Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Yeah I used to run a set of those on the race car before I moved to Bilstein/Eibach springs.

I think they were pretty common out of Japan back in the day. The springs probably don't have markings but they are likely to be firmer than you might want, the shocks are probably old and crap by now, and I it looks like the strut tops have pillow ball / ball joints not bushes which are very likely to make knocking noises as they age.

I saw you had another thread as well. You have the option to recondition the Ohlins but the most likely source of a noise is the strut tops which are not always included in new shocks. 

Ah intersting, i didn't think that these were common. 

When you say strut top, do you mean the area where the strut connects to the strut tower in the engine bay?

 

And what do you mean "recondition" the ohlins? Is there an affordable way to get the car to ride better? 

7 minutes ago, kevboost7 said:

Also, are these considered "coil-overs"?

 

Coil over damper, so yes

90% of OEM suspension is "coil over", just no adjustments in them, typically 

22 minutes ago, kevboost7 said:

Are you guys running pillow ball mount or rubber bushing mount?

Almost every street car will have rubber in the strut top. Spherical joints can be a bit too harsh to live with up there.

There is an important point to consider though. Most (Skyline) people call these "strut tops", because they call their suspension units "struts". They are not in fact "struts", in the sense that "struts" refers to MacPherson struts and these are not them. Mac struts carry ALL the suspension loads into the top of the tower. Those being uppy downy bump loads and also lateral and longitudinal loads, because the strut is the upper suspension "arm".

On a Skyline, these are just spring and damper units. Just the spring and damper. They are not a structural part of the suspension. All the lateral and longitudinal loads are carried by the upper and lower arms. The suspension unit just carries the uppy downy loads.

A Mac strut car actually has to have some sort of bearing in the top anyway, to handle the twisty steering motion. But the rest of it is a massive construction designed to carry all those loads. Skyline "strut tops" are simple and small by comparison.

So, where a spherical upper would be VERY harsh on a mac strut car.....it's not quite so bad on a Skyline. I still wouldn't do it though, for a streeter. I have a smattering of sphericals in my suspension and they transmit a million times more noise than poly bushes do.

  • Like 1

I think all the questions got answered except the recondition bit

Shocks tend to fail by:

leaking past seals

loosing pressure / going wallowy

siezing

As you're in the US you would surely be able to find the Ohlins rep in country who can organise to rebuild them to original spec; which was probably pretty good. They are a top 25% quality damper, not cheap crap

  • Like 1
9 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Almost every street car will have rubber in the strut top. Spherical joints can be a bit too harsh to live with up there.

There is an important point to consider though. Most (Skyline) people call these "strut tops", because they call their suspension units "struts". They are not in fact "struts", in the sense that "struts" refers to MacPherson struts and these are not them. Mac struts carry ALL the suspension loads into the top of the tower. Those being uppy downy bump loads and also lateral and longitudinal loads, because the strut is the upper suspension "arm".

On a Skyline, these are just spring and damper units. Just the spring and damper. They are not a structural part of the suspension. All the lateral and longitudinal loads are carried by the upper and lower arms. The suspension unit just carries the uppy downy loads.

A Mac strut car actually has to have some sort of bearing in the top anyway, to handle the twisty steering motion. But the rest of it is a massive construction designed to carry all those loads. Skyline "strut tops" are simple and small by comparison.

So, where a spherical upper would be VERY harsh on a mac strut car.....it's not quite so bad on a Skyline. I still wouldn't do it though, for a streeter. I have a smattering of sphericals in my suspension and they transmit a million times more noise than poly bushes do.

thanks for this explanation, im learning so much about this car. Just when i feel like i figured something out, theres a another part on the car that i need to upgrade lol 

9 hours ago, Duncan said:

I think all the questions got answered except the recondition bit

Shocks tend to fail by:

leaking past seals

loosing pressure / going wallowy

siezing

As you're in the US you would surely be able to find the Ohlins rep in country who can organise to rebuild them to original spec; which was probably pretty good. They are a top 25% quality damper, not cheap crap

interesting, i never thought about re-furbishing the old ones. Would i have to purchase new springs? 

