510 Wagon Rear Lowering Kit

[jrock4224]

lol yeah lost .... why not make it a terra flaex joint at one end instead... hmmmm but who cares right....lol

[nullbound]

Yeah, that's the vid he shared. 

 

Here's the full response from Kelvin.

It's not on the Flickr page.  Those were taken as I installed the first set.  What I found was that a solid bar like that REALLY restricts the normal movement of the springs.  I cut the tubes and did the telescope design and it works like a champ. 

Video of how it work here. 

I think I have a 3/16" gap when static.   A simple piece of bike innertube held on by ty-wraps cover the joint.  You can see it doesn't move much.

Kelvin

[Just Joel]

lol yeah lost .... why not make it a terra flaex joint at one end instead... hmmmm but who cares right....lol

I did and it works great ;)

[Dzaster]

On the flikr page isnt that a teraflex joint he uses?

 

I believe the slip is just to accomodate the need for slighlty different bar lengths as suspensiong compresses / decompresses.

 

You can see in the vid the pink dot separate and join as axle wraps.

 

I think the 3/16th allowed for axle movement still would translate to some axle wrap, but whether its worth ir or not IDK.

[Just Joel]

SOADG looks to have bushings both ends...

 

I guarantee the slip is to make the kit as "universal" as can be... that said, allowing 3/16 of "slack" in the slip joint before it bottoms is going to be like an air hammer going metal to metal like that. At the very least, add a thick o ring to snub the impact. Ultimately, this is less than optimal to say the least.

 

Joel

[nullbound]

Some more info from Kelvin on his design:

 

 

There is no axle wrap with the telescoping design.  When you're on the gas, the two halves of the bar come together and effectively create a solid bar.   

 

The axle is hitting the floor on Matt's (SoaDG) car because the back is squatting and there isn't room for the diff housing on a lowered car.  My car is around 2" lower than stock and I reworked the tunnel a little.  Not nearly as much as Matt but I think his car might be a bit lower. I only get the diff touching the floor on hard RH corners.  The axle needs a Panhard rod to locate it side-to-side and that would stop. 

 

My car sits here:

 

About an inch higher than I ran my sedans but I actually carry stuff in/on this one. 

 

There is footage in the video of the car launching from stop. It's not obvious, however. I can launch this thing as hard as an Open Diff will allow me to.  Diff never hits the floor in a straight launch.

 

The telescoping design is correct for this application.

 

Kelvin is running an sr20 in this car.

 

I'll have the group buy details up in the next couple of days.  Sorry for the delay, but work is taking up most of my time right now.

[Just Joel]

Cool, sounds like a great kit...

 

Joel

[dakotahchore]

What's the price looking like? I want it!

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

What Kelvin said is correct. The diff was hitting the bottom of my car when the back was too heavily loaded. I first discovered this when I tried to put 80 gallons of water in the back... that was interesting. Technically it wasn't the pumpkin hitting, but the U-joint. My wagon is something like 3.5 or 3.75 inches lower than stock, it wasn't until the last half inch or so of drop that I started to bottom out with people in the back, or when I hit bumps at 45mph+. Never had a problem with twisting and having the diff hit on launch since putting the bars on. 

 

The traction bars have also done a pretty good job stiffening up the back end in general. After I put on the composite springs there was significant understeer while autocrossing. For a while I was convinced that I needed a sway bar in the rear or maybe even a pan hard rod to fix the problem. Decided to put the traction bars on first, and they worked out quite a bit of the understeer, at least to the point that I don't think figuring out how to get a pan hard or sway bar under there too is worth it. 

[Dzaster]

So Matt, you're saying since installing Kelvin's kit with telscoping bars, you haven't had the U-joint or output flange rub/bump?

 

Or has not hit/rub because of work done to tunnel?

[nullbound]

What's the price looking like? I want it!

 

If we can get 5 more confirmed buyers or more (I'm down for the first set), it should be around $300 shipped per set.  If we can't get 5 confirmed buyers, though, the price will be higher (probably closer to $375-ish shipped).  I'll have the exact numbers in the group buy once I get the information pulled together and confirmed by Kelvin.

[Just Joel]

So Matt, you're saying since installing Kelvin's kit with telscoping bars, you haven't had the U-joint or output flange rub/bump?

 

Or has not hit/rub because of work done to tunnel?

if the slip in the bars bottoms out like described, then there shouldn't be any significant axle wrap beyond the first movement. What SOADG described is purely a result of vertical diff clearance issues, not pinion clearance due to axle wrap (my interpretation). Ultimately, any improvement is better than nothing ;)

[Dzaster]

Perhaps I should look into incorporating a slip into mine as well then.

 

And $300 be a prettt good deal. Had I not put anything into what I already have I'd be totally game for the GB.

[dakotahchore]

if its bolt on, im in.

[nullbound]

if its bolt on, im in.

 

Welding is required for your existing front leaf spring mount and shock mount.

[nullbound]

Group buy thread is up in the classifieds:

 

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/54478-510-wagon-traction-bars-group-buy/

[dakotahchore]

Not meaning to bring up an old thread, but I got my traction bars welded on and it fixed my axle wrap and driveline banging. 

[Big_E-Dog]

looks like ima have to do this....where are yall getting the composite springs??

[Dzaster]

http://www.flex-form.com/

 

Dudes name is Mark. 

[Just Joel]

Hope you're patient... Takes a while with ol' Mark but he'll get em done ;)

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

Don't order around Christmas, they have a long vacation period I think... mine took a while but I blame most of it on ordering around the beginning of December.

[Just Joel]

Same here ^^^^ I see a pattern ;)

[Laecaon]

What is the going rate for these? gotta plan the order of buying things!

[Just Joel]

Think it was a little over $450 shipped.

[nkl dme]

SO............ lots and lots of hours searching the forms for user specifications regarding the composite leaf springs from flex-form and i've come up with only to call Mark and see what he has on file. Is everyone basically just copying someones old order specifications? SMH

 

Not that I'm really in the market to get a set of these right now, I need to see if this turbo blows up my rear end first.