I plan on working on the suspension of my 82 ZX NA. I have been reading alot of the posts and have a question that I don't think has been brough up. I did a search and didn't find one anyway. I read (years ago), that stiffer springs on a street car do not help handling, actually, the opposite. The best way to increase handling is larger sway bars, better wheels, tires and bushings. Does this hold true for our cars? And how do you know when your springs are bad? My car appears stock, except for the wheels and tire. It does have over 170k. Do springs go bad?

 

Springs eventually lose their stiffness. The bigger the spring, the less effect you will feel.

The 280ZX is known for it's weak stock rear springs which produce the common ugly "squat" at launch, but part of the swat is due to so much of the hatch being behind the rear wheels. Some squat is good as it helps w/ traction, but if you have proper tires, springs, and struts, you don't need squat to help w/ traction.

 

From knowing somebody personally, that has stiff suspension. He swears on it, that it makes his Z track straight. He said, it handles like a dream, and rides like it is on rails. And he has the Tokico springs, and struts on his '82 Turbo. And he loves, the way it rides, and it does not squat at all. I plan on in the future doing the same setup, with anti-sway bars, bump steer spacers, and wider wheels, and tires. (not too wide though)

 

You wanna do some good suspension mods for a good price man check out shox.com. They have great deals on strut/spring packages and swaybar packages.
http://www.shox.com/appguide/shoxsho...ctsdisplay.php

 

So you guys would suggest an aftermarket performance spring instead of a stock replacement one? The reason I was asking, I had put performance springs on a Mustang I used to have and it made the ride uncomfortably stiff. You would feel every pebble on the road.

 

To get Well it really depends on what your planning on doing with the car and whether or not you mind a stiffer ride or not. You can always do those mods you mentioned earlier for better handling but springs are important. My experience with stiffer springs was a ride in the owner of sunrise z's car during the '09 z car nationals. It was a fellow by the name of Art and he had alowered 280zx turbo. I found the ride still comfy but still more stiff than stock. I didn't find it uncomfortably stiff at all and that things handling was amazing.

 

Get some stiffer stock ride height lowering springs and get some cheapie adjustable shocks. I had just shocks in my 88T and it make a huge difference.

 

let me take you for a ride in my car one day, it rides pretty nice. huehueheuehue

but yea, I've ridden in my friends car with Tokico springs/HP's and it rides real nice, soft (for me), yet sure-footed.

what you really should do is convert to coilovers so you can order whatever spring rate springs you want and fine-tune it to your fancy lol

 

Stiffer than stock springs will help, proper (especially adjustable) shocks will add alot more to that, coilovers are the best route. And sway bars will also be a big help in body roll, it's about the proper balance of all that because yes you can "over spring" a car. Super high spring rates don't automatically equate to better handling.

 

I had the Tokico HP shocks & Tokico springs on my '82, and it felt awesome! Very firm without being harsh & extremely controllable. Night & day difference from the stock garbage.

 

I have the tokico spring and struts. and polyurathane bushings. I have not installed any of it because i'm trying to get the car started again, but How difficult is it to do by yourself at home switching out everything?

 

First you need spring compressors or you'll never get done. Jack up the back end, take the tires off to make it 10000% easier.

Compress the springs, unbolt the struts from the towers, jack up some more, unbolt struts. Install new struts and springs in reverse order.

This is very vague.

 

undo the strut nut in the middle of the towers and jack it up :P no need for spring compressors they are a pain in the &*( i do this to every car i lower and i turn out a couple 20 a year lol

 

oh wow^^^^ that works when you install lowering springs that aren't compressed onto the strut but stock springs I would DEF use a compressor.

 

No kidding...you are asking to get seriously hurt or injured, not using a spring compressor. And I don't think they are that hard to use. They actually make it easier for me. I have changed struts a few times now.

 

yeah there is nothing hard about a spring compressor. especially if you have an impact or air ratchet. Just stick it in the compressor give it a hit, switch sides and give it a hit, go back and forth like that and they'll be compressed in 15 seconds with no effort on your part.

 

yea id use them on stock springs but i only put on lowering springs and coilovers. thats what i was referring to.

 

yeah, but ummm, the original post says he has stock springs, gotta be careful with what you say in instances like this just incase that person takes your post the most serious and doesn't get what you "meant"

 

One question. After i installed the new lowering springs on the struts and tighten the nut on the top of the strut all the way down, there is still some play. The spring can still move a little up and down. Of course when i installed the spring and strut on and lowered the car everything tighten up. No play in the spring. Is this normal? BTW, they are the Tokico springs and struts (non adjustable). Thanks.

 

dude, is that a serious question? lol. no offense but what do you think happens when they are installed onto the car, the strut compresses, which which closes up the space that lowering springs can create if they are very stiff and lower the car a decent amount...

like the question asking if the spring should have a little slack in between the spring perches is a legit question for a noobie since you haven't seen that before, so to answer the question, most don't have that, but some do. so no biggie. But the last part of that question... lol.

 

I might have phrased that wrong. I know that once it compressed, it is normal that there is no play. My question was if it was normal for there to be room for the spring to play before compression. Thanks for the answer. Guess the spring will need to be indexed (if that is the right word) every time wheels or tires are changed.

 

yeah it should seat into one of them so you probably don't have to worry about it being out of "index" as you put it, but always good to check. Most lowering springs once on sit almost the perfect height of the strut itself so that once the nut is tightened over the upper mount the spring has less than a 1/4 of play. how it was for my S30. And my S2000 actually had an ever so slight preload to it.

 

I know I keep flogging this but I really think the HP255 kit is one of the best upgrades you can do to a stock S130 and Beta Motorsports is one of the most affordable places to get them (not to mention he's a fellow Datsun enthusiest).

http://www.betamotorsports.com/produ...t1=48&scat2=33

 

Well I finally ordered the Tokico advanced handling kit off of shox.com. It ran me $379 and I also ordered a master urethane bushing set. If weather is looking alright, not as snowy , i'll put it on next week. It laid down 4 inches of snow last night and i have to do all of my work in a good ol parkinglot.