pls comment on my "theory" on lowering your 240z

[Guest Anonymous]

okay check this out folks i was thinking about cutting my front strut housing about an inch therefore shortening it then instad of using coil-overs on them just get lower springs for them that way i'll curb the problem of bottoming out that i'm currently enduring.

this is only in theory but i figure logically it makes sense basically i'll be doing what guys do when they want to go with coilovers but using lowering springs instead. has anyone tried this yet?

[Guest Anonymous]

Should work with shorter strut cartridges. an inch would be safe since some lowereing springs reduce height to one inch. I have noticed that not many lowering springs are showing up on ebay lately.

[Guest Zpeed]

this is a normal thing to shorten the strut to gain suspension travel, will work fine without coil overs or with coil overs, just that most people do it cause its easyier to do in one go than doing it twice

[jeromio]

What cartridge are you going to use then? The Rabbit carts I have are over 2 inches shorter than the 240 units. IOWs, you'll have to use a prett big spacer to make up the difference there.

 

Also, I presume you're contemplating this route to save some dollars. In that case, last I checked (a while ago) lowering springs for 240/280Z were pretty expensive. It ended up costing about 20% more to get the complete coilover kit. But with coilovers, you gain room in the wheel well, have ride-height adjustability and you can pick from a wide range of fairly inexpensive spring rates.

 

However, if your current springs are still good (which is not very likely), you may be able to use them - maybe cut out a coil to stiffen them up and shorten them. You'll lose some rebound though.

[Guest Anonymous]

jeromio pls could you further explain what you mean about needing spacers 'cos what i'm trying to do here is get some lowering springs then to improve suspension travel i'd have the strut housing shortened by 1" inch this way i'll still have the car lowered and have more room for the springs to travel.

see i already bought the lowering springs really cheap and they'll lower the car an inch+/- so the cost here will only be to have the strut housing shortened.

if you have any suggestions pls feel free to let me know,like what type of struts would i use for them in your opinion.

thanks again

[jeromio]

So, yes, exactly. You're planning to shorten the strut housing. So, what cartridge are you going to put in this newly shortened housing? In the rear, you can use Front 240 cartridges (Presuming you have a 240, if not, I'm not exactly sure what you use for a 280. Possibly front 280 carts?) You'll need a spacer because the front cart is about 1 3/4 shorter than the rear cart (and you're only talking about removing 1 inch from your strut tube). I'm not sure of the exact lengths or differences.

 

In the front, there are Rabbit GTI carts and there are MR2 carts (rear, I think, it's mentioned someplace). These are carts that are the same OD as the Datsun ones, but shorter.

 

But again, you're only taking 1 inch out of your tube, and either of those carts are more than an inch shorter than the stock units. So, you have to make up the difference inside the housing.

 

I used plain old 1 1/4 ID inch pipe (the OD is pretty close to that of the cart), cut to length, (almost an inch) as a spacer. In the rear, I was able to use the washers that come with the carts, but I shortened my tubes by 1 1/2 inches.

 

So, to re-iterate, I'm talking about a spacer inside the tube so that the cart is nice and tight in the housing.

[Guest Anonymous]

For the front 280 strut tubes you can use KYB Gr2 #364014 strut cartridges and use the spacer underneath as Jeronimo out lined. The above Kyb gr2 for 80 Rabbits etc fit a 2 inch sectioned 280 strut tube perfectly.