spiderwebfx

Oh man, I remember reading that too.

First picture is exactly what I'm looking at doing.  Thanks for that!

Rear spacers are too large at 15mm.  Looking to go to 10mm which puts me on the fence between slip on and bolt on's.

If I were to get a slip on such as these, would I just have to drill a hole so that I can just bolt it to the rotor?  Does it have to be bolted through the rotor and into the hub also?  Just want to double check before I go and get them made. (I know I have to taper the hole so that the bolt is flush mounted.)

Or any other recommendations for a 10mm option?

I love S12s, and yours is coming along fantastically! Shame about the engine, but at least all the fiddly bits of the conversion are done and you just need to swap lumps. Time for a DET?

Can't afford a DET

Once I've got the car going and legal I plan to slowly build up a VE motor to drop into it.  For now, I've priced up some mains and big end bearings, so I'll try pull the sump off it while it's in there, and hope it's the big end bearings and do them.  $48 from Repco.

If it's the mains, i'll probably stick with dropping another motor in.

Another update.

Sadly, it comes with bad news.

More progress. Yay!!!!

I put my interior back in.  Got it looking all tidy.  

Also made up a stereo surround, gap filler (for where the tape player used to be) and a gear stick surround out of dark perspex to help tidy it up.  Working on an idea with a material to make a gear boot to cover the last of the ugly hole.

My new Yellowspeed coilovers showed up.  So I put those in and adjusted the height.  

Unfortunately they didn't fix the issue I'm having with the rear end so I'll chuck the rear swaybar on when it shows up and see if that makes a difference.  Rear springs are currently 8kg as well, so I can't put firmer springs in it to try fix it.  

I also need to change my rear spacers to 10mm ones as the 15's I think are just slightly too big.

And I did a bump steer check.  With 70mm of travel (+30mm / -40mm) I have 0.6 degrees of bump steer.  I can't go the full 100mm of travel as the tyre lifts off the ground, or the shocks won't compress anymore.

Make shift load thingy whatsit.  Two 15t bottle jacks, two steel beams and two chains.  Worked really well.  Wheels were on slip plates and readings were taken in 10mm increments off the alignment machine.

After doing the lifters, I noticed that the car seemed real gutless and had a miss.  I couldn't take it anywhere as I have this thing against driving illegal cars on the road.  Finally got it to work yesterday and discovered that under load, it had no power until 2500rpm.  Wasn't to sure why, so borrowed a timing light off a local workshop, discovered that I had turned the dizzy at some point and it was almost fully retarded.  Turned it to the opposite end of adjustment, and it runs MINT.

Took it out the back of work and got it swinging a couple of o's.  Without having to clutch kick it, which also means the LSD is locking (I thought it wasn't)

I then took it inside, and noticed a rattle when the rev's are dropping.  Then noticed that when you blip the throttle, there is a twang when it peaks on the revs.

Turns out the big ends are gone.

Off to find another motor now

So due to having to source another motor, and finding the time to put it in, I'm going to have to postpone my cert for now, as funding doesn't allow for me to do everything in time for the cert.

Just an idea, but if you get stuck, a commercial tyre shop may be willing to lend one.  It'll most likely be 3/4" drive, but it'll be tube.  32mm is the same size as Mercedes and Mitsubishi truck wheel nuts as well as a few others.

For the plate above the floor on a driveshaft hoop, do the holes have to be centre of the 50mmx50mm(60mm depending who you talk to) square?

In my specific one, I have plate 50x120mm, one hole is centre of the 50x60 at one end, but the centre of the hole at the other end is probably only 20mm in from the edge due to the tunnel being in the way of it going any further in. (And where the holes in the hoops already are)

Is this ok/does it make sense?

I've got a photo on my camera I can chuck on here to help clarify.

As far as I'm aware, that magic bit of paper is the only difference.  Falken updated their technical specs to provide better options for the tyre size limit laws.  When it happened, they didn't change the mold or construction or produce a new pattern to suit.

Its a shame it was done after NZ produced the spec sheet, otherwise they'd probably all be to Falken specs for max widths.

I'd go with 195/45R16 of the two options. Also you'll now need to be doing 118kph to be moving 100kph.

Yah, I've also sussed a swaybar down in Christchurch, so I'm going to grab that as well just in case.  I'll put it in if I need it.

And a follow up, new coilovers aren't here yet, but I thought I may as well pull the current ones out.

err. yeah:

First one is tight, but had no rebound (?is that the right word)

second one is loose.  like really fucking loose.

Fitting a rear anti sway bar to the rear of the car will only worsen your problem and cause the car to tripod.

there is no doubt you have a spring or shock issue.

Coil over shocks are not designed to be used for a long time and buying them 2nd hand is not advised and cusco seem to be the worse when it comes to that fact. Normally there is a reason they were removed from the last car.

