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240z rear susp/tire travels above fender?? spring suggestion


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Howdy Guys, I'm at my dad's place out in Edmonton on an old computer jamming on the java etc but I did search archives and couldn't find this fully laid out.

 

My dad's Lt1t56 240 is up and running nicely. He has his brand new 16x7 0 offset Rikens mounted up with 225/50/16 tires. We heard some rubbing sound on right rear compression and it turns out the tire is rubbing the fender on a mild-medium bump or right hand corner. It's rubbing the tire midway down the tread on the outer 'bevel', ie. if his new tires were at 50% wear the fender is cutting in right at that outer edge. As well the rear drops a good inch just when one of us sits in the car so rear suspension is v. soft. A few q's here:

-would the 'normal' 240Z suspension see the tire travelling as high as the fender in normal use? (ie. we know his setup is 'soft'/sagged now but how soft we don't know..)

-what springs are reccomended for a stiffer/proper ride? Roads here are quite good so a stiffer setup is OK.

-shocks as well? it won't be seeing much if any roadracing but he does enjoy twisties etc and the V8 swap has put more weight on the rear

-any easily available springs/shocks he can use?

-tomorrow afternoon is our only window to swap in something suitable so he can run the car down to an cruise/show this upcoming weekend (as well as drive period/as it's cutting up the tire now)

-it seemed in summary from the FAQ's that rolling the inner rim was required to run 225's on LOWERED cars but nothing was clear on 'stock' height cars which is what this is...his car's already been fully painted etc and I doubt this lip will 'roll' v. well without cracking paint etc on bottom lip (we tried 'mild' rolling and it didn't budge levering a 2x4 fairly hard), the inner lip is v. sharp....Anyone ever just grind this lip down?? and then reseal with silicone to inner? (just curious/I really doubt he'd do this)

 

thanks in advance icon_smile.gif

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Guest scca

a stock height car shouldnt hit at all... as stock is 3" above the wheel well his springs and shocks are likely shot.....really shot..

 

stock springs cant take the torq of a v8.

 

a severely lowered car with 225 will need the lips rolled in..

 

soft ride: kyb and susp tech springs

stiffer ride. tokikos and any spring.

i would think coilovers in a 175/200 rate would be soft but that is stiff compared to any stock type diam spring (without going custom)

 

Mike

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shocks, and springs, yes. same problem here, i had 280zx springs in the front and they were so shot that when i had shift hard the front end would wobble up and down a little

changed em out, and its all gravy!!!!!!

spring rates are gonna be a little off with the v8 up front, i would say go with

the tokikos and any some kind of racing springs would stiffen that bad boy up great,

do you have any photos of that lt1-t56???

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quote:

Originally posted by 327AIRLADY:

spring rates are gonna be a little off with the v8 up front, i would say go with

the tokikos and any some kind of racing springs would stiffen that bad boy up great,

do you have any photos of that lt1-t56???

 

Thanks for the info Mike and fairlady, we couldn't round up any decent parts local quickly so put it off to get exactly the right stuff for install later.

 

We believe his right rear shock is totally/shot/broken as that corner is sagging a bit and it was only mild body roll at slow speeds or bumps that would cause the tire to rub that corner.

 

His front end is definitely lighter in it's current state with the 8 than it was with the 6 so no need for heavier stuff up front unless he want it tighter at speed which isn't a big desire yet.

 

Looks like coilovers will be best overall as he can place it at the exact height he wants and sooner or later arrive at a satisfactory spring rate. I found out/realized those rear struts aren't near as easy to re and re as I'm used to on my ZX (or so it looks and only local shop wanted 4 hrs for both if my dad left it their as he's fully committed rest of the week).

 

I'm going to search the archives on rolling/folding that inner rear fender lip up as it was quite dissapointing to see 'only' 225's rubbing it. I now see the Z's don't clear the same sizes as ZX's with the same ease on zero offset wheels as was further reinforced by archives I searched while at home. OK, had to go search before I finished typing this....so using a very heavy dolley on the front vertical lip of the quarter panel (cloth between) while tapping the inside vertical lip (nothing touching the horizontal bottom lip right?)is the tried and true best result when used with enough patience? His quarters have a lot of paint on them so I'm not so confident much paint will hang around on that inside lip/as long as it only cracks their and not on outer or v. bottom edge.

 

So which struts are preferred between Tokico Illuminas and 5ways for mostly street/highway driving with limited track/school use if any? I assume no other shocks are reccomended?

 

I believe he'll set it up at ~2.75-3" clearance from rear tire to fender lip and then under load it won't bottom on that unless an extreme event which seems reasonable as my heavier ZX doesn't travel 3" in bump out back although it is setup quite stiff.

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Sorry Ross, I wrote a big reply to this a few days ago, and I guess it didn't post. Must have been a hiccup on my ISP or something.

 

Mark L's nephew, Kurt, was having almost exactly the same problem this weekend with his 72. He's got monster flares, and is running a 245/50R16 on all 4 corners, incidently with 16x7" Rikens. But the car is LOW, and every bump the passanger rear was rubbing the flares. Of course, it didn't help that I was sitting in the passanger seat. icon_rolleyes.gif

 

Personally I think his springs were shot, as he just replaced the rear struts the day before with KYB's. That and the 245/50R16's are a huge diameter.

 

I wonder if its something with the Riken wheels, or if its just a matter of both cars having too much tire for the wheel?

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Hey Rich, you back at Vict. yet?? You and Greg can come over together for my mod party icon_smile.gif

 

You just lit a light in my head icon_smile.gif

 

I can get the same Riken's (well as my dads anyhow) in 16x7 in +20mm offset!! His are all zero offset as us 280ZX's normally stick to and I'm thinking the +20 may locate him perfectly within his wheelwell almost....and if not a 1/8" spacer would do it and perhaps v. mild inner well massaging, these are the flush outer chromed face 5 star Riken's. How much room if any did Kurt have on the inside?

 

Big problem with my dad's was it wasn't just rubbing....it was getting cut on a v. sharp inner edge so got parked quickly and we'd discovered we were missing 30% throttle as well so never did get a full WOT test as I couldn't convince him his new proxes tread was worth sacrificing, go figure icon_rolleyes.gif

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Ross, my 73 is now in the body/paint shop. Had to get it in there before I was really ready, so I'm paying for stuff I would have done.

 

Anyway, one of the things they are having trouble with is rolling the fender lip. I had new outer wheel houses and 1/4s put on previously and the way the two come together is making it very hard to roll the fender. They think they'll have to pie cut the lip bend it up and seal it.

 

[ May 03, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

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