Zedyone_kenobi

All the struts are now together and the bolts finger tight. I have to get the rear inner Bushings on the A arm retightened. I put new ones on there 5 years ago, but I may as well replace them again since I am here. Just need to look up all the torques for all the fasteners.

front two are fixed, and I took the opportunity to grease everything that has moving parts. I also put a dab of grease on the bump stop. Next up the rears! Should have the struts back on the car today. Then I have to wrestle with the new stainless brake lines. But will need to go by a 11mm brake line wrench. I just refuse to round off those damn things.

I have been taking pictures here and there of the roadster as I complete a project, but I have not posted them here on the Z forum. Always seemed like the wrong place for it. I usually post on www.311s.org but have not in a while. I have just been enjoying the drive since I finished the exhaust redo, carb redo, and interior redo. Car is just a beautiful thing to putt around in. Oh and it is fairly quick!

Those NOS ones are sweet, but Great googly moogly.. a thousand bucks!

I always liked you.

I love it when you get everything clean, and you have a couple of hours to get something done and everything goes exactly how you planned it would, due to preparation, skill, organization, and experience. Then you realize in all your awesomeness you built up 4 beautiful struts and left the bump stops off GRRRRRRR

Looking to do more upgrades to the Z after playing the roadster for a year. Redo'ing the entire suspension with eibachs/tokico HP's/Top hats, Bushings, etc. Cannot wait to feel that, but now looking to really improve some aesthetics. Starting with the easy stuff. New smooth bumpers (form Futofab) and factory looking fog lights. Anybody know of a really good replica foglight (rectangular) for the 240Z? Thanks!

As usual your writing and clear choice of words is never insulting or condescending in any way at all. I thank you for the lengthy response and the clarity you provided Just a note, decided to get help with the glad nuts on the fronts. I could not move them once I removed the front strut from the car. I had no way of holding them while trying to loosen the nut. I took them to a local shop that has some experience with these cars. Also ordered a spring compressor and more ATI brake fluid from amazon. It has been two years since I put that in and it was time. It had absorbed quite a bit of water in that time. I may have to go back to using DOT 3 as it is less hydroscopic than DOT 4.

Yeah, you have to torque the inner rear bushings with load on them if I recall. You have the two large bolts, one each end of the inner control arm, then you have the 4 smaller bolts per side that hold up the arm. I forget which order you have to install these. I will probably have to loosen and redo all of these. Captain obvious, I hear what your saying, but the ease at which the removed struts can compress and then slowly or not rise means that there is little to nothing left in the way of gas pressure left. NO damping to be had in them. I hear what your saying about hard to press down is not an indication of damping, but to me it is an indication of a healthy strut. The ones I took off are definitely NOT healthy. I equate health to damping more than an arbitrary 'hard to press down'. I should have been more clear.

New shocks are WORLDS stiffer. I am not sure I can even press them down Such a difference damping these will provide. I cannot wait to see who they feel. I will provide pics of my springs. the difference is staggering. And since I have NEVER seen a direct tokico / eibach spring comparison.. here she is! My biggest issue is determining which is front and which is back. I am going to run the part numbers just to be sure. UPDATE: After some research it seems that the fronts are the parts ending in the 1 Therefore the front springs are the longer ones: 6305.001 Then the shorter springs are the rear ones: 6305.202 What everything I have found, this should be the ticket. Guy can you confirm?

Who hoo! all of my parts came in ! time to get to work! The Eibachs are MUCH longer springs than the tokicos! I think I am going to be happy. Pics to follow of course.

They are on the way Guy. Looks like the front end will be next on my list of to do. I cannot wait to see their state. Maybe I will install the bump steer spacers when I do this job. I have been meaning to give those a try.

Yup, got new rear vinyl for the parcel shelf, got the OEM seats completely redone(sold the miata seats), new convertible cover, new top, new door cards, polished the stainless door panels, and got new window cranks. Still have some work do to, but it looks awesome. Just need to figure out how to redo the dash. That will be after the Z suspension. Not sure how I ever thought I could afford to restore two of these things! I ran out when my youngest was sleeping today and removed the passenger rear strut. Well the story is not so good. I got it out without any issue, but it is much easier to push in and it only VERY slowly raises up until its about 2" shy of fully extended. I have to pull it to get it finish the return stroke. Meaning, that the driver was probably healthy and the passenger was NOT. So this means, I am back to new HP tokicos blues unless you guys can talk me into something else

I actually checked the ends and they are all painted with same extra thick rubbery paint as the rest of the spring Well I ordered new hardware, 4 new top hats and 4 new eibach springs. They will be here in a week. So nothing left to do but start pulling springs!! The roadster is what started me on this. It actually has damping and suspension movement when it goes up and over bumps, the Z feels like the suspension cannot move an inch upward at all. Like I am riding the bump stops all the time. So even though the struts appear to be fine, I will check each one the best I can when the spring is removed.

