'01 Silver - The daily commute smile machine! (Turbo build)

[1979scotte]

Nope.
I had standard shocks with tte springs now i have meistr r coilovers.
What to cusco do for the roadster?

[tommyzoom99]

Nope.
I had standard shocks with tte springs now i have meistr r coilovers.
What to cusco do for the roadster?

you can get lots of things from cusco as well as full coil overs

 m http://auctions.search.yahoo.co.jp/sear ... 0&slider=0 m

cheers tommy

[jvanzyl]

Nope.
I had standard shocks with tte springs now i have meistr r coilovers.
What to cusco do for the roadster?

They do these babies:
 m https://www.rhdjapan.com/cusco-street-z ... zzw30.html m

plus a shed load extra... you buy separate top mounts from them if you wanted...
 m http://www.cuscousainc.com/products.html m
 m http://www.cusco.co.jp/en/ m

So if money were not an issue I'd be sorely tempted to do Koni sports with blue H&R springs with cusco pillow ball topmunts  :-) :-) :-)  the fact that there is lots of blue to go with my silver blue theme is pure co-incidence  s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

[lamcote]

After a lot of deliberation I have now bought a full set of KYB Excel G dampers, got them for £270 delivered from eBay.

Out of interest I just "tested" how much force is required to compress them by putting one on the bathroom scales (with no spring fitted) and pushing down until it started to compress steadily. It was 24kg (the weight of the damper itself is 4kg). Not very scientific but I will do the same with the old ones when they come off as a comparison.

[jvanzyl]

After a lot of deliberation I have now bought a full set of KYB Excel G dampers, got them for £270 delivered from eBay.

Out of interest I just "tested" how much force is required to compress them by putting one on the bathroom scales (with no spring fitted) and pushing down until it started to compress steadily. It was 24kg (the weight of the damper itself is 4kg). Not very scientific but I will do the same with the old ones when they come off as a comparison.

Ah that's cool. I've seen some graphs around showing how much better/worse coil over dampers are vs stock... And the only number I have to go on is that konis are 25% stiffer than stock...

[jvanzyl]

Time for an update!

After much deliberating, excessive excel sheet calculations and being forced to due to an MOT "almost" fail - the time has come to replace the suspension!

I've gone round and round deliberating over second hand MeisterR's, BC's or Koni Inserts with H&R springs... everyone knows about TEINs and everyone just quietly shelves the idea of them because they are priced out of the general market. I had always thought of them as "wow - but no ways".

By divine (what else???) "chance" TEIN happened to have some strange 40% off sale the day after I got my car back from the garage - I checked the duration of the sale with Paul at TCB and confirmed with him that it was running till the end of March, I then took the weekend to work my butt off looking after the family so that they wife would have a nice relaxing mothers day, and then ask her about replacing the suspension.   s:D s:D  

Monday came and I got on the phone with Paul @TCB and ordered the TEINS plus edfc2 to make everything a bit more "usable". Monday afternoon came and Paul rang to say that TEIN had made a balls up and ran out of stock within hours of the sale going live on Friday  s:-( :-( s:-(

Friday evening came and some kind folk suggested I have a look at MR2-Ben and order online from there! Which I dutifully did and surprise surprise the next day Ben confirmed shipment! So I went back to Paul and got the rest of the stuff from him as he'd been so good with it all.

Anyway - so the TEINS arrived - not quite as I expected!


But after unpacking - it was all there!  :-) :-) :-)


I recruited a work mate to start giving me a hand (he has monday evenings free - and to date we've removed all 4 struts:


And put the rear drop links on:




The front left drop link is in the process of being cut off:


the only drop link that has not had to be cut off is the front right - PURELY due the fact that the damper was leaking all over it!
I can highly recommend waiting till your dampners are leaking before replacing... it makes everything come apart much easier!

[Garfy]

Blue on Silver is looking good but I haven't seen you around   s:| :| s:|  are you working on your 2 more than driving   s:o s:o

[jvanzyl]

Hey:-) yeah it's up on axle stands till i can complete the coil overs...

[jvanzyl]

So a quick update:
All of the drop links are now in and properly torqued up - I bought another torque wrench from Bunnings to do the lower numbers as my big laser one didn't go down to 18Nm. I'm surprised as to how tight 18Nm actually is and it leaves a fair bit of thread exposed. But anyway.

I started the process of installing the strut kit on the front Coils - this requires me to install my work bench vice.
So I found a likeable/liveable position and drilled through - only to discover that my bench is substantially thicker than my bolts... so I'll need to get some more from Bunnings.
I also started on step 1 of the strut kit installation which involves removing the main top nut from the coil - turn out that you need some deep sockets in order to reach it! So back to Bunnings for that too.... hello my name is John and I'm a toolaholic and I seem to support Bunnings... a lot. It's been less than a week since my last tool purchase and I'm going to have to buy some more again soon.

Anyway - when I get the vice installed, and with a some deep sockets I shall be able to complete step 1 of the strut kit installation!