 

and do you have your car lowered? 

Springs can sag over time but that is less likely to be a problem, When you say you don't like the current suspension because it is hard and noisy over bumps that suggests the springs are either OK or potentially too firm. The shocks are more likely to give you a firm feel (where you go into a bump or depression and it feels like you have no suspension at all), particularly if one or more is seized up

The Bilsteins I have in the Stagea are custom valved to be pretty firm because I was towing heaving loads (2500kg) at the time, and they have whiteline springs to match. They have been on there for about 200,000klm and have been rebuilt by Bilstein in between, they would probably be due again some time. The custom setup I have is not readily available any more as the guy who was doing it has moved on. I run the same shock with different valving in the rally/race car which I also find excellent (relatively soft due to the roads we rally on)

You need to start with what you want from the car and then get something to suit that. I think it might have been another thread where you were recommended to talk to MCA or shockworks; I've never dealt with either except one race on MCA golds, but both have an excellent reputation for knowing what they are talking about rather than just selling x thousand units from china.

  • 2 weeks later...

Does the clearance i have make a difference? I'm trying to logically understand it, but if the tire dosen't have that much room to travel up and down, the shocks/springs has to be stiff to prevent it from going through the fender dosent it? If i want a softer ride, does it mean i go up higher? 

or is it possible to keep the car lowered but have it ride good. 

 

gtr3.thumb.jpg.9292fd3b5d4d6b53ffcfd6f0a6572acc.jpg280433746_700422637842604_2078143199084616384_n.thumb.jpg.a48ea3bf4757455522db873aee6dc852.jpgGTR6.thumb.jpg.4af92cdb4b4972983f3a7daaaa9e34b3.jpg

That depends mostly on the width and offset of your wheels and tyres, and a little on your camber.

If you want to know if you can lower your car with the current wheel/tyre combo, jack up a corner, take the shock out and use a second jack under the wheel to push it up to the top of it's travel. If it doesn't hit the guard in that range of travel you can lower it without wheel contact.

Same at the front, except you should repeat the test at full left and full right lock as well.

If it is going to touch on the way past you can

1. not lower it

2. roll the guards which folds back the lip on the inside of the guard for another 1 cm of clearance. This can cause the pain to crack inside the guard and at the fold, and I wonder if yours has already been done due to paint chips in the second pic

3. flare the guards, similar process as 2 but you continue pushing until the guards are pushed out a little. Done carefully this can be hard to notice, but done badly it will look totally crap

4. shorter the top upper suspension arm. This will give you mode camber at all times which might cause tyre wear depending on your current settings, but as camber increases as the wheel goes up it also helps the wheel tuck into the guard on the way

