Draker Posted May 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2020 New hub seals are in. Installed sway bar bushings and tension rod bushings. Backed the bearings and installed. Now just waiting for brake pads, hoses and eventually the springs. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 12, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2020 On 5/8/2020 at 11:01 AM, njoz1200ute said: Car looks great Draker, just read the whole thread. Keep up the good work! thanks! Appreciate it! Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 13, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2020 (edited) For more parts in the mail today. Received the brake pads, hoses, and caliper rebuild kits. The calipers were fine. No evidence of leaking, but I figured why not run though them. It’s an easy job and rebuild kits are dirt cheap. parts from yesterday. Tie rods and bushings, brake hub seals. The patient (1 of 2) First remove the piston. Little compressed air and it pops right out. Be careful, does not take much at all! remove the outer dust boot/seal check for any pitting or rust. In my case no issues. clean the bore check the piston for putting or rust. If this has either. It’s junk. I’m my case, no issues. rebuild kit. Sorry upside down pic. lube the square edge seal in brake fluid, install. install the dust boot/ seal on the piston like so. fit the lip of the seal into the groove on the caliper. Make sure it’s seated all the way around. Then start to push the piston into the caliper. Rock it back and forth to get it past the square edge seal. I was able to do this by hand with a bit of force. Caliper piston tool can be used or large channel locks.. or a c clamp even. No need for a ton of force. You could damage the inner seal. Compress the piston and double check the dust boot. The dust boot install is the hardest part of the job. reinstall on the vehicle. I rebuilt both calipers tonight and installed brake pads and hoses on both sides. Edited May 13, 2020 by Draker . 1 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 13, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2020 Here is the small crack near the tension rod mount. I’ll get that welded up shortly. 2 Quote Link to comment
chukar Posted May 16, 2020 Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 Do these calipers have a metal ring that goes around the dust seal? I rebuilt some 300zx calipers and they had it but I'm not sure if all calipers do. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 16, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 16, 2020 3 hours ago, chukar said: Do these calipers have a metal ring that goes around the dust seal? I rebuilt some 300zx calipers and they had it but I'm not sure if all calipers do. no metal rings here. Just square seal and dust boot. Pretty easy once you the hang of how to get the lips to tuck into the groves. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 I received the new 175lbs springs today and I got them installed. The alignment is completely fucked so I bought some toe plates and a digital camber/caster gauge. That should help get this thing dialed in nicely. I've aligned them manually, but it just takes so long. This should speed it up a bit. Also I've got a few other cars needing alignments so if it goes well, the tools will pay for themselves in no time. Still waiting for weather seals. Still no quote from datsport, I've tried so many times. sigh... Quote Link to comment
KELMO Posted May 22, 2020 Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 The Datsport thing is weird. I know they are running quite a bit behind but I have been in contact with them a couple times this month through email. Granted that most of the time I have had to initiate the contact. Place my order for the wagon on the 7th, don't expect it to ship for another week or two. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 22, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2020 They’ve replied 3x saying they will get a quote to me soon. Then 2 weeks go by and repeat. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Old springs on the left, new on the right. Quote Link to comment
KELMO Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 20 hours ago, Draker said: They’ve replied 3x saying they will get a quote to me soon. Then 2 weeks go by and repeat. Well, that sucks. They already have my money so I'll have to see what happens. The old spring looks beefy as hell! Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 Indeed. I assume you want a firmer spring rate? There are three things that increase a spring rate. Coil diameter... the smaller the coil width, the stiffer it gets. Wire diameter... the thicker the wire the stiffer it gets Number of coils... the fewer the number of working coils the stiffer the spring rate. Draker, if you take some careful measurements on both springs I can tell you their spring rate. Need the coil diameter outside to outside is fine, and the thickness of the wire. Looks like 4 1/2 coils on the Red and 3 1/2 on the Blue one. