Am I missing anything?

[sparegolfer]

http://www.koni-na.com/getattachment/NorthAmerica/News/News-Releases/KONI-Sport-Performance-Dampers-for-Classic-’70-83/37102_KONI_Datsun_Z_Motorsport_PressRelease.pdf.aspx/?lang=en-US

Wow! Thank you Zed for that information. This could be a game changer. I just got off the phone with Motorsport Auto and the rep said that yes, they have partnered with Koni and are very soon coming out with NEW Koni struts made for the Datsun Z cars. Woo Wooo. He said they are putting all the finishing touches on the marketing campaign and finishing up testing and then they will be ready to go. I asked him if he had a date or even a ballpark date they would be available but he declined and just said, very soon.  

[jonathanrussell]

The Koni Yellow news above is just awesome. Can't wait to give it a try on one of my cars- probably my 75 280z.

FYI, I just rebuilt every component on the underside of my Silver 72 240z- bushings, struts, springs, steering, u-jonts, everything. My goals for the things that impact the suspension were....

- reversable if I want to go back to being completely stock.

- minimize play in steering response.

- fairly flat cornering but not obsessively so. Not a track car but totally fun on mountain roads.

- a bit lower than stock but not screaming as a lowered car.

- street friendly- doesn't pound when you hit bumps...not overly noisy...not bone jarring when on imperfect roads. Still though...firm. 

 

So, the good news is that the choices I made seem have met my goals. I really like how the car rides and handles and the stance is perfect for my tastes. The suspension is pretty firm and fun in corners. I could now use better wheels and tires though. There are no big bangs and jarring when I hit bumps.

My theory was that the two things I have done to my Z suspensions in the past that have caused unpleasant, jarring ride characteristics on the street are... 1) performance anti-roll bars and 2) poly or missing bump stops.

Here is what I used for the suspension.

- Koni Classic red strut inserts.

- Koni soft progressive bump stops ( sorry but I don't have access to the size I used until May).

- Used set of good condition MSA blue lowering springs. My guess is that the Mulholland springs are similar but I don't know. Would be interesting to measure the coil sizes and count the number of coils.

- Energy poly bushings with liberal application of the Energy bushing grease for....front LCA, steering rack, steering coupler, rear inner and outer LCA, front anti-roll bar end links and mount, rear top strut spacer.

- Rubber bushings on the front and back of the T/C rods....though I am sure I could have followed the advice of most and used poly in front and rubber in rear.

- New ball joints and tie rod ends. Cleaned and greased rack.

- Cleaned, greased, reused original front strut top bearings.

- Stock anti-roll bar in front. No anti-roll bar in rear, as was stock.

 

So, having written all of this, I do though think that a more advanced dampening system would be great for our cars which is why the news about Koni yellows is so interesting to me.

Best of luck and I hope this helps.

J

[sparegolfer]

Thank you very much for that Johnathan, that is some great information. That is pretty much the same set up as I want. Not to hard, not to soft. What about wheels. What size wheels did you go with? Any fitment issues or anything? I want to start to do some research on some zero offset wheels. 

[jonathanrussell]

Right now the car has old 14" slotted mags with 195 70 14 tires. I am going to go with 16" Panasports, zero offset, 205 55 16. Haven't picked the tire model yet.