I also found the correct "high temp silicone" which comes from intek.
 m http://www.intek-uk.com/high-temperatur ... icone.html m

This is in preference over having to buy 20 bottles (min order) of the shin etsu type 45 stuff which tein recommend!

[jvanzyl]

So the bench vice is installed, I have 48 spare 130mm M10 bolts to find a use for now...


I tried to follow the EDFC strut kit installation again... takes the guy on the youtube instruction video under 5mins...

It took me 1HR45!!!! - WHY? Because the piston nut requires more than 100Nm of force to undo! I slowly built up the pressure with the vice, being careful to use bit of wood (sorry Carolyn I've not managed to get some nice soft grips yet) etc...

But essentially, all wood got shredded by the top collar, and those funny sickle shaped collar grips are a joke at that level of pressure. What's more - the instructions say that it only requires the nut to be done up to 60Nm when it's tightened... why on earth they put it so tight to start with I don't know..

At the end of it, I was forced to use metal to metal gripping on the vice and it did leave an indentation, but at least it's DONE!



I got the intek stuff from the APC depot today, so tonight's job will be starting to attach the strut motors along with the waterproofing which I can now do.

[jvanzyl]

Slight change of plan here.... the motors/edfc will go on at ding day, along with under dash sub installation and the emanage blue..

I have managed to get all 4 corners with the struts on finally - however due to a massive oversight on my part  trusting the stupid sticker that shows it's been preset) my rear left and right are set at different heights!  s:-( :-( s:-(  I KNOW I should have checked.. but I was so pre-occupied with making sure that the preload was set correctly I just missed it... oh well.

So I will need to remove the rear left (as this is the one that appears to be off, and adjust it by 5mm...

I've not checked the fronts  yet.. it's just annoying really.

[hachiroku]

So I will need to remove the rear left (as this is the one that appears to be off, and adjust it by 5mm...

Unless there's something I've missed, you shouldn't need to remove the strut to adjust height. Just crack the bottom locking collar and wind the damper out (anticlockwise) to raise the ride height. Conversely, if you need to go lower just wind the locking collar back up the strut by roughly the amount you need, then wind the damper in (clockwise)

[jvanzyl]

So I will need to remove the rear left (as this is the one that appears to be off, and adjust it by 5mm...

Unless there's something I've missed, you shouldn't need to remove the strut to adjust height. Just crack the bottom locking collar and wind the damper out (anticlockwise) to raise the ride height. Conversely, if you need to go lower just wind the locking collar back up the strut by roughly the amount you need, then wind the damper in (clockwise)

Nope you're not missing anything... I'm just missing the basic ability to think lately...
 m https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GI2QbZ8fI m

Thanks man  :-) :-) :-)

[MilesH]

Sounds like you've got thinks sorted, but call if you need to mate!

[jvanzyl]

Sounds like you've got thinks sorted, but call if you need to mate!

Thanks Miles!  :-) :-) :-)  Do appreciate it.. was going to drop you a text but work has been a bit manic.

[jvanzyl]

Finally!

Dead chuffed  :-) :-) :-)  The technician asked if I'd done it myself, where upon I figured there was no sense denying poor workmanship... but surprise! surprise! He said that all it needed was a VERY fine tune! Everything was pretty decent and needed barely any work  :-) :-) :-)

It's only taken me about 3 weeks but I can't wait to take it out when it's done...!

[Topdownman]

Happy days!

Shouldnt take long to set up up the damping at least with the EDFC...

[jvanzyl]

Yeah - that's second on the list after replacing the rocker cover gasket...  :-) :-) :-)  I've currently got them set to "mid way" 16 clicks to the right after being set all the way to the left..

[StuC]

It's only taken me about 3 weeks but I can't wait to take it out when it's done...!

That's the best bit and makes it all worthwhile.  :-) :-) :-)

[jvanzyl]

Yeah... bit of a confession to make here... in my sleep deprived state I may have not inserted the fronts with the top mounts pointing the right direction...

Literally so focused on getting the things installed that I didn't see the wood for the trees... so it seems I will be back here when I've dropped the fronts out and remounted them with the top mounts pointing outwards.... man this sucks...

[StuC]

and that's why taking a car for a geo set up is a necessary back up.  :-) :-) :-)

We all make mistakes, it's least it's been found.

[Topdownman]

What makes you think you have done it wrong if it is all aligned now?

[jvanzyl]

Thanks... :-/

Erm - you know how the top mount needs to be set so that side to side adjustment can be made? Well mine are set so that you can go diagonally in and out! and BOTH in the same diagonal direction... I was totally focused on everything inside the wheel arch and didn't see the bigger picture at all!

[Essex2Visuvesi]

Thanks... :-/

Erm - you know how the top mount needs to be set so that side to side adjustment can be made? Well mine are set so that you can go diagonally in and out! and BOTH in the same diagonal direction... I was totally focused on everything inside the wheel arch and didn't see the bigger picture at all!

I'm sure we have all done something similar!

[shnazzle]

Yup.... Been there. Took 15 mins to correct.