510 under strut spacer

[crazytimme]

I am swapping nearly stock front struts with struts from an 81 200sx. the stock shocks were shortend 2 in (and moves around when strut is removed), and a 2 in spacer was made and placed under the strut. The struts are the same length.

 

Q: Was wondering if I should keep the spacer because of suspension geometry?

 

It might have been to take up the slack in the short spring.

 

Thanks

[INDY510]

Does the spacer look like this:

 

I have stock 510 struts, that I shortened and re-threaded, they are really short and I use a 1" spacer, I have never heard of anyone using a 2" spacer. I don't know if that is safe.

A few guys on here are using 200sx struts, I think Icehouse and KA-510

[crazytimme]

that is what they are, but more home made. and they are 1" my mistake.

 

Why are they needed?

[freaky510]

you already know why.

 

Q: Was wondering if I should keep the spacer because of suspension geometry?

 

 

yes

[thisismatt]

If you think about it you will realize that adding anything to the bottom of the strut has no affect on the springs. The spacers are there to raise the roll center of the front suspension as well as help realign the steering geometry to avoid bump-steer.

[Ultramagnus]

The RCA or bump steers do help. i've had them on 2 corollas and now my 510.

lowering a car w/o out these is hell to drive especially with a 510 cause of the weak steering box to begin with. try it with and w/o, the fun part is putting them in. u think ur cars gonna break in pieces but it just magically fits with some muscle and pls don't put them on on stock height vehicles.:lol:

[Burabuda]

when people call them bump steer spacers, it's a bit of a misnomer, since they do not alter bump steer, but they do alleviate the symptoms of excessive bump steer caused by lowering the front end

 

i prefer to call them roll center correction spacers, because they "push" the outer end of lca down 1," so that the angle of the lca is closer to how it was before lowering

 

i don't know who came up with the 1" thick standard, or to what degree an inch of lowering the control arm affects the handling, but it seems to be the norm for datsuns

Edited November 7, 2008 by Burabuda