5. buy better fitting wheels/tyre combo

  • Like 2

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • From there, it is really just test and assemble. Plug the adapter cables from the unit into the back of the screen, then the other side to the car harness. Don't forget all the other plugs too! Run the cables behind the unit and screw it back into place (4 screws) and you should now have 3 cables to run from the top screen to the android unit. I ran them along the DS of the other AV units in the gap between their backets and the console, and used some corrugated tubing on the sharp edges of the bracket so the wires were safe. Plug the centre console and lower screen in temporarily and turn the car to ACC, the AV should fire up as normal. Hold the back button for 3 sec and Android should appear on the top screen. You need to set the input to Aux for audio (more on that later). I put the unit under the AC duct in the centre console, with the wifi antenna on top of the AC duct near the shifter, the bluetooth antenna on the AC duct under the centre console The GPS unit on top of the DS to AC duct; they all seem to work OK there are are out of the way. Neat cable routing is a pain. For the drive recorder I mounted it near the rear view mirror and run the cable in the headlining, across the a pillar and then down the inside of the a pillar seal to the DS lower dash. From there it goes across and to one USB input for the unit. The second USB input is attached to the ECUtec OBD dongle and the 3rd goes to the USB bulkhead connected I added in the centre console. This is how the centre console looks "tidied" up Note I didn't install the provided speaker, didn't use the 2.5mm IPod in line or the piggyback loom for the Ipod or change any DIP switches; they seem to only be required if you need to use the Ipod input rather than the AUX input. That's it, install done, I'll follow up with a separate post on how the unit works, but in summary it retains all factory functions and inputs (so I still use my phone to the car for calls), reverse still works like factory etc.
    • Place the new daughterboard in the case and mount it using the 3 small black rivets provided, and reconnect the 3 factory ribbon cables to the new board Then, use the 3 piggyback cables from the daughterboard into the factory board on top (there are stand offs in the case to keep them apart. and remember to reconnect the antenna and rear cover fan wires. 1 screw to hold the motherboard in place. Before closing the case, make a hole in the sticker covering a hole in the case and run the cable for the android unit into the plug there. The video forgot this step, so did I, so will you probably. Then redo the 4 screws on back, 2 each top and bottom, 3 each side and put the 2 brackets back on.....all ready to go and not that tricky really.      
    • Onto the android unit. You need to remove the top screen because there is a daughterboard to put inside the case. Each side vent pops out from clips; start at the bottom and carefully remove upwards (use a trim remover tool to avoid breaking anything). Then the lower screen and controls come out, 4 screws, a couple of clips (including 3 flimsy ones at the top) and 3 plugs on the rear. Then the upper screen, 4 screws and a bunch of plugs and she is out. From there, remove the mounting brackets (2 screws each), 4 screws on the rear, 2 screws top and bottom and 3 screws holding in the small plates on each side. When you remove the back cover (tight fit), watch out for the power cable for the fan, I removed it so I could put the back aside. The mainboard is held in by 1 screw in the middle, 1 aerial at the top and 3 ribbon cables. If you've ever done any laptop stuff the ribbon cables are OK to work with, just pop up the retainer and they slide out. If you are not familiar just grab a 12 year old from an iphone factory, they will know how it works The case should now look like this:
    • Switching the console was tricky. First there were 6 screws to remove, and also the little adapter loom and its screws had to come out. Also don't forget to remove the 2 screws holding the central locking receiver. Then there are 4 clips on either side....these were very tight in this case and needed careful persuading with a long flat screw driver....some force required but not enough to break them...this was probably the fiddliest part of the whole job. In my case I needed both the wiring loom and the central locking receiver module to swap across to the new one. That was it for the console, so "assembly is the reverse of disassembly"
    • But first....while I was there, I also swapped across the centre console box for the other style where the AV inputs don't intrude into the (very limited !) space.  Part# was 96926-4GA0A, 284H3-4GA0B, 284H3-4GA0A. (I've already swapped the top 12v socket for a USB bulkhead in this pic, it fit the hole without modification:) Comparison of the 2: Basically to do the console you need to remove the DS and PS side console trim (they slide up and back, held in by clips only) Then remove the back half of the console top trim with the cupholders, pops up, all clips again but be careful at the front as it is pretty flimsy. Then slide the shifter boot down, remove the spring clip, loose it forever somewhere in the car the pull the shift knob off. Remove the tiny plastic piece on DS near "P" and use something thin and long (most screwdrivers won't fit) to push down the interlock and put the shifter down in D for space. There is one screw at the front, then the shifter surround and ashtray lift up. There are 3 or 4 plugs underneath and it is off. Next is the rear cover of the centre console; you need to open the console lid, pop off the trim covering the lid hinge and undo the 2rd screw from the driver's side (the rest all need to come out later so you can do them all now and remove the lid) Then the rear cover unclips (6 clips), start at the top with a trim tool pulling backwards. Once it is off there are 2 screws facing rearwards to remove (need a short phillips for these) and you are done with the rear of the console. There are 4 plugs at the A/V box to unclip Then there are 2 screws at the front of the console, and 2 clips (pull up and back) and the console will come out.
×
×
  • Create New...