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Also, looking at the picture makes me realize how much rake the thing had stock.  Grok the zorst tips.  They are ever so slightly crooked now... they were level before.  Here's hoping that annoys everyone else as much as it does me, now that it has been pointed out.

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12 hours ago, dimlight65 said:

Also, looking at the picture makes me realize how much rake the thing had stock.  Grok the zorst tips.  They are ever so slightly crooked now... they were level before.  

 

I was wondering about that. It never occurred to me that the exhaust guy made them level with the ground, not level with the van...  😀

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18 hours ago, datsunfreak said:

 

I was wondering about that. It never occurred to me that the exhaust guy made them level with the ground, not level with the van...  😀

 

Yes... the exhaust guy.  I in no way looked at it and said, "Yep, that looks good."  And THAT is going to be my official story from now on.

  • Haha 1
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Air shocks installed and they seem to work/fit well. We ran the lines to a pre-existing hole inside the van just below the passenger tail light, so you just open the door and easily air it up or down...

 

large.20191218_173648.jpg.f95f4196ddedd5

 

 

Hard to tell from the crap picture but the back is about 3/4" higher than the front...

 

large.20191218_180857.jpg.0cf72debe2cbe7

 

 

 

I will get some better pics of it on flat ground next time I am there in the daylight. 

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I'm super stoked that we finally have enough rake in it that it actually looks level.  Having said that, I think we're still going to disassemble the flip kit and trim the standoff thingies mentioned a few posts back... and, I'm excited to say, John is beginning to waffle on whether or not we should snip another 1/4 to 1/2 coil on the front!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some pic of it in the daylight...

 

large.20191228_104936.jpg.6ab5640905c5ec

 

large.20191228_104908.jpg.1860387c00620a

 

 

So at some point in the recent past, Tim bought a whopping great spoiler for the roof of the van. It was a pedestal mount, and the pedestals are really tall, so we thought, how would it look without the pedestals?

 

large.20191228_113758.jpg.b0c5e8ce04d678

 

 

 

Deciding that looked promising, we got to work and scrubbed off all the gunk in that area...

 

large.20191228_122100.jpg.ab74431712a597

 

 

We made some L brackets to attach to the side plates, and some gaskets to go between the brackets and the roof, and got it installed...

 

large.20191228_125156.jpg.00d4646075774d

 

 

Whatchureckon?

 

Unfortunately, this has steered us back into the direction of lowering the front more instead of raising the back more...  😀

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20 minutes ago, datsunfreak said:

Unfortunately, this has steered us back into the direction of lowering the front more instead of raising the back more...  😀

 

Y'know, I hate to say "Neener Neener!" but... well, that's not entirely true.  I totally LOVE being able to say "Neener Neener!" but I'm not going to do it this time.  I'm just glad we're finally going with "totally undrivably low" in the front!

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On 12/28/2019 at 4:18 PM, dimlight65 said:

 

I'm just glad we're finally going with "totally undrivably low" in the front!

 

Well, it was not the total ass-whip I was expecting.  We did the driver's side in about an hour and a half, and the passenger side in about an hour.  We trimmed another 1/2 coil out of the springs and it sits nigh perfect now.  Now we need an alignment and a ton of negative camber... ok, we need a "relative" ton of neg.  We think we're at about +1 deg now and want -1 to -1.5 deg to "tuck" the top of the tire.

 

Oh yeah, and we need to clearance the cross member where the tie rods are fouling.

 

Oh yeah, and we need to roll the fenders a bit more.

 

Oh yeah, and I need my dog Shithead (growls and nips at me)... ok, I DON'T need my dog Shithead.

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On 12/19/2019 at 2:30 PM, dimlight65 said:

...we're still going to disassemble the flip kit and trim the standoff thingies mentioned a few posts back...

 

Which we did this evening.  It now has rake even without the air shocks pumped up, so I'm quite chuffed.  We also rolled the front fenders a bit more and bent the crossmember back where it was fouling the tie rods.  Next we'll get a few degrees of camber out of it and I think we'll be golden.

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With the alignment done (-1.6 degree camber and a hint of toe-in) the fender clearance is much better.  Oh, it still "barks" in a dip, but I don't see any way to avoid that, and it does "wander" a little more than I like while rolling down the freeway.  But the  bump-steer we were both afraid might crop up has not, so we've got THAT going for us.

 

I think we have finally got the steering links to clear the crossmember because there are no squeaks, clanks, scrapes, or bad noises like before.  The only other thing we might need to look at is the way the steering links hit the sway bar end links at full lock.  I'd rather something else be my steering limiters, if you don't mind. 

 

As for ride, it is smoother than I expected... but, then again, I don't notice what a tooth-rattling buckboard my lowered Smart Car is until my 90 year old mother rides with me.  Anyhoo, the ride is firm, and there were a few times things banged pretty hard in bump, but it isn't as bad as I was expecting... I'll know better when/if mom ever rides in it!

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Find out the properat toe and set it, a 'hint' may not be enough. My 710 was out and it wandered on the highway I turned it to 4mm or just under 1/4" in at the rim fronts and much better tracking now. Make sure the front tires have the same air pressures.  

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The "hint of toe in" statement was used because a) I didn't want to go into all the trigonometry of fingering out the alignment guy's quote in degrees to inches or millimeters and 2) I don't remember what he told me anyway.  We will crawl under with a tape measure and get some idea in the near future, I'm sure.  The alignment was cheap and I was more concerned with camber (which I do NOT want to mess with on this thing) than toe (which I can totally screw up with on my own, thankyouverymuch).

 

What I'm hesitant to admit, especially to myself, is that the wander kinda, sorta, maybe... feels like a worn out steering box.

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23 hours ago, dimlight65 said:

What I'm hesitant to admit, especially to myself, is that the wander kinda, sorta, maybe... feels like a worn out steering box.

 

To me it feels like either a worn steering box (very possible with 160k miles), or we quickened the steering so much that the on-center dead spot it likes to live in to cruise smoothly has become very, VERY small and hard to keep it locked into.

 

We should probably look to see if the box is adjustable for slack/wear like a Datsun? It looks like it is...

 

36G0130_Primary__ra_p.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

Good news is, a rebuilt gearbox is only about $100-120 plus core. 

 

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All these will affect the steering...

 

Different size tires, mix of radial and nylon or even two different makes.

Loosely adjusted wheel bearings.

Worn idler arm

Wear in any of the 4 or more steering ball joints.

Worn king pins if equipped.

Worn suspension parts and broken springs

Alignment.

Excessive bump steer from lowering or raising the ride height.

 

Have a care adjusting the steering box wear. Most wear is in the center or straight ahead position so tightening it may be too tight off center on a turn. This can cause binding and just accelerate wear.  

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On 1/13/2020 at 7:44 AM, datzenmike said:

Loosely adjusted wheel bearings.

Worn idler arm

Wear in any of the 4 or more steering ball joints.

Worn suspension parts and broken springs

Alignment.

Excessive bump steer from lowering or raising the ride height.

 

All of those are currently good. Or at least "good enough". 

 

 

On 1/13/2020 at 7:44 AM, datzenmike said:

Have a care adjusting the steering box wear. Most wear is in the center or straight ahead position so tightening it may be too tight off center on a turn. This can cause binding and just accelerate wear.  

 

Thanks for the heads up, but I've done this 50+ times already. And already learned that lesson.  😂

Edited by datsunfreak
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