Oh definitely, OSHA white safety socks! HAHA I will never ever stop working on the Z's guy! I am concerned with the Eibachs as I hear they make the but droop too much. Is that an older problem? I really think the HP tokicos are fine now that I read more about them. IT takes quite a bit of effort to push them in and they rise instantly by slowly. So it would see I have a choice now. Which springs to try. Eibach's or tokicos. IF mine have been cut that would explain the harshness. I cannot even push down on any corner of the car. It does NOT MOVE. I think I would dent the sheet metal before the spring compressed. I may have to do a search to see what the free length of tokicos are to verify if mine have in fact have been cut! I would have never suspected that!

Well today I got back into the Z after almost a year of playing solely with the roadster. Man it was nice to show some love her way. Well my first hour of work went swimmingly I got to here rather quickly. I managed to get all of the parts off rather easily. My lower control arm pin, looked brand new so I think at some time it was replaced, so I did not mess with it. I will save that mamma jamma for later Well anyway, I have been thinking my struts were kaput for a while as they are at least 18 years old according to the receipt from the PO. Here is what pulled out. And it came off without any fuss at all. I think the gland nut is stuck to the strut though. haha. Sorry for the grainy iPhone pics, I did not have my camera. Now, I can push the strut in with my hand almost all the way to bottom and it slowly rises back up. you can hear the fluid squish as it rises back. So I think that means it is doing it's job. I have nothing to compare it to. The reason i am doing all of this is I want a bit more ride height and some actual bump damping. Was thinking of getting some eibach springs, but not sure if they give a better ride or not. Those are the tokiko springs and struts as you can see. Was thinking maybe going with the eibachs as I mentioned, and just getting some new tokikos, but not sure if that will give me more ride height. Any suggestions?

Love the Dino quite a lot, but anything that says Ferrari and 250 on it, sign me up NOW.

I would be down for a set of euro springs for sure.

You have to look under nissan, silly me I was looking under Datsun

When I searchd shox, they only had shocks for the 280ZX, not the 240Z.. let me check again.

I am looking for more ground clearance as well. I really want to get my car off the ground. I do not want OEM, I do not think, but maybe I something just a bit lower. The tokiko springs really put the car on the ground. My exhaust at times pays the price. I would really like maybe 3/4" more ground clearance to help with suspension travel, getting on ramps, etc. The car's primary purpose is to be a taken to vintage rally events. I need more suspension travel to do that with some comfort. I think A set of Eibach springs and tokiko HP's will probably be the ticket.

Me neither, I am going to something I rarely do.. I am going to be patient. I think I will drive the Z all winter (since it has a heater), and start a big roadster project since a convertible in 30 degree weather is less than enjoyable at times.

thanks John, guess the first step would be to see which works for a mildly lowered suspension, and which are currently available. I guess I should start with Motorsportsauto. the KYB and Koni have me interested. If I knew where to get bilstiens, I would seriously get those for my S30. Bilstien makes some fantanstic dampers.

This is truely disheartening. I just cannot fathom that with all the 240Z's out there, their are no suspension kits for them. I am have become finicky about my suspension lately. The 68 Roadster I have has wonderful bounce and rebound damping, and runs KYB gas shocks. I can still buy them. I am just boggled that a car like the roadster is still supported while the Z has no shocks out there... I would hate to tear the car apart and then be left waiting for parts to show up that may not be made to work together. Who knew putting a suspension on a car could be so difficult.

man I like dealing with Futofab. I will certainly give them my business. I would like a bit more ride height while I am at it. Was thinking of going to the eibach springs vs the Tokiko springs I currently run. So you are saying the strut for the 240Z is identical for the front or rear, but the only thing that changes is the spacer and gland nut. Very interesting. Make sense since the tubes are of different length.