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 3 hours ago, datzenmike said: Indeed. I assume you want a firmer spring rate? There are three things that increase a spring rate. Coil diameter... the smaller the coil width, the stiffer it gets. Wire diameter... the thicker the wire the stiffer it gets Number of coils... the fewer the number of working coils the stiffer the spring rate. Draker, if you take some careful measurements on both springs I can tell you their spring rate. Need the coil diameter outside to outside is fine, and the thickness of the wire. Looks like 4 1/2 coils on the Red and 3 1/2 on the Blue one. Other way around, I want a softer rate. The blue is the new spring. I think I calculated the red at around 475lbs? Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted May 23, 2020 Report Share Posted May 23, 2020 200 would be a bit much on such a light car. wow! What formula? 11,250,000 X wire4/8 X coils X Diameter3 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 24, 2020 7 hours ago, datzenmike said: 200 would be a bit much on such a light car. wow! What formula? 11,250,000 X wire4/8 X coils X Diameter3 I used a spring calculator online. Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2020 Got it back in the air, checked all the fasteners to make sure they were tight. Found a few and got them tight. Found both wheels had play in the wheel bearings, so I got those tightened up as well. I gave it an eyeball alignment then broke out the new toys. 3 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted May 30, 2020 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2020 (edited) I could use some turn plates to make adjusting caster a bit easier. So far I just dialed in the camber at -.3*. Wiki says -0.25* - 0 is the ideal range. That seems a bit light, so I bumped it down a little more. Edited May 30, 2020 by Draker . Quote Link to comment
Lockleaf Posted June 3, 2020 Report Share Posted June 3, 2020 I "built" some turn plates by using heavy duty lazy susan bearings with a board set on top. The board slides and the bearing turns so it does the trick well enough. The bearings I'm talking about are like $20-$30 each, iirc 1 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted June 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 I got the car out for the first test drive post coilovers and alignment. It tracked straight, turning felt great. I've got a lot more braking power although there is a considerable bit more pedal travel than before. I'm thinking I may need to swap to a bigger master, although the current is acceptable. It's will probably be annoying after some time. Second I think the 175lb springs are a bit much. I'm bouncing around too much inside the car. I'm thinking I might look at 10" 125lb springs. Still stiffer than stock and longer than the 7" I bought before. This should help with the droop when the car is in the air. I'll also need to play around with the strut adjustments before I start dishing out more money on coils. I may be able to soften it up a bit. not sure if they are on the stiffest or softest setting from the factory. Otherwise, I'm happy with it. Still need some tuning before I call it good though. 1 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted June 10, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 I just took another look and one of them was set pretty firm, so reason to believe they were both on the more firm side. I'll admit I twisted the adjustment knob around on one trying to figure out the settings.. so at least one was set to 3. 1 being the softest, 4 being the stiffest. I'll take it for another test drive at some point and see where I'm at. Quote Link to comment
]2eDeYe Posted June 10, 2020 Report Share Posted June 10, 2020 Where did you get the alignment toys? Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted June 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2020 14 hours ago, ]2eDeYe said: Where did you get the alignment toys? amazon for the most part. Just so I could return if they sucked. But turns out they are pretty decent. I saved about $150 that it would have cost to take it to the alignment shop. Few more alignments and I’ll be saving money.. lol 1 Quote Link to comment
Draker Posted June 11, 2020 Author Report Share Posted June 11, 2020 How many bushings are there in the rear leaf springs? 8? Quote Link to comment
Mattndew76 Posted June 11, 2020 Report Share Posted June 11, 2020 Never checked. I think 8 Quote Link to comment
KELMO Posted June 11, 2020 Report Share Posted June 11, 2020 55044-H5001 (OR H1001) QTY 8 FNT UPPER LEAF SPRING 55046-H1000 REAR UPPER QTY 4 55047-H1000 REAR LOWER QTY 4 I replaced these once on the grey coupe. It was in this century but I'm pretty sure the year started with a zero. Back then I was able to get 2 of the 3 parts OEM IIRC. Quote Link to comment
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