When I first set my datsun up with the same setup I made the same mistake with some free cusco coilovers it was a scary 1st drive much tho my problem was that the shocks didint work and was similar to driving a bump stopped car constant bouncing.

 

Also WOW $400 to attach some sticks to the front tyres then jack the car up and down to check for movement in the toe of the tyres (bump steer check)

I paid $80 for the Cusco's to aid with setting it up about three years ago.  I had always planned to get new ones when it was getting closer to cert time.  Albeit, I didn't realize they were shot, I bought them of a mate.

I drove it around the back yard at work and it felt like the front was on bumpstops, so i'm going with the fronts being the culprit.  At least until I change them and see if it fixes the issue.

Yeah, $400 seemed excessive, but I'm actually happy to get it done now.  Because of McPherson strut, they have to be the coilovers out, pull the spring off, then put it back in to do it, then obviously refit the spring afterwards.

With Neil at Modified Vehicle Certification Centre, when I spoke to him, he quoted me $500 for cert, and $400 for bump steer check, and actually sounded like he was interested in my car and was keen to do it.  Earlier this week, I spoke to Noel at Nostalgia Motors (after some recommendations), and he quoted me $700-$800 for cert, plus $200 for bump steer check, but he did not seem interested. At all. I also got the impression he'd rather have me go somewhere else.

Is it possible the shock shaft is bent?

It's definitely possible, but I'll know after I change the coilovers and see if it makes a difference.  Or do you mean the rear shock?

True.  As far as I know, the Cusco's are 8kg as are the new coilovers.  This is generally the original option for the front of S13/S14/S15's.  (I run S14 front's in the S12.)  I'll trial them at 8kg, but may consider 6kg's if I find them to hard.

My rear's are also 8kg based on the part number on them, but I don't know what brand the are so can't be 100% sure on that.

Thanks, I'll throw the new coilovers in when they show up and chuck a reply in here if it does, or does not make a difference.

I haven't owned coilovers in a road going car before, let alone new ones, is there normally much movement if you bounce a corner of the car like you normally would?  Obviously not as much as factory, but I still should be able to move it right?

Very, very little movement.

Like 3-4mm of bounce.  (For memory, it's on stands atm so can't go out a recheck)

I have new coilovers showing up next week, it currently has some old Cusco's in it.

The diff is a LSD from a Hilux.

I'm also pretty sure the tyre is rubbing the guard when this happened too.  Which would make a different in it not turning. I didn't actually check out though 

So my car has gotten stuck twice will moving it around getting it ready.

I had this happen twice to me, and both times had to get someone to jump on the left rear corner to get it mobile.  Diff isn't locking, so that doesn't help the cause.

So the problem, one front corner is higher than the other three, one rear comes off the ground, opposite rear tucks up into the guard... Quite far for my liking.

In this instance, left front wheel is about 6" higher up than the rest.  The shock doesn't seem to compress at all.

Right front is on the ground.

Left rear is off the ground.

Right rear is tucked right up.

Questions;

Is it lack of swaybar?

Left front shock is possibly seized, will this be a possible cause of the issue?  I didn't try it with the right front wheel higher than the rest.

I'm interested in your thoughts, and opinions, and recommendations and a remedy.  So far I've been told it's due to lack of rear swaybar from some America S12 guys, but they also told me I wouldn't need one so I would like your guys opinion.

You can see the front and rear suspension set up in my build thread here.

Does anyone know anyone stripping an S12?

I'm needing a rear swaybar, bushes and mounting brackets for a live axle version.

The few on trademe don't have any available, and my parts car is IRS so different.  

Thanks.

Much happening...

True.

Another thought for getting the cert, if I could provide a workshop, with hoist and level ground in Auckland. Would you be interested in doing it?

With all the help you've given me, if you've got the time and would like to do it, it's the least I could do.

I'm guessing you're still mobile?

Thanks for that Clint, really appreciate it.

One thing I want to check with what you've said, I do have the ability to check the toe at my work on the alignment machine, but I don't have a load binder (although I could make one with a hydraulic jack. But also, I doubt my car has 50mm of positive and negative travel due to coilovers.

Also, if I can get another alignment place in Rotorua to do bump steer measurements and printout on their Hunter alignment machine, can that be used instead of paying the additional fee or do the certifiers have to do their own check anyway?

Oh and S14 Cusco coilovers, which I'm about to replace with some Yellowspeed units.  (Cusco's are fried, only had them to help set it all up)

S13/S14 Hybrid setup.

S12 crossmember.
S13 lower control arms, nolathane inner bushes, S14 balljoints
S14 hub carrier and 5 stud hubs
S14 steering rack, rack ends shortened 10mm, factory spec S14 tie rod ends.  custom spline shaft to mate rack and column (nothing was welded).
S13 adjustable caster rods
S14 caster rod brackets

S13 swaybar with nolathane bushes

I'm contemplating getting roll center adjuster balljoints, and spaced down tie rod ends, but not if I don't need to.