Posted January 9, 2001 Perhaps I missed it in this long thread, but what is the year of MR2 I should use for the strut carts? I remember sometime earlier some part #s, but what is the correct one?Don't mean to be a PITA, but I gots to know! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted January 9, 2001 Share Posted January 9, 2001 Yes. We got as far as deciding that it was the rear carts, but we don't know which specific year of MR2. It's all too late for me as I've gone with the GTI cart. Sadly, the reason I went with the GTI carts (back in October because I had a $50 Carparts coupon), was because there was much discussion here and elsewhere about the MR2 cart requiring a modification to the isolator. But, it turns out that the isolator has to be modified (drilled out) for the GTI cart as well. Sigh. BTW, I just finished scraping off the excess from one of the nylon gland nut washers that came with the GTI carts. Very tedious and I have a pretty tasty blister on my thumb from turning that little part against a block plane for over an hour - But it now fits in the gland nut! One more to go.... Oh, and I was looking at the strut tube more closely and and it is much thicker at it's main length. Before I was only paying attention to the upper part which is much thinner than the rest. I'm having second thoughts about the potential efficacy of the tubing cutter against such thick steel. It looks like it would take quite alot of wrestling and maybe a blade or two. Perhaps I'll take it to my friend's shop and use the fancy band saw instead. This has been a very helpful thread. I'll be publishing all of this info in detail, along with the various pictures of labors at my site when I'm all done. [This message has been edited by jeromio (edited January 08, 2001).] [This message has been edited by jeromio (edited January 08, 2001).] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest scca Posted January 9, 2001 Share Posted January 9, 2001 another reason to choose the mr2 is that i THINK tokiko illuminas are NLA for wabbits! and as John stated the MR2 is what the road racers will use .. thats what GC uses as well but they wont tell you that. shhh i didnt either at one point i had the damping force for the wabbit and tokiko and a bunch of others. a 99 montecarlo was a ideal strut substitute but NO tokikos for it last year.. maybe now?? the MR2 was valved stiffer than the Wabbit ones.. AIR.. the only strut i found then was Monroe and i didnt want them for the convt so chose MR2. ------------------ Mike mike@fonebooth.com http://www.fonebooth.com/brakes.html raceparts and brake upgrades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BLKMGK Posted January 10, 2001 Share Posted January 10, 2001 Stupid question - "heat transferring liquid"? I'll admit - when I cracked open my struts I epxected to find them filled with "something" - I found nothing. A little bit of oil in the bottom, nothing else. I recall a guy at work bitching about the oil and crap he found in his strut tubes on a newer car (van?). Should I have found oil in mine and if so what should I use when I seal that puppy back up? TIA! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest scca Posted January 10, 2001 Share Posted January 10, 2001 Jim, the "strut housing" we call is the actual strut casing for nissan. oem filled this with oil and the insert wasnt a insert but a rod with a stack of washers and a valve within it. when installing "inserts" into the housing you just add a tablespoon of oil to prevent it from seizing into the housing for future replacement. (or just spray it with wd40 or so) and when i used MR2 i had no issue with the gland nut it fit perfectly with my nissan strut.. ------------------ Mike mike@fonebooth.com http://www.fonebooth.com/brakes.html raceparts and brake upgrades. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted January 10, 2001 Share Posted January 10, 2001 quote: Originally posted by BLKMGK: Stupid question - "heat transferring liquid"? scca is right - the stock struts were not cartridge inserts - the hydraulic 'guts' were all that was inside, and they had hydraulic fluid in them so that they could function. If you have replacement inserts, however, it is a good idea to fill the tube surrounding the insert with liquid. Otherwise the insert is thermally insulated from the rest of the world, and could run too hot, especially under aggressive use. The liquid serves to absorb the heat from the strut, and transfer it to the casing, where it can be dissipated. It's pretty common for people to use ATF in the tube, which should work fine. The last time I replaced mine, I used glycol-based coolant and water, just like in the radiator. The idea was that the water should be able to absorb more heat, and the antifreeze, along with keeping the water from freezing has rust inhibiting additives. Either should work fine - whatever you are comfortable with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeromio Posted January 16, 2001 Share Posted January 16, 2001 Aargh. My saga continues. I finally got my shipment from Tokico. It took a long time, but, you know, gift horses and all - they did it for free. Trouble is that they only sent one gland nut! So, now I get to call them back, and then wait another 7-8 days for it to show up. For those attempting the whole strut sectioning thing, there's info on my site. It all went pretty smoothly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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