az_240

The rear shock is at too much of an angle for me to be confident in them. Not to mention you have to shave quite a bit for it not to bind on anything under compression as well as having to buy a $150 spherical because the stock bushing turns to mush after a month of driving.

Even with a spherical the shock load will be awkward on the upright because of the angle.

Sucks because you can definately feel a difference over the heavier stock uprights.

driftpolice

95katurbo, let me know if you do that, id like to have mine done also

OptionZero

Hey guys, I'm bumping this thread to see if anyone else has had a "rear castor" problem after running Z32 uprights on an S14 at low ride heights.

My rear wheels are not centered in the wheel well; they are "tilted" toward the rear. This is causing rubbing problems. I am running 18x10.5 + 15 w/ 255/35/18 tires. My fenders are already pulled. The car is currently at the shop to see if they can pull it more, but the rubbing is the the tire contacting the rear 1/3 of the wheel well arch.

I can go overfenders in the rear and solve any rubbing issues, but my wheels will still not be centered and look wierd.

I've taken it to an alignment shop (G12 in Sacramento). I have no doubts in the competence of the owner, as he does all sorts of cars with all sorts of mods. He tells me the problem is the binding at the z32 upright and coilover forks. Although I have def's spherical bushings, there is physically not enough clearance between the fork mount and the upright mounting point. I believe there is sufficient angle of deflection in the bearing, but the upright mounting point is thick enough to hit the fork and prevent any more adjustment.

If i can reduce camber (after pulling the fender), he says he might get it more centered but probably not enough.

Has anyone modified their z32 uprights on an S14 chassis to gain more clearance (better angle)?

Would it be particularly difficult cut/re-weld the uprights and get a better angle for the upright mounting point?

Anyone in Norcal?

icedsole

^ not sure if that castor is directly related to z32 uprights. might be just from the low ride height. i know mine is a little out of wack with stock, but im not too sure.

i know knoop had a similar issue and he cut and welded his correct


but i could have sworn there was a company that made coilover lower mounts a bit offset for 240sx to z32 upright

i think era1 drop knuckle would easily fix your problem

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95KA-Turbo

Yeah, here's another angle of the cut and weld job:






If you take your measurements carefully and can tell me how much it needs to move (preferably in a diagram) my friend was willing to do the mod and mail it back. I need to make sure he will still do it though because I know he's busy. He did it for someone else but we made them the same adjustment as mine and they didn't fit because that persons car didn't have the exact same alignment/height/etc as me.

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OptionZero

Now that looks pretty good. I'll see if Driven Authority can do it (not sure how much fab work they do)

gonna be a bitch to take measurements

95KA-Turbo

I just used some calipers and measured (in mm) the free space on the top and bottom part that was not hitting, then drew a little diagram and did some simple math and he replicated it perfectly.

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ManoNegra

I contemplated clocking the shock mount aswell
but decided to give grinding a try first
me and a friend have been running ours this way for over a year now
picture isn't great but I got clearance
the shock bottom articulates and doesn't hit the mount



btw Option, it's cool to know that you can lower the car that much on the koni set up.

OptionZero

Because veilside180sx only had to shorten the bar between the cylindrical housing and the fork mount, i could re-use the same springs, koni insert, and ground control perches/sleeve, nothing really changed. No pre-load or sag when the perches were at the highest point on the sleeve


I'll also inquire as to shaving down the shock mounting point, there is ALOT of material there

ManoNegra

yes, it took quite a bit of grinding to get it to
where it needed to be
but we felt that the mount was robust enough
and that the grinding wouldn't compromise it

shopping and welding on the other can be tricky
few welders are good enough to do a good job on cast aluminum
gotta admit that Knoop's look pretty good though

95KA-Turbo

My friend that does the welding is good enough to weld extra head stud mounts into LS1 bottom ends to make them like LSX blocks. I haven't had any issues with it at all so far. Grinding definitely wasn't an option for mine, as it was really bound.


Edit: Found the picture.

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OptionZero

UPDATE:

Consulting with Driven Authority in Sacramento, I have come up with several possible solutions . . .

1) Overfenders. This is the least attractive options. It is purely cosmetic, does nothing regarding the geometry, and frankly, might not even work since my wheel is still not centered. It only solves the rubbing issue.

2) Cut and re-weld. Shop will do it if they can borrow a TIG welder, which they should be able to do from a machine shop nearby. Downside? Labor intensive to disassemble suspension to get to the upright and cut and reweld properly. Upside? No need for new parts, it's just work, and it's proven to work (as others have used it).

3) Shave spindle mounting point housing. No guarantee there is enough material to grind off to create the needed clearance, but pretty low risk. Still labor intensive

4) Adjustable lower control arms. Shop thinks it can source some cheapass ebay arms, then replace all bearings with QA1 grade (better grade, i assume?) ones for about $300 (about 1/3 Ikeya Formula cost) since they buy bearings frequently for other cars. This would add adjustability and not require cutting anything. Roughly equal in cost to how much they'd charge for cut/weld.

I'm sending some pix to my suspension guru (G12 Automotive) to have him weigh in; also waiting on cost estimates.

I am determined to get this fucking thing fixed.

95KA-Turbo

Could you explain how options 1 and 4 will do any good. Your problem is the shock mount, is it not?

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OptionZero

Yeah, it's the shock mount.

#1 would help the rubbing issue but does nothing to the geometry, so i'm not doing that.

#4 i'm still trying to wrap my head around the geometry, which is why i'm asking. The adjustable lower arm would allow the length of the control arm to extended or shortened, I think. But I am struggling to envision how the other arms would be affected.

Right now I have three arms whose lengths I can adjust. Any adjustment would presumably affect the orientation of the spindle, right?

Those three points of adjustment, however, have proven to be insufficient to correctly orient the spindle.

Would adding a 4th dimension of adjustment (lower arm) create the angle I need? That is what I want to know.

Anyone have diagramming skills?

95KA-Turbo

I would think that if you could adjust the arms enough to tweak the spindle so that shock mount bolts up correctly, that all of your other arm mounts would be off. Just judging by what I saw with my set up.

It definitely got better or worse depending on if you moved the whole spindle up and down (like unbolt the shock and move everything up and down). However, it was only a slight change. It was easier to bolt the shock up if I unbolted the toe arm from the spindle. It was really difficult to bolt the toe arm back up though.

Again, you may be able to make it slightly better with more adjustment options, but from the looks of how low you are your best bet is to just cut/weld the shock mount. The shock mount angle in the rear is totally different for S13s/Z32s and S14s. Which again would lead me to believe if you did adjust it all to bolt up right you'd be compromising the geometry of the LCA, since its is said that S14s have a better designed rear subframe (and I would think that has something to do with it).

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az_240

IMO out of those options you listed you are better off to cut/weld the uprights assuming you know someone that does quality work.

I did not want to go that route because I felt it was too much money to spend just to save a few pounds in the rear and still have crap bushings and roll center in the rear. Decided it would be better to just save up for DW or PSM knuckles by that point.